Back to All Events

Destruction or Renewal? Examining the Scorched and the Sacred: Assessing ritual artifact destruction in Western Great Lakes Paleoindian Contexts

  • Sabin Hall, Room G90 3413 N Downer Ave Milwaukee (map)

Hosted By: UW-Milwaukee Anthropology

Location: Sabin Hall, Room G90

Speaker: Ray Reser, Ph.D., UWSP - Museum of Natural History

Abstract: Archaeological evidence of Late Paleoindian ritual behavior is rare in the Midwest and Western Great Lakes Region. Multiple sites dating to these traditions have been recorded over the past few decades offering distinctive artifact assemblage traits, and correspondingly intriguing interpretations. This presentation offers a broad overview of these assemblages and details the arguable ritual use and destruction of hypertrophic artifacts acquired from specific, targeted lithic sources suggesting a perception of agency within those materials.

Reser_May2019.jpg