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Collections’ Study: Something New from Something Old
When Ellison Orr excavated the Kimball Village To document the research
site (13PM4) in 1939, he recovered over potential of these collections,
9,000 items from more than 2,000 square feet of the the recent Loess Hills project
site including 4 prehistoric houses. His estimates and conducted a number of spe-
recent geophysical survey suggest that the remnants cialized analyses on materi-
of at least another 16 houses still exist. Imagine the als previously excavated at
wondrous information they might contain! Mill Creek and Glenwood
sites. The results surprised
The artifacts from Kimball Village or any of the Mill the experts and demonstrate
Creek or Glenwood lodges represent the best that that older collections can still
could be hoped for from 600–900 year-old com- produce answers about the
munities. All the detritus of everyday life remains— origins and challenges of a
some of it intentionally left behind as trash—along new agrarian way of life on
with other items lost or forgotten including possible the eastern Plains.
ceremonial objects. Most of these materials have had
only minimal study. Pottery and Radiocarbon
Dating
Mass of charred corn recovered from a Loess Hills
earth lodge offers evidence for crops grown by early Thin cross-sections made
farmers and provides material for a radiocarbon date. from pottery pieces—pot
sherds—recovered from five different Glen- A study of other Glenwood vessels shows that
wood lodges were examined with a polarizing some closely resemble Mississippian pottery dat-
optical microscope. A geologist analyzed the ing between A.D. 1200 and 1350 at the Cahokia
thin sections to identify and characterize the World Heritage site in current East St. Louis, Illinois.
mineral grains in the clay as well as the clay Cahokia, with its flat-topped earthen mounds, enor-
matrix itself. All compared favorably with mous palisade and plazas, and dozens of houses and
clay deposits available in Mills County. This public buildings, represents the largest prehistoric
evidence strongly suggests that these sherds community in North America. Some Mill Creek ves-
came from vessels that were manufactured sels, by contrast, are Mississippian copies or actual
locally not brought from elsewhere as previ- trade pots brought from the Cahokia area almost two
ously suspected. Glenwood potters were not centuries earlier than those found in Glenwood sites.
just receiving ideas from other communities Other Glenwood pottery resembles Oneota ceramics
but contributing to regional developments in which become common throughout Iowa and much
technology such as pottery making. of the Midwest after A.D. 1200.
22 University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist
