Page 18 - ImmenseJourney

focused on recovering evidence that might reveal
The rich diversity of artifacts from Kimball Village and other Mill Creek sites offers the best one could hope for
when studying prehistoric village life.
That rise is actually an artificial “tell,” built up over length of the mound, carefully noting the soils and
the years by successive occupations of villagers who
constructed timber and mud-walled houses whose
slow disintegration raised the natural terrace more
than 8 feet. The considerable middens—trash piles—
left by village residents also contributed to the site’s
“rise” on the landscape. Covering about an acre, the
village may once have contained over 20 lodges.
Ellison Orr’s excavations at Kimball Village, 1939. Earlier investigations in 1939 by Ellison Orr and
in 1963 by the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
16
University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist
who lived at the site, how long, what kind of artifacts
they made, and whether the Iowa climate contribut-
ed to the settlement’s occupation and eventual aban-
donment. Orr’s excavations alone recovered more
than 9,000 stone, bone, shell, and pottery artifacts.
In 2009 as part of the Loess Hills study, an archaeol-
ogy team set out to explore the layers of soil between
the base and surface of the artificial Kimball mound.
They wanted to answer two important questions,
“Was this village fortified like other Mill Creek settle-
ments, and are there still intact deposits at the site?”
The team used auger tests, soil cores, and state-of-
the-art geophysical devices. Auger tests and soil
cores were taken at 16-foot intervals across the
artifacts encountered. Not surprisingly, the soils
proved extremely complex, with numerous clusters
of artifacts and soil horizons observed. A possible
hearth identified in one soil core, along with several
pits may represent evidence for a fortification ditch
that once encircled the village.
One of the auger tests recovered nine polished shell
beads made from the freshwater rock snail called
Leptoxis. The nearest habitat for Leptoxis is the Mis-
sissippi valley. The Kimball villagers established trade
with people hundreds of miles away.