Ancient Shores, Ancient People
Smart Archaeology In Pictured Rocks
by John B. Anderton and Robert Legg
Recently, a three-year long integrated geo-archaeological study was completed in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (PIRO) by a team from Northern Michigan University (NMU). Since the 1950s, when professional archaeologists began looking at the south shore Lake Superior, field survey in Pictured Rocks area has been very difficult to carry out due the dense forest, lack of soil exposures, and difficulty in identifying high probability areas. Consequently, very few archaeological sites, especially those from prehistoric periods were known from PIRO. In fact, prior to 2007, only thirty-five (35) archaeological sites were known in the Lakeshore and the majority of these were later historic, Euro-American occupations related to logging and homesteading, primarily. For that reason, the National Park Service was concerned that sites from earlier periods in prehistory had been missed during previous archaeological surveys. As a result, and in an effort to improve the understanding of the park's prehistoric Native American settlement, a geoarchaeological approach including paleoshoreline mapping and site location analysis was undertaken, which included the creation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) predictive model of potential site locations.
During the first year of the study, field research coupled with the use of digital elevation models (DEMs) allowed for the reconstruction of the Nipissing shoreline in PIRO, which revealed some very interesting changes in the shoreline configuration over the last 5000 years. In short, since the water levels were significantly higher than the modern levels of Lake Superior, the Park had several more deep, but often narrow embayments and estuaries at the Miners, Mosquito, Chapel, and Beaver Basins.
In the second year, site location modeling using the GIS showed several high probability zones associated with these ancient
embayments. Known archaeological site locations from both inside PIRO and within adjacent National Forest lands were recorded using highly accurate Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. These locations were then used to create a regression model that would predict the location of zones where new sites might be found. These zones indicated likely places for Archaic Period settlement along stretches of now ancient coastal barriers, spits, lagoons, and river mouths.
During the third year of the study this model was used to direct Phase I archaeological survey efforts, which resulted in the discovery of twenty-three (23) new sites within the Lakeshore. Under permit from the NPS, student crews conducted shovel-testing at various locations identified by the predictive model (Figure 4). Sites primarily consisted of clusters of stone flakes and shatter left behind from making stone tools as well as clusters of fire-cracked rock from hearths. At least two of the sites provided evidence of heat treatment of quartzite raw material, something that had until now only been noted on Grand Island.
Most of the archaeological sites the team found were from the Archaic Period, which means they could be up to 4,000 or more years old. Compared to later periods, relatively little is known about such sites in the region. The project also yielded two radiocarbon dates (both about 2000 years old) for two of the sites, which was also significant as the radiometric chronology for sites of that age in the region is poor.
The model worked much better than had been initially anticipated and will help shape many future archeological studies across the Lake Superior region. This new “smart archaeology” approach greatly
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