The Gottschall Site

Dr. Robert Salzer (Anthropology, Beloit College) has been managing the research at Wisconsin's Gottschall Site, the Upper Midwest's most dramatic rock art site, for 13 years.

The years of work at Gottschall have held many dramas: great discoveries; exceptional research cooperations; vandalism and grievous imagery loss (see the "Pictographs" page); statewide (and then nationwide) consideration of archaeology research, protection, and interpretation law, and the implementation of those laws through legislation.

The Upper Midwest Rock Art Research Association is honored to be able to present two articles on Gottschall: Chloris Lowe's "THE HO-CHUNK ARE PROUD OF ANCESTORS AT GOTTSCHALL" which provides a history of the discovery and study of the Gottschall Site; and "THE GOTTSCHALL SITE TODAY: Report From the Field " with an accompanying graphic "NEW GOTTSCHALL SITE RADIOCARBON DATES" by Dr. Salzer and Grace Rajnovich--herself a scholar of international reputation whose studies of Canadian Shield petroglyphs resulted in one of the finest books on rock art* produced in this country in the past decade.

Introduction

Hidden in the upper reaches of a small valley in the southwestern Wisconsin Driftless Area is a medium -sized, middle-aged, sandstone rockshelter called the Gottschall Site. More than forty individual prehistoric pictographs and a small number of (Historic) petroglyphs were discovered in 1974 by a local farm boy. Excavations over the past 13 years have revealed that more than 18 feet (5.6 m) of stratified and largely undisturbed sediments have accumulated on the floor of the shelter over at least the last 3500 years.

Culture History The artifacts recovered indicate occupations beginning in Late Archaic times (Unnamed Phase @ 1500-1100 B.C.; Durst Phase @ 900-500 B.C.), followed by Early Late Middle Woodland (Millville Phase @ A.D. 250-350), Late Middle Woodland (Weaver-like Late Millville Phase @ A.D. 350-700), Early Effigy Mound (Eastman Phase @ A.D. 700-1000), early Oneota (McKern Phase @ A.D. 1000-1100), Unnamed Effigy Mound Phase @ A.D. 1000-1200), Late Woodland (Kekoskee Phase @ A.D. 800-1300), and Developmental Oneota (Blue Earth (?) Phase @ A.D. 1100-1300).

Ethnic Identity of the Artists At this point, we can only be certain that the Red Horn Composition was the product of the ideological ancestors of the modern Ho-Chunk and Ioway peoples. This art work is associated with the Early Effigy Mound occupation of the shelter. Since they were first asked, the Ho-Chunk have insisted that their ancestors built the effigy mounds. Current archaeological thinking identifies their ancestors as Oneota, not Effigy Mound peoples. It appears that the Ho-Chunk are right.

Radiocarbon Dates Sixteen AMS and 8 standard radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the strata and nearly all of these come from charcoal that is intimately associated with hearths. Based on these assays, the Red Horn group can be confidently dated to A.D. 900-1000, or slightly earlier.

Since substantial aspects of the Red Horn figures relate to Mississippian art styles, it is clear that the Gottschall artists were sharing an iconography (and the motivating ideology?) with the emergent Mississippian peoples (ie., the Lohman and early Stirling phases at Cahokia, in Illinois @ A.D. 1000-1100).

Regional Context A "saturation" survey of the valley where the site is located was done by David Lowe in 1990. A fissure cave produced the only other known rock art in the valley and the petroglyphs and pictographs are unlike those at the Gottschall Site. Two other rockshelters were found to have been occupied and both habitations date to the approximate time of the Red Horn paintings. One of these small shelters had collapsed, covering its floor deposits, but it is located a mere "stone's throw" from the Gottschall Site and may have been occupied while people were in the bigger shelter. About thirty small campsites were also found. In addition, a large village was located where the creek empties onto the floodplain of the Wisconsin River. This village appears to have been occupied during the same time periods that people were in the Gottschall rockshelter. Diagnostic materials from these sites indicate Early, Middle, and Late Archaic occupations (4 sites); Late Middle Woodland (Millville Phase) occupations (5); and, Late Woodland (Effigy Mound) occupations (3). It is likely that more sites are present, but post-settlement alluvium has been deposited widely and to great depth in some places in the years following about 1850. In addition, a 19th century map indicates that the creek used to join the Wisconsin River further downstream than it does now, and a very large Effigy Mound group and associated village site has been located on the opposite bank. A radiocarbon date from a hearth at this village indicates occupation during the time when the Red Horn paintings were done at Gottschall, and the site has recently been purchased by the Ho-Chunk Nation. Another Effigy mound group is located along an oxbow lake nearby.

Summary The Gottschall Site has recently been discovered to have a large number of spectacular pictograph figures. Sediments beneath the paintings the floor deposits provide evidence for dating a particular composition that can be attributed to the ideological ancestors of the modern Ho-Chunk and Ioway peoples. The dates of A.D. 900-1000 and the associated artifacts strongly suggest that the artists were part of the Late Woodland Effigy Mound Culture. A series of episodes of fabricating special dirts that were applied to the ground in thin layers over a span of at least 700 years testifies to the special activities that were carried out at the shelter before and during the painting of the Red Horn figures. Some sort of wooden structure (a platform) was repeatedly rebuilt in the shelter during this span of years and these are in some way part of the activities that involved the making of the special dirt. A carved and painted sandstone head - the first of its kind - was found in deposits that immediately post-date the period of, presumably, ritual activity at the site.

The Gottschall Site is clearly a SHRINE. It was used for ritual purposes by the ancestors of modern tribal peoples in the area. Since we can date the beginning of this ritual use to at least A.D. 350, it seems likely that the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk and the Ioway were resident in this area for at least that long.