Even on the Base, however, day-to-day activities can destroy the remains of previous inhabitants. One of these partially destroyed sites is the FamCamp Archeological Site, site # 48LA277. The north end of the site was destroyed by the railroad, the east side by an access road to the railroad, and the west by a gravel quarry. Still, from this small site remnant, archeologists can study the activities that the earlier campers carried out at the site.

In 1992, the second year of archeological fieldwork in support of an interpretive center at site 48LA277 was completed. Fieldwork was carried out at seven locations (five sites and two trenches) on the north side of Crow Creek. The project has included two seasons of archeological field work, the contracting through SEAC of an exhibit/interpretive center, and the on-site stabilization and exhibit of an in situ ca. AD 600 Plains Woodland archeological profile containing an intact fire pit.

The interpretive center was funded through the Legacy Resource Management Program of the Defense Department. Plans for the interpretive center began in 1990. Bill Metz, then Chief of the Environmental Division at the base, requested assistance from the Interagency Archeological Services Division (now part of SEAC) of the National Park Service in completing the interpretive center. The Interagency Archeological Services Division in turn requested the assistance of the Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) in completing the fieldwork to provide background information on the site for interpretive purposes.

Site 48LA277 was chosen for the interpretive center both because of its proximity to the family camping area on base and because previous work had shown the site to be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places due to a buried subsurface component. The site was badly disturbed, however, as part was used as a gravel quarry, and a fire road ran through another portion. Although two prehistoric hearths were visible in the roadcut, investigators were initially unsure how much of the site remained.

In 1991, a total of 3.5 cubic meters of site 48LA277 was excavated within five excavation units. Within these units, six fire pits were found and four totally excavated. The fire pits yielded radiocarbon dates, pollen, and macrobotanical specimens, as well as lithic and faunal materials. The excavations outside the fire pits also yielded cultural remains, resulting in a total of 108 lots of faunal material, 227 pieces of lithic material, and two ceramic sherds. This testing suggested that much more cultural material was present than was originally thought.

The goal of the 1992 fieldwork, then, was to: (1) determine the extent of the buried portion of the site to the south; (2) expand samples of diagnostics, tools, and subsistence remains; and (3) examine geomorphologically similar locales to the west to determine whether 48LA277 is a unique site or whether similar areas along the Crow Creek drainage were used in similar manners. The resulting information was  used both in the interpretive center and to enhance the existing knowledge of the prehistory of the area. The artifacts and records are stored and curated at the Base's state-of-the-art curation facility.

People have made their living through hunting and gathering for almost 99 percent of the human past. Yet our knowledge of this lifestyle, its variations, and the processes that cause innovation and change is minimal. Only since the 1960s have anthropologists even realized that the hunter-gatherer economy can allow for leisure time, and that hunter-gatherers can develop a rich and diverse culture.

The 1992 investigations along Crow Creek contribute to our knowledge of the time period during which the area was utilized. URS Berger found artifacts diagnostic of cultures from the Middle Plains Archaic through the Late Prehistoric on these sites, which helps us to examine when the land-use patterns seen at 48LA277 began and how they varied over time. Variations in land-use patterns can be expected with innovations in technology, such as the adoption of the bow and arrow around A.D. 500. Variations can also be expected as a result of interactions that occurred between people in the Crow Creek drainage and horticultural or agricultural groups to the east.

The investigations at 48LA277 continue to add to our knowledge of the Plains Woodland archeological culture. Detailed excavation and geomorphological investigations help us to understand how prehistoric peoples utilized the landscape and the available resources. This contribution to our understanding of the prehistoric human ecology of the region is of great importance in understanding the relationship between people and their environment today.

The detailed inquiry at 48LA277 also has the potential to contribute to issues in the study of hunter-gatherers such as mobility, food storage, and intrasite patterning. These relate to some of the fundamental tenets that anthropologists have begun to realize about hunter-gatherer societies. For instance, the importance of meat versus the importance of plant foods and fish is strongly correlated with the environment exploited. This has implications for the amount of stored food required to support a group of people through the winter months. Mobility of the group will decrease as more stored food is carried. The degree of mobility of a group helps to determine the way available resources are used and dictates the patterning of the archeological sites left behind.

Understanding the balance between the need to be mobile to gather resources and the need to store food for the winter, which limits mobility, requires detailed knowledge of the resources utilized. To that end, portions of the environment relevant to the prehistoric inhabitants of sites and regions must be reconstructed. At 48LA277, both geomorphological and palynological analyses were undertaken to reconstruct the prehistoric environment.

Analyses of the lithic material, faunal material, and fire pit features at the site were conducted to help examine the mobility and food-storage strategies of the site occupants. In many cases, these kinds of analyses are completed as ends in themselves. They become more meaningful, however, when placed in the context of anthropological hunter-gatherer studies.
 

• Plains Prehistory and Archeology Links

• From Mammoths to Missiles brochure
• Prehistoric Lifeways at the FamCamp Archeological Site