Originally submitted by coldrum ---
The pot might have been underground for most of 2,500 years when they found it.
And that raw fact is significant for Stephen Wagner, the principal investigator of the team of archaeologists who uncovered the artifact at Fort McCoy on May 17. But as an archaeologist, he’s interested in much more.
“We appreciate the beauty of the really nice stuff, but everything we dig up has some value in interpretation,” Wagner said. “It’s the context that makes it interesting. It’s all about context.”
Wagner, 33, has worked in archaeology at Fort McCoy since 1999, and been cultural resource manager since 2004. He’s there due to the National Historic Preservation Act, which mandates federal undertakings take historic properties into account.
His job, which is contracted through Colorado State University, is to make sure cultural properties like American Indian sacred sites and historic buildings are cared for amidst the regular business of the military installation.
For six months out of the year, he leads a team of about six archaeologists in finding land that might yield artifacts, then digging 1-meter by 2-meter rectangular holes about a meter deep.
To date, about 350 archaeological sites are known to be at Fort McCoy, and they’re always finding more.
Wagner has a master’s degree in anthropology from Northern Illinois University. He said understanding how past people lived relates to understanding communities today.
Neumann said finding the pot two weeks ago was the first time the team found something that intact.
“People always have kind of an odd view of archaeology,” Neumann said. “They think we’re in the desert or digging up dinosaur bones. Generally, people live where people always have lived — near water and food sources.”
Sarah Durand, a field technician on Wagner’s crew, uncovered charcoal and ash-stained soil when she was digging at Fort McCoy two weeks ago. She’d found a long-buried fire pit.
Then she heard a crunch when she clipped the top of the pot with her shovel.
The team found the artifact buried in its original shape, but fractured probably due to frost or roots.
The pot is one of the top findings ever by Fort McCoy’s archaeologists.
For more, see the La Cross Tribune.
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