The Kansas Anthropologist Volume 28 2007
WARFARE AMONG THE KIRIKIR’I·S: ARCHEOLOGY, ETHNOGRAPHY,
AND ETHNOHISTORY
By Timothy G. Baugh
Anthropologists have studied Plains warfare for more the seven decades
and have presented a number of reasons for institutionalized violence.
Most of the ethnological inquiries, however, have been limited to synchronic
studies (occurring at a single point in time) of nineteenth-century
conflict, while archeologists and ethnohistorians have undertaken diachronic
studies (observing changes through time). The intent of this paper is
to present evidence for Plains warfare through time and to evaluate
its relationship to social prestige and exchange. Using the Kirikir’i·s
as an example, Vehik (2002a) postulated that Plains warfare correlated
with increased social stratification and the development of regional
exchange systems. Despite the significance of conflict in her model,
she neither examined its causes nor its temporal changes within the
Plains. To initiate the present study, a review of the causes of Plains
warfare is followed by a detailed study of violence among the Kirikir’i·s
on the southern and central Plains using primarily human biological
data and, when present, fortifications, defensive locations, and burned
structures. The question remains: Is conflict responsible for the development
of trade and social stratification in the central and southern Plains?
RECENT INVESTIGATIONS IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE FORT CAVAGNOLLE, 1744-1764
By Robert L. Thompson
Fort Cavagnolle, a trading post established by the French, was the
first permanent European settlement in what is now Kansas. It was abandoned
in the mid-1700s. The earliest reference to it appeared in journals
associated with Lewis and Clark and their epic Corps of Discovery and
the last reference was from the Missouri Expedition in 1820. This paper
describes how the author used these descriptions to locate what he believes
are the remains of Fort Cavagnolle. He has discovered a low mound that
fits the description of a fortification and post molds that could also
be part of the fort. Is the possibility strong enough to warrant further
examination of the site?
ANALYSIS OF POTTERY DECORATIONS AT THE MILLER SITE (14WY8), A LATE KANSAS
CITY HOPEWELL OCCUPATION
By Jeffrey Spencer
The Miller site (14WY8) is a prehistoric archeological site located
on Little Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Kansas River, in Wyandotte
County, Kansas. The site’s location is important for understanding
the affiliation among native North American cultures in the transitional
area between the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains. Amateur archeologists
conducted unprovenienced excavations in an effort to salvage information
from the site in advance of a construction project in the 1930s. No
radiocarbon dates were generated to establish an accurate temporal placement
of the occupants.
The current research focuses on analysis of decorative pottery motifs,
which has allowed the author to identify stylistic similarities between
the Miller site occupants and the Hopewellian cultures of the Kansas
City region, as well as the Eastern Woodlands. These pottery decorations
suggest a Late Kansas City Hopewell (Edwardsville phase) occupation
at the Miller site.
SITE 14GE41 AND THE SCHULTZ PHASE: RE-EXAMINING A KANSAS WOODLAND COMPLEX
By Patricia J. O'Brien and Sharon G. Parks-Mandel
Eyman (1966) defined the Schultz focus of the Woodland period based
on the Floyd Schultz collections of mortuary remains from mounds located
in Geary and Clay Counties. Phenice (1969) analyzed the skeletal remains
from the mounds, concluding that they mostly resembled Kansas City Hopewell
remains in western Missouri. This paper reports on data from habitation
site 14GE41, which was probably associated with one of the Berry Mounds
(14GE4-1) just southwest of the site, and redefines the Schultz focus
as the Schultz phase.
THE CALF CREEK COMPLEX IN SOUTHEAST KANSAS: ANOTHER PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
By Jim D. Feagins
In southeast and south-central Kansas, sites containing distinctive,
mid-Archaic age Calf Creek points are slowly being identified. These
sites occasionally are found in two geomorphic settings: in eroded uplands
and when exposed well below the surfaces of valley floors. The three-fold
focus of this article is to draw the attention of Kansans to this point
type in the hope of identifying other Calf Creek sites; present information
from an additional site, 14BO1402, containing a Calf Creek component;
and summarize the Calf Creek horizon elsewhere in relationship to results
of the Little Osage River Valley Archaeological Survey.
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