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Site name: Menoken Village

Nearest town: Menoken; State/country: North Dakota; Type of site: Prehistoric (late Woodland) fortified earth lodge village; Date of site: 13th century AD; Sponsor: State Historical Society of North Dakota; Collaborators: State Historical Society of North Dakota, PaleoCultural Research Group, University of Missouri, University of Kansas.

Type of survey: Magnetic gradiometry; Instrument: Geoscan Research FM-36 fluxgate gradiometer; Prospection depth: up to 1.5 m; Sampling interval: 0.5 x 0.125 m; Area surveyed: 9,300 m²; Dates of survey: 7/97, 5/98, 6/99.

Comments: This shallow site exhibits clear expressions of multiple prehistoric houses and defensive features in the surface microtopography. The first magnetic image reveals the village's fortification ditch to the east and south (a steep bluff protected the site to the north and west), four bastion loops, historic and prehistoric trails, large burned features interpreted as houses (several verified through excavation), and a number of point anomalies indicative of historic ferrous artifacts. The circular feature in the lower left is an open pit left from a 1930s excavation. The colorized image portrays positive magnetic extremes in red, more clearly defining likely burned features. Of interest are linear alignments of magnetic highs along the interior of the fortification ditch and on 3 of the 4 bastions. While initially interpreted as evidence of a burned palisade, excavations revealed that the magnetic extremes along the interior of the fortification ditch are probably due to a concentration of typically more magnetic A-horizon soils that were removed from the ditch and mounded along the village perimeter. This is illustrated in the third figure where an increased magnetic response is seen over the stacked sod, while a magnetic void is indicated in the area of the ditch where topsoil was removed. An oval shaped burned house, shown in detail in the fourth image, may reveal an interior entryway ramp and a central hearth, features found in one excavated house at the site and at the Flaming Arrow site, some 70 km distant. A nearby house shows in the fifth figure a clear correspondence between the (a) magnetic and (b) resistivity findings and the (c) weight of burned earth as revealed by (d) excavations.

Type of survey: Resistivity; Instrument: Geoscan Research RM-15; Prospection depth: 0.5 m; Sampling interval: 0.5 x 0.5 m; Area surveyed: 8,100 m²; Dates of survey: 7/97 & 5/98.

Comments: While many features seen magnetically are not as clear in the resistance data, except for the open excavation pit, a number of anomalies are revealed that await archaeological testing for identification. The resistance data are particularly useful for delineating what may be prehistoric trails that loop their way around house features, as shown in the second figure. Excavations over one such feature appear to support this interpretation. Excavations at a house show a clear correspondence between the (a) magnetic and (b) resistivity findings and the (c) weight of burned earth as revealed by (d) excavations (third figure).

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(updated: 7/00)