Preface & Acknowledgments
In Minnesota, archaeology, which is the study of the human past through the recovery and analysis of material remains, has passed through four periods of development, each of which was dominated by special interests and objectives. The first, which dates from the first Euroamerican contact in the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, was a time of incidental discoveries and farfetched speculations. The second, which extended from the mid-1800s to the early 1930s, was dominated by individuals strongly committed to archaeology, but not professionally trained in archaeology. Their main goals were to preserve a record of the state’s already disappearing archaeological record, to test some of the more fanciful ideas of the first period, and to investigate nearby sites, especially earthen burial mounds.
The foundations of scientific archaeology were established in Minnesota in the third period, which began in the early 1930s and lasted into the 1970s. During this period, Lloyd A. Wilford of the University of Minnesota identified and named most of the archaeological cultures now recognized in the state. The final period, from the 1970s to the present, has been dominated by cultural resource management (CRM) activities in response to federal legislation enacted mainly in and after the 1960s.
Minnesota Archaeology: A Brief History describes the characteristic activities and achievements of each of these periods, contains cameo descriptions of nine archaeologists once active in the state, with an emphasis on the state’s pioneer archaeologists, and provides a comprehensive bibliography that will be useful in the study of the history of Minnesota archaeology. As the title of our book stresses, this is a brief history of archaeology in the state. Each period, and many of the careers and activities described in each period, warrants its own book. If this brief book stimulates the writing of those more thorough studies, it will have achieved its aim, which is the promotion of interest in Minnesota archaeology and its history.
Special thanks to Dan Kunitz and Cynthia Sargent in the Office of Information Technology's Software &Web Development division for their direction in placing this manuscript on the Web. Erika Eigenberger, a student in the Cultural Heritage Studies graduate program, placed the manuscript on the Web and added some of the intial illustrations. The Office of the State Archaeologist of Minnesota kindly supplied many of the illustrations used in the manuscript.
Contributors to this section: Guy Gibbon
Date of last contribution: December 2008