12 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE. [Vol. I. 



NOTES ON THE MUSEUM'S COLLECTING 

 EXPEDITIONS IN 1921 



ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK OF THE MUSEUM 



By Alanson Skixxkr" 



On April 30, 1921, the writer went to the field on the Menomini 

 reservation in Shawano and Oconto counties for a short tri]), the ohject 

 of which was to explore certain mounds, camp sites and village sites in 

 this area. This was a continuation of the work undertaken by Di- 

 rector Barrett and the writer in 1919. 



Woik was begun at a large camp site at liig Eddy Falls on the Wolf 

 river about six miles north of Keshena. Here a camp was established 

 and the writer, with two Indian assistants, Messrs. John V. Satterlee 

 and Joe Pecore. excavated the inha])ited area with much care. A good 

 collecti( n of the artifacts of the prehistoric Indians of the locality was 

 secured. These included flint and quartzite knives, spearheads, ar- 

 row-heads, scrapers, perforators, fragments of pottery vessels, stone 

 net-sinkers and celts, and a few objects of native copper. 



Aside from the specimens, the most interesting discoveries were (1 ) 

 a fireplace that had evidently served as a place of cremation for the dead, 

 the ashes being subsequently interred in the adjacent mounds; and (2) 

 the evidence that the earliest inhabitants of this site had no knowledge 

 of, or at least did not use, the pottery vessels which are found in such 

 abundance on later sites. The great fireplace held a large accumulation 

 of wood ashes, among which were found cjuantities of tiny fragments of 

 calcined bones and, in at least one instance, a human bone which had not 

 been completely incinerated. 



Half a mile north of the Big Eddy site, a large kidney-shaped mound 

 was located and opened. This tumulus was found to have originally 

 consisted of two hemispherical mounds, which were later connected by 

 a ridge of earth. Five burials without accompanying remains were dis- 

 interred. A mile and a half further north some fire pits and caches 

 were found along the l)ank of the Wolf river. Eighteen of these were 

 opened and a few specimens were collected, chiefly ornamented pot- 

 sherds. 



It will be of interest to those who are acquainted with Indian char- 

 acter, to note that considerable difficulty was encountered in keeping the 



-Curator of Anthropology, Milwaukee Public Museum. 



