Archaeology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Museum of Natural History – 2017-2019
Between 2017 and 2019 I participated in the recording and analysis of one of the largest extant collections of prehistoric lithic tools within the state of Wisconsin. This collection, upon the passing of its owner, has been bequeathed in perpetuity by the family to the State of Wisconsin for inclusion, for both exhibit and research purposes, within the Wisconsin State Historical Society Museum.
This significant assemblage of prehistoric stone tools, comprised of over 3,600 individual formal artifact types, was assembled by the recently deceased Paul Pope over a period of roughly 60 years. This collection includes artifacts recovered by his grandfather well over a century ago along with artifacts recovered from a multi-county area representing what had previously been a poorly reported and under-investigated region within the central portion of the State of Wisconsin. The value of this collection to the archaeological record of the state is multivalent, offering an assemblage of artifacts covering the 14,000-year span of human occupation within the state, as well as illustrating a now-rare example of an assemblage typical of these collections recovered regionally during the early 20th century by Euro-American immigrants.
My work initially involved an inventory of objects within the collection, gathering of metrical data and digitally recording the collection, while simultaneously including the acquisition of data representing artifact typologies, cultural traditions, accepted chronologies, analysis of data to create range maps detailing these various attributes and their intersections through time, and identification and sourcing of lithic materials and their origins within and beyond the Upper Western Great Lakes Region. Additional tasks included examination of site provenience including historic cadastral map review and creation of site-specific data sets for submission to the Wisconsin Archaeological Sites Inventory, and Burial Site Catalog. The main repositories of such data for the State of Wisconsin.
Studies such as this yield unique insight on the use, sourcing and trade of lithic artifacts across multiple dimensions, offering a rare opportunity for interpretation of resource utilization, social structure, and environmental determinants affecting the earliest human inhabitants of the post-glacial Western Great Lakes.
Title image: variety of projectile points from the Pope Collection. See more about UWSP's archaeology collection here
Between 2017 and 2019 I participated in the recording and analysis of one of the largest extant collections of prehistoric lithic tools within the state of Wisconsin. This collection, upon the passing of its owner, has been bequeathed in perpetuity by the family to the State of Wisconsin for inclusion, for both exhibit and research purposes, within the Wisconsin State Historical Society Museum.
This significant assemblage of prehistoric stone tools, comprised of over 3,600 individual formal artifact types, was assembled by the recently deceased Paul Pope over a period of roughly 60 years. This collection includes artifacts recovered by his grandfather well over a century ago along with artifacts recovered from a multi-county area representing what had previously been a poorly reported and under-investigated region within the central portion of the State of Wisconsin. The value of this collection to the archaeological record of the state is multivalent, offering an assemblage of artifacts covering the 14,000-year span of human occupation within the state, as well as illustrating a now-rare example of an assemblage typical of these collections recovered regionally during the early 20th century by Euro-American immigrants.
My work initially involved an inventory of objects within the collection, gathering of metrical data and digitally recording the collection, while simultaneously including the acquisition of data representing artifact typologies, cultural traditions, accepted chronologies, analysis of data to create range maps detailing these various attributes and their intersections through time, and identification and sourcing of lithic materials and their origins within and beyond the Upper Western Great Lakes Region. Additional tasks included examination of site provenience including historic cadastral map review and creation of site-specific data sets for submission to the Wisconsin Archaeological Sites Inventory, and Burial Site Catalog. The main repositories of such data for the State of Wisconsin.
Studies such as this yield unique insight on the use, sourcing and trade of lithic artifacts across multiple dimensions, offering a rare opportunity for interpretation of resource utilization, social structure, and environmental determinants affecting the earliest human inhabitants of the post-glacial Western Great Lakes.
Title image: variety of projectile points from the Pope Collection. See more about UWSP's archaeology collection here