Trowbridge (14WY1) is an archaeological site located
near Kansas City, Kansas.
Broken figurine (Catalog no. = A74844-7)
from the Trowbridge Site in the collection of the University of Kansas Anthropology Museum.
The image portrays an elite wearing ear spools. This artifact was originally in the
Manion collection and is illustrated in Shippee (1967:Figure 51d).
Click here to see pottery sherds and projectile points from the Trowbridge Site.
Click here to see Exotic and Status artifacts from the Trowbridge Site.
Click here to see the excellent website by the Univ. of Kansas about the Trowbridge site
The Trowbridge Site is
listed on the National Register of Historic Places. "Hopewell" style pottery and
stone tools, typical of the Illinois and Ohio River Valleys, are abundant at the
Trowbridge site. Decorated Hopewell style pottery rarely appears further west than Trowbridge.
The site is
20,000 square meters (4.9 acres) in area, and was studied by archaeological crews from
the University of Kansas. J. Mett Shippee and Carl H. Chapman considered the Trowbridge
Phase as distinct from the Kansas City Hopewell Phase.
Special thanks to the University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology for carefully curating
these artifacts, and for allowing Professor Michael Fuller to study and photograph selected
artifacts from the collection during June, 2004.
Important discoveries from the site include a
squash
(Cucurbita pepo) seed from Features 3.
A radiocarbon sample from this feature is AD 260 +/- 100.
The pottery seriation date for the feature is between AD 150 and 300.
Corn (Zea mays) was recovered by an amateur archaeologist between two trash-filled storage
pits (M-13 and M-16). The corn is considered to be contemporaneous with the squash seeds.
Probable plant foods from the site include Amaranthus, Iva annua, Vitis sp.,
Ambrosia trifida, Duispyros virginiana, Asimina triloba, Juglans nigra,
Carya sp., Corylus americana, and Quercus sp.
Animal bones from trash-filled storage pits (with Minimum Number of Individuals) Deer (71),
Turkey (18), Fish (19), Turtle (20), Dog (7), Raccoon (5), Wapiti (5), Pocket Gopher (4),
Antelope (1), Wolf (1), Gray fox (1), Beaver (1), Skunk (1), Cottontail Rabbit (1), Fox
squirrel (1), Rat (1), and Snake (2).
Radiocarbon dates include AD 130 +/- 105, AD 260 +/- 100, AD 320 +/- 100,
AD 360 +/- 125, AD 400 +/- 105.
References:
Adair, Mary J.
1988 Prehistoric Agriculture in the Central Plains. University of Kansas
Publications in Anthropology, 16.
Chapman, Carl H
1980 Archaeology of Missouri, II. University of Missouri Press.
Johnson, Alfred E.
1976 Hopewellian Archaeology in the Lower Missouri Valley. University of Kansas
Publications in Anthropology, 8.
1979 Kansas City Hopewell in Hopewell Archaeology, edited by David S. Brose and N'omi Greber.
Kent State University Press.
Shippee, J. Mett
1967 Archaeological Remains in the area of Kansas City: The Wood Period - Early,
Middle and Late. Misssouri Archaeological Society Research Series 5.
Website created 14 July 2004 by Professor Michael Fuller, STLCC-MC