Robert J. Salzer and Grace Rajnovich. 2000. The Gottschall Rockshelter. Prairie Smoke Press, St. Paul, Minnesota. ISBN 0-9704482-0-1. paper. 74 pp; two appendices, and a bibliography.
There's a standing joke in archaeology; if you don't understand it, it must be ceremonial. However, it is undeniable that Gottschall Rockshelter, a cave located in the upper Mississippi River watershed of southwestern Wisconsin, is a religious shrine to an ancestor cult, and that it was used in this manner (with some interruptions, apparently) beginning about 300 AD up until the early 19th century.
The book describing the results and interpretations of the excavation of this remarkable site has just been published by Prairie Smoke Press, a small publishing outlet for the Upper Midwest Rock Art Research Association (known as UMRARA). It brings together seventeen years of painstaking research, almost entirely privately funded out of the University of Beloit and with the assistance of over 600 volunteer excavators. The findings of the research include rock art images of a legend still told by the Ioway and Ho-Chunk Indians which conclusively date before 1000 AD; the recognition of 'anthroseds', man-made soil layers of combined wood ash, powdered limestone, and mussel shells; and the discovery of a sculpted and painted stone head, with decorative and stylistic ties to Mississippian and Southern cult motifs all over the North American mid-continent.
Excavators Salzer and Rajnovich have assembled a book combining archaeological research and ethnographic comparisons to Ioway and Ho-Chunk legends. Liberally illustrated and annotated with side bars, this text provides a welcome introduction to the research at Gottschall. The writers foretell another fifteen years of excavation are left to complete at Gottschall, and I for one await the further results with great anticipation.
This book review is part of the About.com Guide to Prehistoric Cave Art.
See the Gottschall Rockshelter page for photos and further information.
