North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics

Abstract/Summary:

Project Name: On-A-Slant Village (32MO26), ND (2);

Reference: Kvamme, K. L. (2002). Final Report of Geophysical Investigations Conducted at On-A-Slant Village (32MO26), Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, North Dakota, 2001. Archeo-Imaging Lab, University of Arkansas. Submitted to Anthropology Research, University of North Dakota.

On-A-Slant Village (32MO26) is a late prehistoric/early protohistoric earthlodge village located within Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, North Dakota. Geophysical investigations were carried out at On-A-Slant on June 25-26, 2001, by Dr. Kenneth L. Kvamme and Jo Ann Christein Kvamme of the Archeo-Imaging Lab, University of Arkansas. The purpose of the geophysical surveys was to ascertain the nature of subsurface features and the quality and clarity of results within an obvious surface depression of the village that denoted the location of a former earthlodge. The principal area examined was a 20 x 20 m grid that encompassed the earthlodge depression. Magnetometry, electrical resistivity, and ground penetrating radar (GPR) were employed. GPR revealed the earthlodge floor as a circular region about 10-11 m in diameter, a shape expected from the likely late dates of the occupation. Magnetometry, and to a lesser extent resistivity, suggest that the earthlodge shape may be a rounded rectangular form (13 x 15 m), however, which could point to an earlier component to the site. As at other sites in the region the magnetic data express much clearer anomalies than GPR, and their accuracy is well established through archaeological testing. The magnetic data also indicate clear circular anomalies interior and exterior to the house. The magnitudes of some suggest hearths while the remainder probably point to subterranean storage pits or possibly large artifacts (like whole pots) or small middens. The GPR data parallel many of these magnetic anomalies, but none can be seen in the resistivity data. None of the data sets give convincing indications of an entryway and there is no strong evidence that the house burned in the magnetometry data. A second limited study, consisting of a single GPR traverse, was conducted adjacent to on-going excavations by the University of North Dakota. The resultant profile revealed a likely stratigraphic contact about 35 cm below the surface and indications of the wooden palisade constructed by the CCC in the 1930s.

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