Thanks to Jim Theler for this week’s post –Sand Lake Ridged Agricultural Fields  The Sand Lake agric

Thanks to Jim Theler for this week’s post –Sand Lake Ridged Agricultural Fields  The Sand Lake agricultural ridged field complex, identified byMVAC archaeologists in 1982, was a spectacular Oneota site in La Crosse County withmany acres of buried, preserved Oneota ridged fields (Boszhardt et al. 1985; Gallagheret al. 1985). The fields were constructed in an interesting “trapped wetland” thatlay sandwiched between the bluffs and the sandy La Crosse terraces. This wetlandwas created at the end of the Ice Age, when sediments washing down the MississippiRiver valley blocked the outlet of a small, tributary stream. Historic photosshow an actual pond (Sand Lake) in this location. Building the agricultural ridgeswould have helped corn and other plants grow in this fertile, organically rich wetlandsoil without their roots becoming too wet. Some ridges even had what appeared tobe individual planting mounds, visible in the photo as small bumps. The fieldswere probably used most heavily in the AD 1400s, with some use continuing untilabout AD 1600. During that time, deforestation of the adjacent hillsides triggeredslope wash that buried some of the ridges, and the Oneota farmers made manyattempts to rebuild and elevate them. MVAC conducted large-scale excavations atthe ridged fields in the early 1980s, and in the late 1980s, the fields were largelydestroyed by construction of a golf course.Caption: UWL archaeology students map some of the Sand Lake agriculturalridges in 1986.Boszhardt, RobertF., Thomas W. Bailey, and James P. Gallaghers1985 Oneota Ridged Fields at Sand Lake (47Lc44), La Crosse County,Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Archeologist 66(1):47-67.Gallagher, James P., Robert F. Boszhardt, Robert F. Sasso, andKatherine Stevenson1985 Oneota Ridged Field Agriculture in SouthwesternWisconsin. American Antiquity 50(3):605-612. -- source link

More pics about