Laura Bossio, PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, will present a lecture for the Huron Valley Chapter of the Michigan Archaeological Society on Thursday, September 21, 6:00-7:15 p.m., at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 434 S. State Street, Ann Arbor.
Her lecture is entitled "Investigations at the Williams #2 Site: Understanding an Emergent Upper Mississippian Village in Northwestern Ohio." The site is located on the southern floodplain of the Maumee River in Perrysburg, Ohio. In 1971, Earl Prahl (U-Toledo) noted dense clusters of cultural material on the floodplain and conducted excavations. He uncovered features such as refuse pits, but he noted a lack of post molds, house structures, and defensive architecture. Artifacts that were discovered—like the diagnostic Wolf-phase Parker Festooned ceramics—revealed Mississippian influence and informed Prahl’s classification of this site as an emergent “Upper Mississippian” village (ca. AD 1200 and 1400).
In 2021, Bossio returned to this floodplain to conduct more research. Over three summers, she carried out surface collection and geophysical investigations and targeted core sampling to better understand the Williams #2 village. Her research ultimately confronts a long-held debate—was the “Upper Mississippian” transition caused by domination and displacement or by changes in the local community? Current fieldwork results will be discussed, along with plans for future work.
