The Arzberger site, designated by archaeologists with the

Smithsonian trinomial A Smithsonian trinomial (formally the Smithsonian Institution Trinomial System, abbreviated SITS) is a unique identifier assigned to archaeological sites in many states in the United States. They are composed of one or two digits coding for the sta ...

39HU6, is a major

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

in Hughes County, near

Pierre, South Dakota Pierre ( ; lkt, Čhúŋkaške, lit=fort) is the capital city of South Dakota, United States, and the seat of Hughes County. The population was 14,091 at the 2020 census, making it the second-least populous US state capital after Montpelier, ...

. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1964. It is a large fortified village, that is the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

for the Initial Coalescent, a culture that flourished in the area c. 1200-1350 CE.

Site description

The Arzberger site is located on a terrace overlooking the east bank of the Missouri River, about southeast of Pierre. The site is that of a fortified village, which originally had a wooden stockade encircling an area of about . The stockade was fortified with 24 bastions, and there were 44 house structures inside it. Although the site is considered the type site for the Initial Coalescent, it appears temporally late in the sequence of sites now associated with that cultural phase, and may be one of its final outposts. Its people appear to have disappeared from the region not long afterward, supplanted by the Middle Missouri culture. It is not far from the Crow Creek Site, the scene of a major massacre in the 1300s. The site was first excavated in 1939 by

William Duncan Strong William Duncan Strong (1899–1962) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist noted for his application of the direct historical approach to the study of indigenous peoples of North and South America. Early life and education Strong was bor ...

and Albert Spaulding, at which time portions of the fortification ditch, one bastion, and four houses were excavated. Of the houses excavated, two were typical circular

earth lodge An earth lodge is a semi-subterranean building covered partially or completely with earth, best known from the Native American cultures of the Great Plains and Eastern Woodlands. Most earth lodges are circular in construction with a dome-like ...

, while one was more rectangular in shape, a style more typically found in

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

. The houses included fire pits and cache pits, the latter found both inside and outside the structures. Pottery finds, according to Strong, were of a style that appears ancestral to both the

Arikara Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)

to the north and the

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska ...

to the south.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological type sites National Historic Landmarks in South Dakota Geography of Hughes County, South Dakota Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota National Register of Historic Places in Hughes County, South Dakota

Site description

See also

References