The Bioarchaeology of Midwestern Archaic Rockshelters 30 Years Later -‐ Revisi>ng Modoc Rockshelter, Randolph County, Illinois
Eve A. Hargrave Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Prairie Research Institute,
University of Illinois, Champaign-‐Urbana
The Archaic period is a time of signi3icant changes characterized by population movements, changes in subsistence strategies, mobility, territoriality, social organization, and technology. In contrast to other regions in the Midwest, very little is known about mortuary behavior or the demography and health of Archa ic popu la t ions in the American Bottom. Although many A r c h a i c s i t e s h a v e b e e n investigated in the American Bottom, very few have an identi3ied mortuary component.
A total of 33 burials were excavated during archaeological investigations at Modoc -‐ 29 burial features were excavated in the 1950s and four additional burials were excavated in the 1980s. In 1985, as part of an internship at the Illinois State Museum, I conducted a reanalysis of the 1950s burials using modern analytical methods (Anderson 1985). In 1989 Steve Ahler contacted me regarding the discovery of numerous human elements that had been inadvertently commingled with the 1950s fauna collection. At least 12 individuals, most of whom were infants or young children, were identi3ied commingled with faunal material. Part of the reanalysis of the Modoc skeletal collection included the use of conversion guidelines provided by Steve Ahler that tied the 1950s de3ined-‐strata to the more recent re3ined stratigraphy as de3ined by Ahler and Koldehoff (2009) to re3ine burial context. Although the sample size is very small, Modoc represents the largest sample of human remains for the American Bottom region. Combining the archaeological data from the 1980s studies with a reanalysis of archaeological collections from the earlier 1950s excavations have provided important insights regarding the diet, technology, and activities of these early Midwestern inhabitants as well as invaluable environmental information for the Early Archaic through Late Archaic Period.
Figure 5 illustrates the Modoc burial composition throughout the Archaic period -‐ from the late Early Archaic period (10,000-‐8000 BP) through the Middle Archaic (8000-‐5000 BP) until the end of the Late Archaic period (5000-‐3000 BP).
Ø Throughout the Early and Middle Archaic periods, adults of both sexes and subadults were interred in the rockshelter.
Ø Most of the burials occur in the Middle to Late Middle Archaic periods with very few burials attributed to the Late Archaic period. This pattern coincides with the archaeological evidence for more intensive occupation during the Middle Archaic that diminishes through the Late Archaic.
The distribution of burials across the site is illustrated in Figure 6. Several patterns emerge:
Ø During the Middle Archaic, mortuary activity was concentrated in the West Shelter area of the site; by the Late Middle Archaic all burials were associated with the Main Shelter area.
Ø Virtually all the burials were in a 3lexed to tightly 3lexed position, although two individuals were interred in a prone position that is very uncommon for this time period. Burial 19 was a mid-‐adult male from the middle Middle Archaic component in the West Shelter Area; the other individual (Burial 6) was a young adult female from the early Late Archaic period in the Main Shelter Area.
Ø During the early part of the Middle Archaic, many of the burials were placed close to the back wall of the rockshelter. This pattern changed signi3icantly during the Late Middle Archaic where the burials are dispersed throughout the Main Rockshelter.
Ø At least 1-‐2 individuals from each time period had associated objects buried with them. Associated artifacts included projectile points, red ochre, and a grinding stone that were associated with a total of four males. The artifacts associated with two women (one late Early Archaic, one early Late Archaic) consisted of bone awls, some hematite, and two long bird bones-‐ very different from the men. Although it appears that more individuals are associated with burial objects in the early Middle Archaic, this may simply be a function of the higher number of overall burials present.
Burial 1 consisted of an adolescent female in the bottom of a deep [pit?] feature. She was in a tightly 3lexed position on her left side with her head to the south facing west across the 3loodplain. Her body orientation was roughly parallel to the general direction of the bluff line. This burial was not an isolated event since additional human remains were visible in several different locations along the bluff face. An AMS date of extracted collagen from Burial 1, performed at the Illinois State Geological Survey at the University of Illinois, resulted in an uncalibrated date of 8050 +/-‐ 35 Radiocarbon years BP. A calibrated date of 7072-‐7027 BC obtained using the revised 5.0.1 CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration Program (Reimer et al. 2004; Stuiver, Reimer, and Reimer 2005) indicates that this individual is associated with transition period between the late Early Archaic and early Middle Archaic periods (see Fortier 2006; Ahler and Koldehoff 2009).
Combining the samples from Modoc Rockshelter and Kaskasia Mine, we see that virtually all articulated burials from the Early-‐Middle Archaic are oriented parallel to the bluff face placed in a 3lexed to tightly 3lexed position. The presence of individuals of all ages and both males and females suggest that there was no preferential location for burial that was determined by age or sex. Although the sample size is undeniably small, there is a tendency for types of associated artifacts to be based upon whether the individual was male or female. An interesting correlation can be seen between density of site occupation and the number of burials. Burials are more common during the periods of the most intensive occupation and taper off during the Early and Late Archaic periods when site occupation becomes more sporatic. So why do we see a shift between burial locations during the Middle Archaic? At Modoc, prior to the Late Middle Archaic periods, burials were placed close to the wall of the rockshelter, possibly to protect them from risk of disturbance. No information is available regarding the proximity of the Kaskaskia Mine remains to the wall of the Rockshelter since the site remains unexcavated. In his 1999 review of Early Holocene mortuary practices, Jon Walthall observed this pattern of burial close to the Rockshelter walls and observed that ethnoarchaeological studies describe how such locations are commonly used as sleeping areas by hunter-‐gatherer societies. Thus the placement of burials in such areas may have a symbolic function as well -‐ linking the sleep of the living to the sleep of the dead. Subsequent to that period, a distinct shift in location occurs with most of the later burials within the Main Shelter Area occurring in a much more dispersed pattern. At this time, answers to why such a shift occurred remains elusive although possible factors in3luencing this may include topography, spatial relationships of burials to habitation features, and a more thorough investigation into seasonality and settlements of hunter-‐gatherer societies.
The goal of this poster is to present the updated demography of the Modoc Rockshelter population, illustrate the importance of reanalyzing curated collections using new methods and data, and compare the results to a more recently excavated Early Archaic burial from the Kaskaskia Mine site.
Introduction
Figure 1. Location of Modoc RS and Kaskaskia Mine site
Modoc Rockshelter Modoc Rockshelter is the most well-‐known of the Midwestern Archaic sites (Figure 2). The earliest investigations of this highly strati3ied rockshelter occurred in the 1950s by Melvin Fowler, Howard Winters, Irving Peithman and a crew from the University of Chicago. They investigated three main areas of the site-‐-‐ the West Shelter, Main Shelter and the East Pillar (Figure 3). In the 1980s, the Illinois State Museum investigators, under the direction of Steve Ahler and Bonnie Styles, returned to the rockshelter on multiple occasions. Their objective was to re-‐evaluate the site stratigraphy as de3ined by the 1950s investigations and to excavate additional test units that would enable researchers to correlate the stratigraphy across the site (Figure 4).
Figure 4. From University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology Image Database Website http://www.lsa.umich.edu/umma/
Figure 3. Plan map Modoc Rockshelter
Figure 2. Modoc Rockshelter
Demography
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14 Late Early Archaic
Early Middle Archaic
Middle Middle Archaic
Late Middle Archaic Early Late Archaic
Middle Late Archaic Terminal Archaic
# of individu
als
Modoc Rockshelter Gender Distribu>on
Subadult
Unknown adult
Male
Female
Figure 5. Age and Sex by Time Period
Mortuary Behavior
The Kaskaskia Mine site is located in Randolph County, Illinois, just a few miles north of Modoc Rockshelter. The Kaskaskia Mine site was discovered in 2004 when mining activities resulted in the collapse of the bluff face. Human remains were discovered eroding out of the bluff face, including a burial (Burial 1) within a highly strati3ied rockshelter-‐-‐very similar to Modoc Rockshelter. (Figure 7).
Discussion
Walthall (1999) has characterized rockshelter burials similar to Modoc and Kaskaskia Mine as ‘expedient’ meaning that people were buried where they died with little additional expenditure on their 3inal resting place than that which would occur during the immediate burial rituals. This may very well be the case given that the patterns seen at Modoc and Kaskaskia Mine are also found at a number of Rockshelter sites in Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, and Texas (Figure 8). Clearly some traditional guiding principles governed the placement of the body. This may have been particularly important during the period of the heaviest occupation of the site during the Middle Archaic. Figure 6. Distribution of Burials at Modoc Rockshelter
Kaskaskia Mine Site
Figure 7. Sketch map of Kaskaskia Mine Site
Figure 8. Archaic Rockshelters (modiVied from Walthall 1999)
I would like to acknowledge the generosity and support from the following institutions and people: the Illinois State Museum, Bonnie W. Styles (Director-‐ ISM), Steve Ahler, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Thomas E Emerson (Director – ISAS), Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Kris Hedman, and Brad Koldehoff.
