Photo By Brad Staggs | The area highlighted is the east field in which an archeological dig is taking place...... read more read more
MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. – For decades, Native American artifacts such as projectile points have been picked up in the eastern-most field at what is now Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.
When the Indiana National Guard inherited the former Muscatatuck State Developmental Center property, a concerted effort was put forth to establish the history of the land and the peoples who lived there.
That was 15 years ago. Now, phase three … the final piece of the archeological puzzle … is nearing completion.
“We are doing some archeological investigations, specifically excavations, out here. So this is the, sort of, end stage of the investigative process that we have,” said Dr. Michael Loughlin, an archeologist with Cardno, the Indianapolis company hired to complete the work. “We’ve already been through the site identification stage and the site testing stage and, now, they’ve decided that this site warranted additional investigations so we’re out doing more of the classical archeology.”
That classical archeology starts with digging several one-meter by one-meter test pits, looking for anything of historical interest, not limited to physical objects. The color of soil which changes not only from one part of the field to the next, but also from one depth to another, tells the story of the peoples who settled on or traveled over the land… in some cases, up to 1,200 years ago.
John Flood, an Indiana National Guard veteran, is Cardno’s staff archeologist who runs the site. His goal for this dig is to be able to trace the usage of the site as far back as possible.
“In archeology, we often have a unique opportunity to look at a slice into the occupational history of a site,” Flood said. “It’s not necessarily one specific occupation or time, but we get an opportunity to look at a wide breadth of people living here. Everything from early Native Americans up to historic use before the Army moved in.”
Artifacts have been found on the site thus far that date from the prehistoric period of around 800 A.D., such as early pottery shards, all the way up to modern buttons and a few checker pieces. The early thought is that there may have been a prehistoric farm settlement on the site, but more studying needs to be done to determine that finding.
“The site is pretty impressive, very methodical, and covers a wide area,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Spencer, Muscatatuck Urban Training Center commander, after visiting the dig site. “We’ve made an effort to preserve the history of Muscatatuck, and I just see this as a chance to expand that historic effort as far back as possible, even into prehistoric times.”
The archeological excavation will be going on through the beginning of April and then all of the artifacts that are found will be cleaned up, studied, and a final report written.
A copy of that report will be kept at the Muscatatuck Museum on site, allowing future generations to not only know what has happened in the recent past, but to experience history which will never be forgotten again.
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.26.2021 14:18 |
| Story ID: | 392392 |
| Location: | BUTLERVILLE, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 179 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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