This REU site integrates undergraduates into research focused on reconstructing the environmental, cultural and temporal landscapes of Angel Mounds, a palisaded Mississippian town located on the Ohio River. The REU objectives are to provide students with 1) significant field and laboratory training in archaeology, geoarchaeology, geochemistry and geophysics, including: excavation, remote sensing, hands-on use of instruments, modern laboratory analyses, and the assembly and dissemination of results, 2) an opportunity to build cohort and professional networks that will serve them throughout their careers, and 3) an opportunity to participate in a project of regional and historical significance. The project will be evaluated by formative and summative assessments. Long-term success will be measured with post-program mentoring and tracking of the professional engagement of REU alumni.
Intellectual Merit: Angel Mounds is a National Historic Landmark that figured prominently in the late prehistoric socio-political and population dynamics of the Midwest. The site is the furthest upstream Mississippian town in the Ohio Valley and, like its sister sites Kincaid in the Black Bottom and Cahokia in the American Bottom, its settlement was a major socio-political and population reorganization for the area. Unlike these other sites, its chronology, developmental history, and place within the local settlement and ecological systems are less well understood. Using multidisciplinary methods and instruction, REU undergraduates will be trained to examine questions surrounding anthropogenic transformation of the landscape, environmental change during the Medieval Warm and Little Ice Age, and local and regional patterns of warfare and demography. Because most excavation at Angel Mounds occurred during the WPA-era, some gaps will also be filled via reanalysis of legacy collections curated at the GBL. In addition, targeted geophysical survey, solid-earth coring and selective new excavation will be used to contextualize and modernize the earlier, less rigorously collected data. Students undertake these investigations through directed research as part of the REU Site. The development and evolution of the site and region are examined through: 1) earthwork construction episodes, 2) paleoenvironmental reconstruction for region, 3) the timing and relationship of palisade construction, and 4) the excavation of detected ?neighborhoods? on site to determine their chronological association with settlement growth during the Medieval Warm and village abandonment during the Little Ice Age. From this perspective, the proposed project simultaneously addresses the landscape and built environment of Angel Mounds. The REU students participate in every phase of the project from research design and data collection to laboratory analyses, archival research, and interpretation.
Broader Impacts: Archaeological research has evolved from the prototypical multiyear site exams to more targeted research projects with refined questions and multidisciplinary research teams that build upon the accumulated body of knowledge. The Angel Mounds REU creates such a research environment. Talented students from the natural and social sciences and institutions with limited STEM research opportunities are actively recruited and encouraged to apply to the program. Given the underrepresentation of Native Americans in archaeology, recruitment of students from descendant communities are actively pursued through extant, IUPUI-based relationships. With rotating on-site projects designed to answer specific questions and the reanalysis of extant collections, the Angel Mounds REU prepares students to conduct targeted projects that rely simultaneously on traditional and state of the art field and laboratory methods. Project participants are expected to present the results of their research projects at conferences, such as Midwest Archaeological Conference (MAC). Students will also publish their research reports in the Report of Investigations (GBL-ROI) series.
