Robert Jeske
The Crescent Bay Hunt Club site is an Oneota village site (A.D. 1200-1400) located along the western shore of Lake Koshkonong, in southeastern Wisconsin. Work at the site is possible through the generous permission and help of the Crescent Bay Hunt Club members.
First reported in 1908, UW-Madison personnel excavated there in 1968, recovering Oneota pottery, tools, and features, including a house. In 1995, UW-Milwaukee personnel surveyed the area. In 1998, UW-Milwaukee field school excavations relocated the 1968 excavation units and the Oneota house. Since then, excavations have revealed over 100 pit features, a palisade and a series of burials. The site has yielded thousands of ceramic sherds as well as stone, copper, bone, shell and antler artifacts. Large floral and faunal data sets, as well as high-precision radiocarbon dates, have come from the site.
The site was a large, defended village, inhabited during and after the time that Mississippian people occupied Aztalan, 20 km to the north. The villagers ate corn, wild rice, lamb's quarters, little barley and possibly purslane. They hunted deer, elk, and bison, and ate a variety of fish, shellfish, and turtles. We plan to return in 2006. For more information: www.uwm.edu/Dept/ArchLab/PIMA/
