MISSISSIPPIAN SITE AT HOVEY LAKE INDIANA DISCOVERIES
mike ruggeri
Monthlong dig brings excitement
By Thomas B. Langhorne
Evansville Courier & Press
HOVEY LAKE, Ind. -- It was a first in Cheryl Ann Munson's 42 years as
an archaeologist. She and her team were excavating at Hovey Lake in
Posey County last week when they made a rare find.
Buried about 18 inches down on what had been the floor of a centuries-
old house probably made of wood posts, mud plaster and straw was a
fully intact bowl -- a "deep-rim plate," in archaeologist-speak --
made of clay mixed with shell.
Inside was an intact clump of something that looks like dirt but might
be blackened seeds or burned grain.
"Mostly we find broken-up pieces of pottery, and they very rarely have
contents," said Dru McGill, a graduate student in anthropology at
Indiana University. "So what we're hoping to do is take it back to our
laboratory, have it analyzed by a specialist and try to figure out
just what people here at Hovey Lake were eating 500 or 600 years ago."
Munson, an IU research scientist and director of the Hovey Lake
Archaeological Project, has been bringing teams to the roughly 20-acre
site as she obtained funding over the past 30 years.
She believes the house burned and its occupants fled, leaving their
belongings behind. Charred clay, wall plaster, charcoal and red soil
offer evidence of a fire.
"We uncovered a prehistoric hearth, a fireplace on the floor and a
crushed pottery jar, and lots of clay plaster, rubble of clay plaster,
that had burned," Munson said, looking into a trench on the site.
"After we had excavated that, we could see soil stains again, and we
said, 'Oh my gosh, we have something that was here before the house
was built.' "
Munson's team uncovered evidence not only of an earlier house on the
site, but holes four feet deep that supported posts for a tower from
which attackers might have been repelled.
Munson says archaeological evidence uncovered over the years indicates
the presence of a Native American village of the Mississippian Caborn-
Welborn culture, including a courtyard square of sorts and homes
ringed by a large wall supported by massive posts.
Until the archaeologists can find evidence that the villagers may have
been trading with Europeans or others who had been trading with
Europeans, they can only rely on radiocarbon dating to surmise the
village existed anywhere from 1400 to 1650.
Likewise, while the presence of fortifications suggest the villagers
were concerned with security, Munson and her team have found no
evidence to suggest there was fighting there. Such evidence is
typically found in burial sites, and excavating burial sites isn't
part of her mission.
The area in which Munson and her team were digging lies across what is
now Ind. 69, on the far east side of the Hovey Lake village site. They
are attempting to discover whether another fortification wall could
have been built to protect an expanded residential area.
The current excavations, research and associated educational programs
are being paid for with about $20,000 in state and federal grants,
plus private contributions. The work began Aug. 28 and will end
Sunday.
"If we end up finding (evidence of) a fortification wall on the far
south end of the village, it's evidence that social conflict continued
for centuries," Munson said. "If we don't, I believe it's reasonable
to conclude the villagers had negotiated a peace agreement with
neighboring groups."
Distributed by The Associated Press.
Mike Ruggeri's Mississippians and Mound Builders including the Adena
and Hopewell
http://tinyurl.com/276d8z