Copyright © 2016 Midwest Archaeological Conference, Inc. All rights reserved.

OPEN ACCESS: MCJA Book Reviews Volume 41, 2016

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review

Copyright © 2016 Midwest Archaeological Conference, Inc. All rights reserved.

OPEN ACCESS: MCJA Book Reviews Volume 41, 2016

Protohistory at the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia: The Illinois Country on the Eve of ColonyEdited by Robert F. Mazrim with contributions by Kjersti E. Emerson, Madeleine G. Evans, Kristin M. Hedman, Terrance J. Martin, and Michael McCafferty and a fore-word by Duane Esarey. (2015). Studies in Archaeology Volume 10, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Prai-rie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. xix+156 pp., 89 figures (mostly color pho-tographs), 27 tables, foreword, ten chapters, references. $20.00 (softcover).

Reviewed by Jeffery A. Behm, Anthropology Program, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

The Zimmerman site (11-LS-13), also known as the Grand Village of Kaskaskia, is one of the most important Protohistoric and Early Historic sites in the western Great Lakes and Upper Midwest region, if not the entire country. It is the type of large village typically associated with warm-season occupation by many Algonquian and Siouan populations of the Western Great Lakes and Upper Midwest during the early historic period. This pattern, traceable well back into the Late Prehistoric, was paired with small, scattered cold-season hunting and gathering camps in the hinterlands around the summer villages. Initial inves-tigations in 1947 (J. A. Brown 1961; Kellar 1949) and extensive excavations in the early 1970s (M. K. Brown 1975) led to the widespread recognition of its importance and use as a comparative sample (e.g., J. A. Brown and Sasso 2001; M. K. Brown 1979; Ehrhardt 2005; Esarey 1997, 2013; Koziarski 2012; Munson and Munson 1969; Walder 2015). Zimmer-man is the Kaskaskia village visited by Marquette and Joliet in 1673.

Plans for private development in 1987 initiated a multi-year preservation effort that cul-minated in its acquisition by the State of Illinois in 1991, formal renaming as The Grand Village of the Illinois State Historic Site, and the initiation of the Grand Village Research Project by the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program (ITARP) at the University of Illinois (Rohrbaugh et al. 1999:7; Stelle et al. 1993). In turn, this led to the reexamination of the materials from Brown’s excavations housed at the La Salle County Historical Society that are the subject of this volume.

Protohistory at the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia: The Illinois Country on the Eve of Colony is a beautifully produced, scholarly, and highly readable volume and an invaluable addition to the literature on the Late Prehistoric, Protohistoric, and Early Historic periods of the region. When I first obtained this report I quickly read it through it from cover-to-cover. The amount of information packed into this relatively small volume (only 175 pages, counting front material, the ten chapters, and bibliography) is stunning. The use of color photographs of artifacts throughout is highly commendable considering how many of the illustrated artifacts are European trade goods and/or Native remanufactured items. They provide an invaluable comparative reference for others working in the Protohistoric and Early Historic periods throughout Great Lakes and Midwestern regions. The contributors

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to this volume are recognized experts in their fields. The diverse assemblage of Native-made, European-made, and Native-modified artifacts from the site are described in detail, reanalyzed, and were appropriate, reclassified. Osteological analysis of human skeletal remains, a review of the Miami-Illinois language and its implications for Illinois and Central Algonquian culture and society, and comparisons of the mate-rial culture with other contemporary and culturally related sites, complete the set of descriptive and analytical chapters. All contribute to a significant new synthesis of the dynamic period of early contact and rapid culture change and accommodation at the Zimmerman site. This package of detailed description, careful analysis, and thought-ful synthesis makes this volume an important and welcome contribution.

Duane Esarey’s foreword appropriately describes this volume as an attempt to “bridge a gap” (p. xvii) between the relatively well known Late Prehistoric (prior to A.D. 1500) and the late 17th- and early 18th-century Native societies of what is now known as north-ern Illinois. While no single work can completely fill any such gap, this volume does an admirable job, significantly improving and clarifying our understanding of this critically important and dynamic period in the archaeological record of the region.

Chapter 1 (“Introduction to the Zimmerman Site and the Illinois” by Robert F. Mazrim), outlines the history of site investigations and describes the materials housed at the La Salle County Historical Society as well the spatial patterning of the site identified in Brown’s excavations. Analysis and interpretation of the feature contents from the primarily historic occupation area (Grid A) is the central focus of this reanalysis. A rich, complex site occupational record is revealed, with clearly prehistoric components (Swanson, Langford, and Huber), as well as a Protohistoric Illinois Confederacy pres-ence for at least a generation or more before the first historic record from the 1673 visit by Marquette and Joliet. The possibility that the Huber component extends into the early Protohistoric is raised in Chapter 1 and further discussed in Chapter 3.

Chapter 2 (“The Seventeenth-Century Samples and Applications at Grid A,” also by Maz-rim) describes the features and their contents from the historic occupation area. Doc-umentation, both photographic (12 figures) and tabular (two tables), of these features and artifactual materials is extensive. Artifacts include the typical items of European origin (brass wire, iron and steel objects, glass beads) as well as those remanufactured by Native Americans (e.g., tinkling cones, rolled beads and clips, and rolled strips made from brass and/or copper kettles as well as various kettle scrap). Fully realizing the practical limits on figures and tables, I still wished that artifacts with only written descriptions were also illustrated. While many of the illustrated artifacts have their feature provenience identified, I wished that this information had been provided for all illustrated artifacts.

Mazrim’s reclassification and clarification of the historic, shell-tempered Danner Series pottery from Zimmerman (Chapter 3) is an important and welcome reference. Initially recognized and defined in the 1940s (J. A. Brown 1961:41–45; Kellar 1949), with four separate types (La Salle Filleted, Danner Cordmarked, Danner Grooved Paddle, and Danner Thick) it was expanded (Zimmerman Filleted and Keating Cord-marked) and redefined (Danner Cordmarked) following Brown’s excavations (M. K.

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Brown 1975). Following investigations of the Illiniwek Village (a.k.a. Haas-Hagerman) in northeastern Missouri in the early 1990s, Danner was reconfigured with six ceramic types (Danner Cordmarked, Danner Grooved Paddle, La Salle Filleted, Keating Cord-marked, Haas Cordmarked, and Hagerman Cordmarked). Mazrim has revised and simplified the Danner Series typology, identifying three types and six named varieties:

Danner Grooved Paddle Danner Cordmarked variety La Salle (formerly La Salle Filleted) variety Mock Grooved Paddle variety Notched Rim Strip variety Notched Lip Appliqué Keating Cordmarked variety Modified Lip variety Plain

Mazrim’s simplified typology is clearly presented, detailed, and well illustrated. The revisions are entirely reasonable, internally consistent, and highly welcome. Mazrim’s reclassification will be extremely helpful in comparisons of Danner Series and Dan-ner-related pottery found elsewhere in the Western Great Lakes and Upper Midwest. Chapter 3 concludes with an examination of the possible and likely prehistoric affili-ations of the Danner Series ceramics with slightly older ceramic assemblages in Indi-ana, Ohio, and Lower Michigan.

Chapter 3 also includes a short discussion of other likely Protohistoric ceramics. While the majority of the Huber ware vessels from Zimmerman are clearly from prehistoric contexts, several examples (all from Grid A features) are associated with European-manufactured trade goods. Two decorated Allamakee Trailed neck sherds, recovered from Grid A features, are also suggested as Protohistoric. However, because the table of features with ceramics and historic trade goods (Table 2.1, p. 19) neither lists Allamakee Trailed sherds nor these two features, their Protohistoric assignment is apparently based primarily on the Grid A provenience. This is the only example of a lack of clarity that I encountered in this otherwise excellent and outstanding report.

Because European-derived trade goods from the Protohistoric and Early Historic portion of Zimmerman (Brown’s Grid A) are primarily ornamental, it is not surpris-ing that lithic artifacts, especially those for cutting, chopping, scraping, and planning, continued in heavy use. Chapter 4 (by Madeleine G. Evans) provides a comprehensive and detailed description of these chipped-stone artifacts. Measurements and select qualitative attributes are provided for points, knives, drill/perforators, and unifacial scrapers with feature provenience. This data will be useful in comparative analyses of contemporary artifacts from other sites in the region.

Terrance J. Martin’s faunal analysis is presented in Chapter 5 (“Foodways and the Illinois: Archaeozoological Samples from Grid A”). The zooarchaeological materials available to Martin are biased toward those specimens that could be identified to taxa and/or

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element. Martin points out that the large number of unidentifiable specimens appear to be missing and may have been discarded. Likewise, small-scale recovery of fau-nal remains from waterscreening or flotation of feature-fill samples described in the records of the early 1970s excavations either did not take place or those samples were also lost or discarded. Despite these gaps in the faunal assemblage, and an absence of any paleobotanical materials, a fairly clear picture of the pattern of resource exploita-tion in the area around Zimmerman is presented. Martin’s feature-by-feature analysis demonstrated the ubiquitous appearance of bison remains and convincingly argues that “the Illinois were hunting bison locally” (p. 87). Many of these features contained a wide range of animal taxa, often represented by prime portions of the carcass. Both Martin (Chapter 5) and Mazrim (Chapter 10) indicate that some of these faunal assemblages may reflect feasting or other celebrations.

Kristin M. Hedman presents a detailed osteological and mortuary analysis of the human skeletal remains recovered from the Late Prehistoric, Protohistoric, and Early Historic portions of the Zimmerman site in Chapter 6 (“The Population and Health of the Illinois at the Zimmerman Site”).

The prehistoric artifact assemblage is described and analyzed by Kjersti E. Emer-son and Madeleine G. Evans in Chapter 7 (“Late Prehistory at the Zimmerman Site: The Huber Occupation of Grid B”). This portion of the site (Grid B) is spatially distinct from the Protohistoric and Early Historic portion (Grid A). The Huber assemblage from Zimmerman is compared to those from other sites. The authors note that while Huber and Danner appear temporally distinct, two features in Grid A (the Protohistoric and Early Historic portion of the site) may document a slight, short-term temporal overlap.

I found Chapter 8 (“Illinois Voices: Observations on the Miami-Illinois Language” by Michael McCafferty) to be one of the most interesting contributions to this volume. Based on extensive primary documentation of Miami-Illinois language provided by three 17th Century dictionaries prepared by Jesuit missionaries, McCafferty provides a number of archaeologically relevant insights into the contact-era Illinois society and culture. For example, the sections on Miami-Illinois words for clay and metal pots and stone and metal tools significantly differ depending on the material used in their man-ufacture. Such basic linguistic and cultural differences in emic identification of objects have implications for understanding culture contact and the resulting acculturation and accommodation. McCafferty’s chapter illustrates the potential for archaeological insights from linguistic analysis and demonstrates the continuing value of the tradi-tional holistic, four-field approach of anthropology.

Chapter 9 (“Three Comparative Protohistoric Samples from the Illinois Country”), also by Mazrim, reviews and describes the Protohistoric and Early Historic components at two other sites from Illinois (Palos and Starved Rock) and one from an adjacent portion of Missouri (Illiniwek Village). Readers will find this well-illustrated chapter highly informative, with updated information of sites that were excavated and reported many years ago or which have not yet been fully reported.

Chapter 10 (“Change and Identity at Zimmerman Before the Europeans” by Mazrim) con-cludes this volume and summarizes much of the key information presented in the

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prior chapters. Possible ethnic affiliations of specific Danner Series pottery with spe-cific bands of the Illinois Confederacy are proposed. These identifications suggest a likely mechanism for the formation and expansion of the Confederacy during the critical and dynamic Protohistoric, with significant additions to the population from other ethnic groups, either through willing amalgamation or captive taking in warfare. The Zimmerman ceramic assemblage may best be understood as the “coalescence of a confederacy during the 1630s or 1640s” (p. 148) and provide critical insights into the process of ethnogenesis.

Zimmerman is an important Late Prehistoric, Protohistoric, and Early Historic site. This volume is a welcome addition to the growing body of detailed analysis of well-excavated materials with good provenience and association. At the end of his acknowledgements, Mazrim (p. xiii) noted that this site deserved the detailed reanalysis by the group of experts who contributed to this volume. I strongly agree and I want to recognize and congratulate the individual authors for their superb work. This report is a valuable contribution to our growing understanding of the complex social, eco-nomic, political, and ethic landscape during the Protohistoric and contact period in the Western Great Lakes and Upper Midwest. In answering some questions and clarifying several issues about the 17th Century it has pointed the way for additional research and identified new research questions. It is an excellent piece of scholarship.

References CitedBrown, James A., Ed. (1961) The Zimmerman Site: A Report on Excavations at the Grand

Village of Kaskaskia, La Salle County, Illinois. Report of Investigations 9, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois.

Brown, James A., and Robert F. Sasso (2001) Prelude to history on the eastern prai-ries. Chapter 15 in Societies in Eclipse: Archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands Indians, A.D. 1400–1600, edited by D. S. Brose, R. C. Mainfort, Jr., and C. W. Cowan, pp. 205–228. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Brown, Margaret K. (1975) The Zimmerman Site: Further Excavations at the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia. Reports of Investigations 32. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois.

Brown, Margaret K. (1979) Cultural Transformations Among the Illinois: An Application of a Systems Model. Publications of the Museum, Volume 1, Number 3. Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

Ehrhardt, Kathleen L. (2005) European Metals in Native Hands. Rethinking Technological Change, 1640–1683. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Esarey, Duane E. (1997) Seasonal occupation patterns in Illinois history: a case study in the Lower Illinois River Valley. Illinois Archaeology 9(1&2):164–219.

Esarey, Duane E. (2013) Another Kind of Beads: A Forgotten Industry of the North American Colonial Period. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Keller, Gordon N. (1949) Fort Ancient Manifestations in the Starved Rock Area of Northern Illinois. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.

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Koziarski, Ralph (2012) Meskwaki Fur Trade Economics: The Zooarchaeology of Cultural Con-tact. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Munson, Cheryl Ann and Patrick J. Munson (1969) Preliminary report on an early his-toric site, Cook County, Illinois. The Wisconsin Archeologist (new series) 50(3):184–188.

Stelle, Lenville J., James A. Brown, Charles L. Rohrbaugh, Thomas E. Emerson, and Robert Jeske (1993) Deciphering the Grand Village of the Illinois: A pre-liminary assessment of the Grand Village Research Project. Illinois Archaeology 5(1–2):517–526.

Rohrbaugh, Charles L., Lenville J. Stelle, Thomas E. Emerson, Gregory R. Walz, and John T. Penman (1999) The Archaeology of the Grand Village of the Illinois. Report of the Grand Village Research Project, 1991–1996: Grand Village of the Illinois State Historic Site (11LS13), LaSalle County, Illinois. Research Reports No. 60. Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

Walder, Heather (2015) “...A Thousand Beads to Each Nation:” Exchange, Interaction, and Technological Practices in the Upper Great Lakes, c. 1630–1730. Unpublished Ph.D. Dis-sertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Mad-ison, Wisconsin.

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