Under the direction of Dr. Pamela Crabtree, MS Julie Holt will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will analyze faunal materials from two archaeological sites, Ogden-Fettie and Baehr-Gust the former in the Central the latter at the junction of the Central and Lower Illinois Valleys. Both of these large sites date to the Middle Woodland period, between ca. 150 BC and 450AD. In addition to ceramic, shell and lithic remains both sites have yielded extensive series of faunal materials which have the potential to provide important insights into both prehistoric subsistence practices and social organization. With National Science Foundation support, MS Holt will travel to the Illinois State Museum and use their extensive comparative zoological collections to identify the archaeological faunal remains. She will also obtain radiocarbon and thremolumeniscense dates from both sites to allow for a more exact chronological placement. Ogden-Fettie and Baehr-Gust are large mound sites and the patterns observed there will be compared to results of similar studies of smaller counterparts which lack such impressive architecture. The goal of the research is to understand the specific functions mound sites played within a larger Middle Woodland social system. The Middle Woodland period provides the first evidence for a high level of social complexity within the Midwestern United States. Although groups lived by hunting and gathering, they constructed large earthen mounds and the amount of labor involved indicates some degree of large scale centralized control. Many Middle Woodland sites yield `exotic` and valuable objects manufactured from non-local stone or shell which was obtained from a considerable distance, evidence of organized long-distance trade networks. It is clear, based on extensive archaeological research that the settlement system consists of both mound and much smaller sites but archaeologists do not understand the function which the large ones served and how the two were integrated into a single system. MS Holt has hypothesized that mounds were, in fact, elite residences which were provisioned from smaller settlements. This implies that social and status differentiation was present in these hunting and gathering societies. Through the analysis of faunal remains will be possible to test this idea. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and increase understanding of this little known period of American prehistory. It will shed new light on the emergence of social complexity and assist in training a promising young scientist.
