KOUTS | Just like it's happened for the past few summers, local archaeologists ended their annual dig with more questions than answers.
Archaeologists and volunteers this week wrapped up their sixth excavation along the historically fertile banks of the Kankakee River. This year's dig produced a number of historic and prehistoric artifacts but focused mostly on the cliff-hanging finale from last year.
At the end of the 2007 dig, volunteers found a large underground "mega-feature" believed to be some kind of cabin or basement. Dig leader Mark Schurr said his sole goal for 2008 was to figure out its size.
Tracking a layer of scattered brick around the feature, Schurr was able to determine the length to be about 19 feet. What would have been the western wall of the feature extended under the existing Collier Lodge, so Schurr was unable to get an exact width. Overall, he estimated the size to be 19 feet long, about 14 feet wide and 6 feet deep.
"It's got to be some kind of cabin or basement to be that big," said Schurr, who heads up the anthropology department at the University of Notre Dame. "Maybe it was a half-basement or what people refer to as a Michigan basement."
Artifacts near the feature helped Schurr get a better idea of what happened to the structure over time. His theory is that an initial structure was erected in the 1830s, and torn down around 1890 or 1910.
"Was it Collier himself who did it?" Schurr said. "Was it torn down when the lodge was built? It's about the same time period."
After the initial cabin was demolished, inhabitants likely threw their trash in the pit and built a second structure over it, Schurr said. A layer of brick dividing the two structures will be the focus for next year's dig.
"I know people are dying to get under that brick," Schurr said. "This would be a really good find if we can get to the floor of the basement. There's no other archaeological site from that period (the 1830s) in this region of the state."
To get below the layer of brick, volunteers will have to dig around each individual brick and remove it -- likely a long process. If they can get below the brick, however, some of their looming questions may be answered.
Diggers are still wondering what the structure was used for and what daily life was like for its inhabitants. Questions remain about the time period as well, including what the economics and trade were during the period in this region.
Schurr hopes to compare the structure floor with a different unit worked on this year. Not far from the mega-feature, volunteers worked on a unit that contained a variety of prehistoric artifacts, including trash, deer bones, turtle shells, fish bones and archaic points. Several of the artifacts dated to the Upper Mississippian period of 1100-1450.
"I'm hoping we can find the same kinds of daily features in the mega-feature," Schurr said. "If we had the same 'trash bin,' we'd be able to compare the time periods and see what changed, what was different for the inhabitants. How does it compare? What happened between the times?"
Until next summer's dig, the group will head to the labs to begin the yearlong process of cataloging and identifying each artifact.
