Danielle Benden | University of Wisconsin-Madison (original) (raw)

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Papers by Danielle Benden

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2019

Collections care practices have become professionalized in the last 30 years, in large part becau... more Collections care practices have become professionalized in the last 30 years, in large part because of the work of organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums, the Canadian Conservation Institute, the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the American Institute for Conservation, and others in the museum sphere. Advances in preservation and management have benefited the discipline of archaeology in the field and laboratory. This thematic issue provides an updated perspective on the current happenings in the repository, highlighting innovative techniques and practices that collections specialists employ when managing the archaeological record. This article considers a macroview of the issues surrounding archaeological curation today and ponders what the future of collections preservation can and should look like.

American Antiquity, 2008

The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites i... more The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) prompted a petrographic analysis of thin sections of 21 vessels from these sites. The goal was to evaluate their possible derivation from the American Bottom, the nearest locality where such pottery commonly occurs. Among the 12 UMV vessels tempered with shell (nine red slipped), ten were determined, based on comparisons to thin sections of stylistically similar pottery from the American Bottom, to have essentially identical physical compositions. Additionally, four vessels suspected of being limestone-tempered were determined to have been tempered with a type of sandstone that out-crops only farther south in Illinois and Iowa. Of the three UMV sites, only the Fisher Mounds Site Complex (FMSC) produced the presumed exotic pottery in undisturbed, dated contexts. The petrographic evidence is consistent with the C-14 age and lithic assemblage at FMSC in ...

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2017

The discipline of archaeology has been tolerating, at best, a “curation crisis” for decades that ... more The discipline of archaeology has been tolerating, at best, a “curation crisis” for decades that is unsustainable. The many issues related to long-term collections care continue to worsen. To counter this trend, we advocate that planning for collections be integrated into project administration from inception such that the management of archaeological collections begins before fieldwork and continues well after recovered collections reach the repository. To conceptualize this process, we identify the Collection Management Cycle as a framework for the many stakeholders involved in archaeological projects. We also provide a checklist that identifies the responsibilities stakeholders have to the collections they generate, fund, care for, manage, and/or study. Concerted use of the checklist and other proposed solutions will lead to a new era of a more sustainable archaeological practice.

The Mississippian presence at Trempealeau was first documented in the late nineteenth-early twent... more The Mississippian presence at Trempealeau was first documented in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. T. H. Lewis made detailed measurements of the Little Bluff platform mounds in 1884 for the Northwestern Archaeological Survey (Figure 1). At this time, the mounds were on the property of George Squier, an amateur archaeologist and trained geologist. Over several decades, Squier mapped the platforms, took soil cores, and recognized their uniqueness in the region (Figure 2). Notice the lack of vegetation covering the mounds circa 1910, compared to 2010 (Figures 3-4). Squier's Garden: Squier also described distinctive ceramics that he found in his garden to the northeast of the mounds, which have been interpreted as early Mississippian wares (Green and Rodell 1994) (Figure 5). In 1990, the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center verified the location of the Squier Garden site finding Burlington chert flakes and red-slipped pottery in four 1x2 meter test units (Green and Rodell 1994) (Figure 6).

American Antiquity, 2015

Archaeological investigations at the Trempealeau and Fisher Mounds Site Complexes in western Wisc... more Archaeological investigations at the Trempealeau and Fisher Mounds Site Complexes in western Wisconsin have provided definitive evidence of settlements and platform mounds in a portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley dating to the early Cahokian era, immediately priorto A.D. 1050 and ending before A.D. 1100. The presence ofCahokian earthen constructions, wall-trench buildings, ceramics, and imported stone tools associated with likely religious buildings and a series of possible farmsteads 900 river km north of Cahokia points to a unique intrusive occupation. We suggest that Trempealeau was a religious installation located proximate to a powerful, storied landform on the Mississippi River that afforded Cahokians access to the animate forces of that region. Probably built by and for Cahokians with minimal involvement on the part of living local people, the timing of this occupation hints at its close relationship to the founding of the American Indian city to the south.

Museum Anthropology, 2015

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2019

Collections care practices have become professionalized in the last 30 years, in large part becau... more Collections care practices have become professionalized in the last 30 years, in large part because of the work of organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums, the Canadian Conservation Institute, the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the American Institute for Conservation, and others in the museum sphere. Advances in preservation and management have benefited the discipline of archaeology in the field and laboratory. This thematic issue provides an updated perspective on the current happenings in the repository, highlighting innovative techniques and practices that collections specialists employ when managing the archaeological record. This article considers a macroview of the issues surrounding archaeological curation today and ponders what the future of collections preservation can and should look like.

American Antiquity, 2008

The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites i... more The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) prompted a petrographic analysis of thin sections of 21 vessels from these sites. The goal was to evaluate their possible derivation from the American Bottom, the nearest locality where such pottery commonly occurs. Among the 12 UMV vessels tempered with shell (nine red slipped), ten were determined, based on comparisons to thin sections of stylistically similar pottery from the American Bottom, to have essentially identical physical compositions. Additionally, four vessels suspected of being limestone-tempered were determined to have been tempered with a type of sandstone that out-crops only farther south in Illinois and Iowa. Of the three UMV sites, only the Fisher Mounds Site Complex (FMSC) produced the presumed exotic pottery in undisturbed, dated contexts. The petrographic evidence is consistent with the C-14 age and lithic assemblage at FMSC in ...

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2017

The discipline of archaeology has been tolerating, at best, a “curation crisis” for decades that ... more The discipline of archaeology has been tolerating, at best, a “curation crisis” for decades that is unsustainable. The many issues related to long-term collections care continue to worsen. To counter this trend, we advocate that planning for collections be integrated into project administration from inception such that the management of archaeological collections begins before fieldwork and continues well after recovered collections reach the repository. To conceptualize this process, we identify the Collection Management Cycle as a framework for the many stakeholders involved in archaeological projects. We also provide a checklist that identifies the responsibilities stakeholders have to the collections they generate, fund, care for, manage, and/or study. Concerted use of the checklist and other proposed solutions will lead to a new era of a more sustainable archaeological practice.

The Mississippian presence at Trempealeau was first documented in the late nineteenth-early twent... more The Mississippian presence at Trempealeau was first documented in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. T. H. Lewis made detailed measurements of the Little Bluff platform mounds in 1884 for the Northwestern Archaeological Survey (Figure 1). At this time, the mounds were on the property of George Squier, an amateur archaeologist and trained geologist. Over several decades, Squier mapped the platforms, took soil cores, and recognized their uniqueness in the region (Figure 2). Notice the lack of vegetation covering the mounds circa 1910, compared to 2010 (Figures 3-4). Squier's Garden: Squier also described distinctive ceramics that he found in his garden to the northeast of the mounds, which have been interpreted as early Mississippian wares (Green and Rodell 1994) (Figure 5). In 1990, the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center verified the location of the Squier Garden site finding Burlington chert flakes and red-slipped pottery in four 1x2 meter test units (Green and Rodell 1994) (Figure 6).

American Antiquity, 2015

Archaeological investigations at the Trempealeau and Fisher Mounds Site Complexes in western Wisc... more Archaeological investigations at the Trempealeau and Fisher Mounds Site Complexes in western Wisconsin have provided definitive evidence of settlements and platform mounds in a portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley dating to the early Cahokian era, immediately priorto A.D. 1050 and ending before A.D. 1100. The presence ofCahokian earthen constructions, wall-trench buildings, ceramics, and imported stone tools associated with likely religious buildings and a series of possible farmsteads 900 river km north of Cahokia points to a unique intrusive occupation. We suggest that Trempealeau was a religious installation located proximate to a powerful, storied landform on the Mississippi River that afforded Cahokians access to the animate forces of that region. Probably built by and for Cahokians with minimal involvement on the part of living local people, the timing of this occupation hints at its close relationship to the founding of the American Indian city to the south.

Museum Anthropology, 2015