Interpreting Ritual in Ceramics of Late Mississippian Southern Illinois

This research aims to understand whether and how ritual manifests in ceramic objects dating to the Late Mississippian Period (ca. late 1200s A.D. to A.D. 1500) in southern Illinois. The study focuses on ritual phenomena that occurred at two village sites: Millstone Bluff (11Pp3) and Dillow’s Ridge (11U635). Millstone Bluff has been interpreted as a site of public ritual and unusual symbolic importance evidenced by its general location and topography, spatial organization, and distinctive rock art. Though Dillow’s Ridge was the locale for an inordinate level of lithic tool production, in other ways the site is understood to be typical of Mississippian villages for this region and time and unlikely to have accommodated large-scale public ritual activity. Through the analysis and comparison of ceramics from each site, this research seeks to identify the ceramic correlates of public ritual activity for this region and time. Statistical results suggest very little differentiation between the ceramic assemblages, suggesting the ritual activities that took place at either site may not have been substantially different from one another. Alternatively, the lack of differentiation may indicate ceramics do not play an active role in large-scale public ritual activity in this context

Recent Glacier Activity in the Taku Inlet Area, Southeastern Alaska

Contains results of author's investigations in this region (58° 30' N, 134° 04' W) during the Juneau Ice Field Research Project in 1953. An attempt was made to determine extent and dates of the late postglacial maxima of Taku and Norris Glaciers. Forest trimlines were studied from aerial photographs and in the field, and annual growth rings were counted. The maximum attained by the Norris Glacier in 1910, probably greater than any since about 1200 A.D., is apparently unique among Juneau Ice Field glaciers; it may represent, however, a minor advance in 1910 on a high level maintained since mid-18th century. Taku Glacier reached maximum in the mid-18th century, its height near the present terminus; advancing since about 1900, Taku may now have reached its present maximum