Reception to look into prehistoric village buried in Plymouth County

This year, researchers and archaeologists examined a buried village site in Plymouth County dating from the period A.D. 1100-1250 built by early Native American farmers.

That site, 8 feet below a western Plymouth County cornfield, and other archaological discoveries will be discussed at a public reception with the University of Iowa's Office of the State Archaeologist.

The reception will be 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Westfield Community Center.

Throughout the past year, local residents and landowners helped a University of Iowa team identify, investigate, and determine the condition of archaeological sites throughout the Loess Hills.

The archaeological survey team visited 34 sites, recording 13 previously unrecorded locations.

The Plymouth County site was one of those.

Test excavations and magnetic survey of the site determined it was probably fortified and consisted of up to 20 tightly clustered lodges.

The site is part of what archaeologists call the "Mill Creek Culture" represented by a series of well known village and cemetery sites found at the confluence of the Big Sioux and Missouri rivers.

Mill Creek villages formed as mounds of garbage and mud-walled lodges that over time created elevated deposits 6-9 feet above the flat landscape of the Missouri River valley floodplain.

This year's research determined this village was probably rebuilt several times raising the height of the site 1 or 2 feet with each reconstruction.

The public reception will present highlights of the recent study and showcase what was found.

Strategies for the long-term protection, preservation, and interpretation of sites will also be discussed.

New signs adjacent to several sites along the Loess Hills National Scenic Byways and interpretive exhibits at the Sioux City Public Museum are in the works.

An illustrated brochure featuring highlights of the project, will be given away at the public reception.

The project was sponsored by the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway Council led by Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development, a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, Iowa, as a step in identifying important cultural resources along the Loess Hills Scenic Byway and promoting its national significance.

The Loess Hills area boasts the highest concentration of late prehistoric lodges of any area of the eastern Plains.

For more information about the public meetings visit the Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development website at: www.goldenhillsrcd.org.

For specific information about the study, contact the project director, Melody Pope at melody-pope@uiowa.edu or 319-384-0724.

The Westfield Community Center is at the corner of Union and Linden Streets in Westfield.