| Mero site | |
| Coordinates: | 45.14°N -87.05°W |
The Mero site is a stratified, multicomponent prehistoric site located on the south side of Marshall's Point[1] on the Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin. It was excavated in 1960 by Ronald and Carol Mason under the auspices of the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with financial backing from the landowner, Peter Mero.[2]
As of 2016, Marshall's Point is a gated residential community.[3] The privately owned interior of the community is recognized as a Wisconsin State Natural Area.[4]
Excavations at the site yielded Prehistoric artifacts and animal bone.[2]
Three stratified areas were identified at the site:[2]
Additional material from all time periods was also plentiful in the unstratified portions of the site.
Several Prehistoric components were present at the site:[2]
Remains from several species were recovered from the site. The main species present were deer, beaver, porcupine, dog, bear, otter, fish (esp. sturgeon, channel catfish, and smallmouth bass), marten, common loon, fisher and mink.[2] These remains were not modified into tools like the bone tools described in the Artifacts section below, and may be considered food remains or, in the case of the dog and bear, possibly the remains of ceremonial activities. Dog sacrifice and dog meat consumption was observed to have ceremonial and religious implications in early Native American tribes. Bear worship and ceremonialism has also been recorded in the ethnological record.[5]
Archaeologists often find pottery to be a very useful tool in analyzing a prehistoric culture. It is usually very plentiful at a site and the details of manufacture and decoration are very sensitive indicators of time, space and culture.[6]
No whole or reconstructable vessels were recovered from the site, so the analysis was based upon examination of rim and body sherds. Due to the large number of very small sherds, an effort was made to convert a raw sherd count into an estimated minimum number of vessels present. This provided a more accurate estimate of the relative proportions of pottery types represented.[2]
11,835 sherds overall were recovered, representing a minimum of 501 vessels. Within the North Bay I and II Complexes, there were 951 sherds representing 59 vessels. For the Late Woodland, there were 2,256 sherds representing 111 vessels. The Upper Mississippian component had 8,628 sherds (of which only 146 were decorated) representing 331 vessels (205 shell-tempered and 126 grit-tempered).[2]
Several pottery types from different time periods were present. Some of them are listed below:[2]
| Type | No. of vessels | Tempering Material | Description | Cultural affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Bay cordmarked (North Bay I and II complex) | 3 | Grit | Cordmarked to smoothed-over cordmarked surface finish; vertical rim profile; flat to rounded lip; no decoration | Middle Woodland |
| North Bay plain (North Bay I and II complex) | 9 | Grit | Plain surface; vertical rim profile; no decoration except for lip; lip may be plain or impressed with cord-wrapped object | Middle Woodland |
| North Bay dentate stamped (North Bay II complex) | 7 | Grit | Plain surface w/dentate-stamped decoration; rim profile vertical to slightly everted | Middle Woodland |
| Becker punctated (North Bay I complex) | 8 | Grit | Plain surface w/punctate decoration; vertical rim profile | Middle Woodland |
| Dane incised | 5 | Grit | Cordmarked surface w/incised decoration | Early to Middle Woodland |
| Heins Creek cordmarked | 15 | Grit | Cordmarked surface; no decoration except rarely on lip; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and vertical to slightly everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Heins Creek corded-stamped | 23 | Grit | Surface decorated with discontinuous stamped patterns applied with cord-wrapped stick; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and vertical to slightly everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Heins Creek cord-wrapped stick | 5 | Grit | Surface decorated with cord-wrapped stick impressions; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Point Sauble collared | 21 | Grit | Cord-impressed surface, collared rim, row of punctates beneath collar | Late Woodland |
| Aztalan collared | 4 | Grit | Collar and lip decorated w/twisted cord impressions; vessel body below collar is cordmarked; mouth of vessel is angular | Late Woodland |
| Madison cord-impressed | 24 | Grit | Cord-impressed decoration (subdivided into 4 varieties); globular vessel form with restricted orifice and slightly everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Oneota | 331 | Grit or shell | Predominantly plain surfaces, mostly undecorated; decorations when they occur consist of incised or trailed lines sometimes associated with punctates or embossed stamps; lips sometimes notched; handles are rare; most vessel forms are globular jars with restricted orifice and sharply everted rim profile; there are also shallow bowl forms represented | Upper Mississippian |
Non-pottery artifacts recovered from the site included:[2]
The cultural sequence at the Mero site reveals a long series of occupations from 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400, or almost 2,000 years. The pottery record indicates an in situ evolution from the Middle Woodland North Bay culture to the Late Woodland Heins Creek culture; but after A.D. 1000 there is an intrusive Upper Mississippian presence characterized by Oneota pottery.
The Oneota Mero Complex (aka Green Bay focus) is unique due to its high proportion of grit-tempered pottery and the low incidence of decoration. It is also unique that the site does not have many of the traits usually found in Oneota contexts such as arrow shaft straighteners, smoking pipes, sherd discs, storage pits or evidence of agriculture. The reason may be that the site was not a village but rather a temporary site for a specialized activity such as fishing.[2]