Page 2 - RAGBRAI2011

TEAM ARCHAEOLOGY OUTREACH BOOTHS:
Expo at Glenwood
Lewis vicinity on Day 1
Homestead on Day 6

Carroll ^ Boone Grinnell Homestead
^ ^ Coralville
^
^
^ Atlantic Altoona ^
EXPO AT GLENWOOD Davenport
^ Outreach booth

Glenwood

GLENWOOD EARTHLODGES

Approximately 1000 years ago, due to the widespread use of maize agriculture,
major lifestyle changes swept across the mid-continent of North America. Throughout
portions of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and extreme western Iowa these changes are
associated with the development of what is known as the Central Plains tradition.
The Central Plains tradition is characterized by communities of scattered earthlodges
along the tributaries of major rivers with the occupants of these lodges supplement-
ing their diets with maize. While these sites are widespread throughout Nebraska
and northern Kansas, they are restricted to the Glenwood locality in Iowa. Hundreds
of these sites have been identified within a 10-mile radius of the Platte and Missouri

confluence in Iowa, surrounding the community of Glenwood. First
identified in the 1880s, these Iowa sites were investigated by local
collectors who laid the groundwork of our understanding of
these prehistoric people. During the last few decades,
professional archaeologists have greatly broadened
the understanding of Central Plains tradition life-
ways, in large measure based on data from the
Glenwood earthlodges.

Glenwood pot Reconstructed earthlodge