Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Canine Surrogacy Approach And Paleobotany: An Analysis Of Wisconsin Oneota Agricultural Production And Risk Management Strategies, Richard Wynn Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to investigate the nature of Upper Mississippian subsistence systems (circa AD 1050-1450), to evaluate the role of agriculture, and to understand how these dietary choices are related to risk management systems and the development of cultural complexity in the Midcontinent. The research uses the Koshkonong Locality of southeastern Wisconsin as a case study and compares it to other Upper Mississippian groups throughout Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois, Middle Mississippian groups in Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin, and contemporaneous Late Woodland groups in southeastern Wisconsin.

This study uses two primary lines of evidence; macrobotanical remains and dietary …

A Public Humanity: The Application Of Isotopic Analysis To The Intersection Between Body And Law At The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery, Shannon Kate Freire

Theses and Dissertations

The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery is an umbrella term used to describe the four cemeteries that were used by Milwaukee County from 1878 through 1974 for the burial of the indigent, unclaimed, institutionalized, and anatomized. Three of these cemeteries remain undisturbed. The primary focus of this research is the twice-excavated Cemetery II (Wisconsin Burial Site 47BMI0076), in use between 1882 and 1925. Archaeological excavations in 1991-1992 and again in 2013 resulted in the recovery of over 2,400 individuals from this cemetery location.

In Wisconsin, legislative efforts to govern indigent burial and dissection mediated competing aspirations between medical education and …

Nobi Ni-Tse’Tse’Ede (House On The Cold One): Northern Great Basin Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Household Archaeology, Harney County, Oregon, Emily Jane Epstein

Theses and Dissertations

Excavation results from four sites on Tse’tse’ede (The Cold One), which is also commonly known as Steens Mountain, produced archaeological evidence for a prehistoric subsistence and settlement system on the western flank of Tse’tse’ede. Material culture recovered in association with one house, domestic surfaces, and from a high elevation hunting locale provides evidence for human use of the mountain spanning the Archaic. Analysis suggests human occupation of the range intensified post Cal 3000 BP.

The archaeological results were compared against an ethnographically derived model for household and community food security, the basis of settlement and subsistence systems. The model failed …

Production And Technological Change: Ironworking In Prehistoric Ireland, Kevin Garstki

Theses and Dissertations

The introduction of iron into Ireland during the 8th century BCE had profound influences on the organization of society, from economic and political networks to the means by which power and status were negotiated. However, the organization of iron production is still relatively poorly understood. This dissertation seeks to explore how iron technology was organized during the Early Iron Age (c. 800 – 400 BCE) and Developed Iron Age (c. 400 – 1 BCE) in Ireland, and uses this context to demonstrate that the development of new technologies can be most clearly understood by investigating the archaeological remains of production …

The Saints Peter And Paul Parish And The Milwaukee County Poor Farm: A Comparative Osteological Analysis Between Two Historic Cemeteries In Wisconsin, David Michael Strange

Theses and Dissertations

The constituents of the Saints Peter and Paul Parish of Independence, Wisconsin contracted Commonwealth Heritage Group in 2015 to excavate and analyze 108 individuals located in an unmarked portion of the parish cemetery during a large church renovation project. This thesis is an osteological analysis of the excavated cemetery population, providing an estimated age, sex, and pathological profile of the individuals interred therein. In addition, a comparative analysis is conducted between subadult segments of the Ss. Peter and Paul Parish sample and the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The parameters of the analysis include the investigation …

The Richter Site (47dr80): A Millennium Of Prehistoric Technological And Cultural Change On Washington Island, Door County, Wisconsin, Michelle M. Birnbaum

Theses and Dissertations

The Richter site (47DR80) was excavated by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee archaeological field schools during the summers of 1968 and 1973 under the direction of Guy Gibbon and G. Richard Peske. This site was identified by excavators as a North Bay Middle Woodland culture occupation based on Ronald Mason’s typology created from his work at the Mero and Porte des Morts sites on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. Although various specialized analyses have focused on aspects of the Richter site material culture, no site report or overall analysis of material culture exists. This study provides the first synthetic account of the UWM excavations …

Shifting Ground: Rethinking Concepts Of Continuity And Change In Late Iron Age And Early Roman Landscapes Of Southern England, Lara Ghisleni

Theses and Dissertations

What kinds of landscapes does the segmentation of space and time by the Late Iron Age/Early Roman transition create, include, and exclude? What continues, changes, and co-exists, and how is the landscape interconnected in the context of these negotiations? This thesis re-conceptualizes continuity and change during the Late Iron Age (100 BCE–CE 43) and Early Roman period (CE 43–CE 150/200) in southern England, exploring how relationships with place and landscape generate the contexts for community formation and transformation. Despite the deconstruction of the traditional acculturation paradigm—Romanization—it has proven difficult to circumvent binary categories of identity and process that relegate continuity …

Cultural Constructions Of Nature: Animal Representation And Use In Early Iron Age Southeastern Slovenia, Adrienne C. Frie

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the place of animals in the cultural world of Early Iron Age southeastern Slovenia (800-300 BCE) by analyzing animal iconography and faunal remains in archaeological contexts. The central questions are: What types of human-animal relationships characterized Early Iron Age Slovenia, and how were these relationships intertwined with conceptions about animals in local cultural frameworks? I examine the conception of the animal world and its symbolic significance through quantitative and qualitative analyses of animal depictions on artifacts as well as faunal remains from mortuary contexts. The analysis is structured to answer a series of empirical questions that provide …

Melita In Milwaukee: The Milwaukee Public Museum’S Leopardi Collection, Stephan Noureddine Hassam

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

MELITA IN MILWAUKEE:

THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM’S LEOPARDI COLLECTION

by

Stephan Noureddine Hassam

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017

Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold

The Phoenician/Punic occupation of Malta is an important period in the nation’s history. The Phoenicians first settled the Maltese islands sometime in the early to late seventh century B.C., and their material culture left a lasting influence on the island for nearly a millennium. Beginning in the early 1600s, Phoenician material culture began to be recognized as such upon discovery. Following wider trends in the Enlightenment era in Europe, Maltese nobility and clergy began …

To Temper Or Not To Temper: A Petrographic Textural Study Of Clays And Formative Ceramic Sherds From The Valley Of Oaxaca, Mexico, Cheri Lynn Price

Theses and Dissertations

Ceramics are one of the best forms of material culture archaeologists can use to analyze questions of social, political, economic, and ideological complexity. The purpose of this thesis research is to determine if the clays used to manufacture later Middle Formative-Terminal Formative ceramics in the Valley of Oaxaca were tempered or otherwise modified by looking at texture of sherds petrographically. Clay samples from around the valley, modern sherds, and Formative sherds were examined and compared using six different forms of analysis. The results show that it is most probable that the Formative sherds were not tempered. However, several sherds exhibited …

Death Keeps No Calendar: Dating Mortuary Hardware From The Saints Peter And Paul Parish Church Cemetery, Amanda Marie Roller

Theses and Dissertations

The concern of the Saints Peter and Paul parish members regarding the history and identity of the individuals buried in an almost forgotten section of the cemetery created an opportunity for archaeologists to work with a community by providing a voice for those buried there and facilitating community understanding and healing. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the temporal indicators of the Saints Peter and Paul cemetery to determine if the coffin hardware and associated artifacts present in excavated burials reflect the expected time of interment. The expected period of interment is 1872-1930. Coffin hardware and associated artifacts …

Gender Reflections: A Reconsideration Of Pictish Mirror And Comb Symbols, Traci N. Billings

Theses and Dissertations

The interpretation of prehistoric iconography is complicated by the tendency to project

contemporary male/female gender dichotomies into the past. Pictish monumental stone sculpture

in Scotland has been studied over the last 100 years. Traditionally, mirror and comb symbols

found on some stones produced in Scotland between AD 400 and AD 900 have been interpreted

as being associated exclusively with women and/or the female gender. This thesis re-examines

this assumption in light of more recent work to offer a new interpretation of Pictish mirror and

comb symbols and to suggest a larger context for their possible meaning. Utilizing the Canmore

database, …

Investigating The Functions Of Copper Material Culture From Four Oneota Sites In The Lake Koshkonong Locality Of Wisconsin, Jacqueline Marie Pozza

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Oneota use of native copper in the Lake Koshkonong locality between A.D. 1100 and 1400. Over 600 pieces of Oneota copper artifacts originating from four sites were documented and analyzed in order to investigate distribution, production, utilization, and the ideological and social significance behind this raw material. The artifacts analyzed for this study were recovered from Oneota sites adjacent to Lake Koshkonong in Jefferson County, Wisconsin: Crabapple Point (47JE93), Schmeling (47JE833), Koshkonong Creek Village (47JE379), and Crescent Bay Hunt Club (47JE904). These assemblages primarily included awls, beads, pendants, and fragmented material. The data set also includes unique …

Late Paleo-Indian Period Lithic Economies, Mobility, And Group Organization In Wisconsin, Ethan Adam Epstein

Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation focuses upon the organization of Pleistocene / Holocene period lithic technology in Wisconsin circa 10,000 – 10,500 years before present. Lithic debitage and flaked stone tools from the Plainview/Agate Basin components of the Heyrman I site (47DR381), the Dalles site (47IA374), and the Kelly North Tract site at Carcajou Point (47JE02) comprise the data set. These Wisconsin sites are located within a post glacial Great Lakes dune environment, an inland drainage/riverine environment, and an inland wetland/lacustrine environment. An assemblage approach is used to examine the structure of each site’s lithic economy. This broad approach to lithic organization …

The Unsung Evolutionist: Charles Rau's Swiss Lake Dwelling Collection At The Smithsonian Institution, Liam C. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

During the second half of the nineteenth century, museums and collectors around the world engaged in a collecting frenzy focused on objects from the Swiss Alpine sites known as Pfahlbauten. Romantic reconstructions of these sites captured the antiquarian imagination and resulted in an artifact diaspora. Charles (Carl) Rau, a German-American archaeologist who became the first Curator of Antiquities at the Smithsonian Institution (SI), collected several hundred Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts from the lake dwelling sites of Robenhausen and Auvernier, donating this material as well as his library to the SI upon his death in 1886. This thesis investigates the …

Late Prehistoric Lithic Economies In The Prairie Peninsula: A Comparison Of Oneota And Langford In Southern Wisconsin And Northern Illinois, Stephen Wayne Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the environmental settlement patterns and the organization of lithic technology surrounding Upper Mississippian groups in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. The sites investigated in this study are the Washington Irving (11K52) and Koshkonong Creek Village (47JE379) habitation sites, contemporaneous creekside Langford and Oneota sites located approximately 90 kilometers apart. A two-kilometer catchment of Washington Irving is compared to that of the Koshkonong Creek Village to clarify the nature of environmental variation in Langford and Oneota settlement patterns and increase our understanding of Upper Mississippian horticulturalist lifeways. Lithic tool and mass debitage analyses use an …

Consumerism And Ceramics At The Stephen Field Farmstead, Walworth County, Wisconsin, Kathleen Elizabeth Bindley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the expression of consumer behavior and choice through ceramic archaeological remains from the Stephen Field Farmstead (47WL351) site, a nineteenth-century farmstead located in East Troy Township, Walworth County, Wisconsin, with emphasis placed on the ceramics recovered from Feature One, a stone-lined privy vault. Ceramics were collected in 2010, 2011, and 2013, during field investigations conducted by the Wisconsin Historical Society-Museum Archaeology Program. The collection is permanently housed at the East Troy Area Historical Society, but is currently on loan to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. An inventory of the ceramic vessels from Feature One at the Stephen Field …

The Prehistoric Economics Of The Kautz Site: A Late Archaic And Woodland Site In Northeastern Illinois, Peter John Geraci

Theses and Dissertations

The Kautz Site (11DU1) is a multi-component archaeological site located in the DuPage River Valley in northeastern Illinois. It was inhabited at least six different times between the Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods ca. 6000-1000 B.P. The site was excavated over the course of three field seasons between 1958 and 1961, but the results were never made public. This thesis seeks to document the archaeology of the Kautz Site in order to better understand the site’s economic history. An environmental catchment analysis was conducted to evaluate the level of time and energy needed to acquire important resources like water, …

The Cambria Connection: Identifying Ceramic Production And Community Interaction In Late Prehistoric Minnesota, Ad 1050-1300, Katy Jean Mollerud

Theses and Dissertations

The Cambria phase (AD 1050-1300) is an archaeological complex primarily centered on the elevated terraces of the Minnesota River in south-central Minnesota. Cambria phase pottery demonstrates technical and stylistic influences from several different late prehistoric cultures, and although the Cambria phase is currently classified as part of the Initial Middle Missouri Variant, certain affinities are evident between the grit-tempered, rolled rim ceramics at Cambria and the Powell-Ramey series at Cahokia. Although this pottery is a minority ware at Cambria, it is ubiquitous in the site literature, where it is interpreted as evidence for interaction with the Mississippian world. However, the …

Powell Mound, Titterington, And The Cahokia Ceramic Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Erin Pruhs

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis elucidates Milwaukee Public Museum documentation and archival correspondence between Paul F. Titterington and William C. McKern regarding the destruction of the Powell Mound at the Cahokia site in southern Illinois. Titterington was a respected avocational archaeologist known for his work in the Mississippi Valley and McKern served as an Assistant Curator in Anthropology at the Milwaukee Public Museum during the time of the Cahokia donations. From 1927 through 1941, Titterington and McKern exchanged correspondence concerning Cahokian archaeology and the Powell Mound. During this time, Titterington donated a variety of Cahokian artifacts to the MPM including ceramics, lithics, agricultural …

Collecting In Context: A Study Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's French Paleolithic Faunal Collection, Rebecca Fetzer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the history of collecting practices of individual collectors and

museums of French Paleolithic archaeological material between 1869 and 1945. During this time period, thousands of French archaeological artifacts were dispersed to museums throughout North America, many with scant provenience. National agendas and the social and economic factors of the time greatly affected their dispersal. The individual agendas of the collector also played a role. This in turn had impacts on the overall understanding of these collections as well as the contemporary construction of archaeological knowledge relating to the study of early humans.

A sizable French Paleolithic faunal …

The Sickle's Edge: An Experimental Use-Wear Approach To Investigating Sickle Deposition In Bronze Age Europe, Barbara Ellen Mcclendon

Theses and Dissertations

Prehistoric hoards—containing items such as precious metals, tools, ornaments, and weapons—have long fascinated archaeologists and the general public alike. The practice of intentional wealth deposition in hoards was particularly prolific during the European Bronze Age; however, the motivations behind this practice remain unclear. Comparisons of the contents of hoards through space and time can yield valuable data regarding the purpose and process of deposition, but one of the most common items found in Bronze Age hoards—bronze sickles—remains understudied. In order to generate a standardized approach to the comparative analysis of prehistoric sickles in a variety of contexts, I propose a …

Land Use Analysis Of The Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds: A Chronological And Spatial Depiction Of Cultural Change, Sarah Klingman-Cole

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses GIS analysis of spatial data and historical documentation to determine land use change in the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds (MCIG) located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. This chronological and spatial land use analysis specifically examined aspects of the grounds in relationship to historically documented changes taking place during MCIG operations from 1850 to 1980. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a more accurate account of the grounds throughout the timeframe. This thesis, featuring a GIS model, includes a series of digitized maps that provide for a more accurate account of the grounds throughout the timeframe studied. Results …

A Preliminary Museological Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Euphrates Valley Expedition Metal Collection, Jamie Patrick Henry

Theses and Dissertations

Destruction of ancient sites along the Euphrates River in northern Syria due to the construction of the Tabqa Dam resulted in excavations conducted between 1974 and 1978 by the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) at the site of Tell Hadidi, Syria, by Rudolph Dornemann. The hundreds of thousands of artifacts at the MPM have never been completely published. This preliminary analysis presents an inventory and analysis of the 941 metal artifacts as well as new archival information about the Tell Hadidi/ Euphrates Valley Expedition, whose publication has recently become critical, in order to make the material more useful for future research.

Regional Perspective Of Recuay Mortuary Practices: A View From The Hinterlands, Callejón De Huaylas, Peru, Victor Manuel Ponte

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations of burial chambers in the north-central highlands of Peru constitute the corpus of this thesis. Most of the stone structures correspond chronologically and culturally to the Recuay Tradition, a time span of 100 to 800 CE. The study area is located in the Cordillera Negra of the Callejón de Huaylas basin (Ancash Department). CRM projects developed in the impact zone of the Pierina mine have contributed valuable information on the mortuary practices of a Recuay agro-pastoral community. This thesis relied on grave goods inventories, osteological analysis, and types of stone architecture in the burial chamber. Data from this …

Entheses And Activities: The Multivariate Mechanisms Of Entheseal Change For Individuals Represented By The 2013 Excavations Of The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, Jessica L. Skinner

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

ENTHESES AND ACTIVITIES: THE MULTIVARIATE MECHANISMS OF ENTHESEAL CHANGE FOR INDIVIDUALS REPRESENTED BY THE 2013 EXCAVATIONS OF THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY INSTITUTION GROUNDS CEMETERY

by

Jessica L. Skinner

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Fred Anapol

The analysis of the features that mark tendon and muscle insertion sites on bone has been used in an attempt to reconstruct past life activity patterns of individuals and populations represented by skeletal remains. Many of these analyses have focused on comparing evidence from these individuals with known musculoskeletal and biomechanical data. Recent experimental tests have illustrated that defining these …

Head And Shoulders Above The Rest: Birch-Bark Hats And Elite Status In Iron Age Europe, Cara Melissa Reeves

Theses and Dissertations

As competition between Celtic elites increased in Iron Age continental Europe (c. 800-25/15 BC), ornamentation of the head figured prominently in status displays across the Celtic world. Mortuary and iconographic contexts reveal that headgear made of both metal and organic materials marked elite status, but materials varied regionally by gender and age throughout the Iron Age. The purpose of this project was to capitalize on the rare opportunity provided by birch-bark hats from west-central European elite burials to investigate organic headgear and the possibility that different types of headgear may have marked different social positions within the elite class. Birch-bark …

Vertebrate Evidence For Diet And Food-Processing At The Multicomponent Finch Site (47 Je-0902) In Jefferson County, Southeastern Wisconsin, Zachary Ryan Stencil

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this study is the intrasite analysis of the vertebrate faunal assemblage from the Finch Site. The Finch Site (47JE-0902) is located in Jefferson County, southeastern Wisconsin, roughly one mile east from Lake Koshkonong’s southeastern shoreline and the Rock River drainage. Stratigraphy and diagnostic artifacts from numerous cultural features indicate that the site was repeatedly occupied over a temporal span of several thousand years including Paleoindian, Archaic, and Woodland periods. Faunal remains were recovered from 169 excavated units and 119 cultural features across the full horizontal extent of the site.

Investigations of faunal remains from archaeological sites can …

A Partial Reading Of The Stones: A Comparative Analysis Of Irish And Scottish Ogham Pillar Stones, Clare Jeanne Connelly

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

A PARTIAL READING OF THE STONES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IRISH AND SCOTTISH OGHAM PILLAR STONES

by

Clare Connelly

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold

Ogham is a script that originated in Ireland and later spread to other areas of the British Isles. This script has preserved best on large pillar stones. Other artefacts with ogham inscriptions, such as bone-handled knives and chalk spindle-whorls, are also known. While ogham has fascinated scholars for centuries, especially the antiquarians of the 18th and 19th centuries, it has mostly been studied as a script and a …

Molecular Identification Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis In The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, Helen Marie Werner

Theses and Dissertations

The possibility of identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis in skeletal remains has been a debated topic for many years. This study utilizes the remains from the 1991 and 1992 excavations of the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, a collection of human skeletons ranging from 1882 to 1925, of various ages and sexes, to address that possibility. To test the utility of previously used methods of osteological identification of tuberculosis, the collection has been analyzed for the IS6110 repetitive element marker using molecular biological techniques, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Eighty-six skeletons from the collection have been analyzed, with nine of them …