This purchase includes one hardcopy book (shipping fees apply) and access to a digital PDF download.
Edited by Stephen C. Lensink and Joseph A. Tiffany
2005, 254 pp.
The Cowan site (13WD88) is a Late Prehistoric Great Oasis site overlooking the Floyd River in Woodbury County in northwestern Iowa. This volume provides a detailed report on excavations at the Cowan site which focused on Great Oasis community patterns. Field work employed magnetic survey to detect near-surface features, coupled with detailed geomorphological investigation of site context and formation processes. Fifteen authors contributed their expertise to this volume discussing analysis of floral, faunal, and ceramic artifacts, radiocarbon dates, and the implications for understanding climate, duration of occupation, and social organization. The size and thoroughness of the Cowan site excavations, coupled with these detailed analyses, provided much important new data on the Great Oasis culture improving our understanding of this cultural phenomenon and the prehistory of the region.
