MUSCATINE, Iowa — Over the past 150 years, the city of Muscatine has grown from a trading-post burg to an industrial center that is home to world-famous industrialists.

However, resting beneath its surface is evidence of earlier civilizations left behind.

Beginning this month, visitors can view relics from a much younger Muscatine at the Muscatine Art Center. Artifacts left behind thousands of years ago are being displayed Jan. 14-April 1.

The history treasures were discovered during an excavation that was conducted in 1998 on Muscatine’s Eisele Hill by Bear Creek Archeology Inc. of Cresco.

The firm, owned by David Stanley (no relation to David Stanley of Muscatine) was hired to examine the site after the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) learned it was a potential historic site.

The DOT wanted to reconstruct U.S. Highway 61 between Muscatine and Burlington. First, though, the excavation of the historic site had to be completed.

The site was located in what is known as the “McNeal Fan,” part of a grouping of prehistoric sites where people lived thousands of years ago.

According to records from the excavation, the summer of 1998 was hot and humid with an above average rainfall. Virginia Cooper, registrar at the Art Center, said this made the excavation more difficult, but the team persevered.

Last year, the excavation report was finished by Bear Creek and the Eisele Hill artifacts were permanently housed at The Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa.

Now those items are on loan to the Muscatine Art Center.  

Cooper is pleased that the exhibit is available for area residents. Many people actually stopped at the site during the 1998 excavation to ask the archaeology team what they were working on, she said.

“We wanted to display this exhibit because we realize that people would want to see what was found there,” said Cooper. “People drove by there all summer and saw what was going on. But they didn’t get to see what was found.”

Part of preparing the Eisele Hill exhibit entailed reviewing a three-volume report on the excavation, Cooper said.

Cooper said some of the sites were used and reused through the centuries by different groups.

“There are layers of different groups,” said Cooper. “Each group left different things behind.”

The excavation produced artifacts dating to the Middle Archaic Period, (5,500-3,000 B.C.) and the Early Woodland Period (800 -200 B.C.)   

Discoveries from two sub-periods within those periods — the later part of the Middle Archaic Period and the later part of the Early Woodland Period — are featured in the exhibit, although artifacts from other time segments also were found.

Cooper has used information from her research to create the exhibit and large-print, informational panels detailing the exhibit.

A realistic display

The staff at the Muscatine Art Center is preparing an exhibit that accents the unique historic aspects of the excavation findings.

The top level of the Art Center’s Stanley Gallery will contain items and information describing the later part of the Early Woodland Era. The Early Woodland era lasted from  800-200 B.C.

This was a time when humans were becoming less nomadic and were refining skills such as hunting and cultivation.

The lower level of the Stanley Gallery will house the late Middle Archaic Period display.

A number of Iowa sites, including Eisele Hill, appear to represent small settlements or base camps from the Archaic  era.

Barb Veal of Grandview, an Art Center volunteer, has been creating “pits” from styrofoam, spray paint and sand to be used in the exhibit.

These pits will be placed within a display of what an actual Middle Archaic village site may have looked like.

The different pits will represent areas used for garbage disposal, cooking, toolmaking and other daily tasks.

Kathy Dice, a naturalist with the Louisa County Conservation Board, is building a scaled-down model of what an actual dwelling shelter may have looked like during the Archaic Period.

The actual dwellings probably measured 30 feet long by 20 feet wide, Cooper said, and were likely made with bent-twig  frames and a bark or reed  covering.

Pat Schaapveld of Muscatine, a receptionist at the Art Center,  mounted artifacts, such as arrowheads and other tools, on display boards for the exhibit.

She said learning more about the ancient world in such an intimate fashion was fascinating.

“When you start looking at these things, you realize what it was they were used for; you get a new appreciation of your own life,” said Schaapveld.

“There are so many things we take for granted. Their whole day consisted of survival.”

Contact Cynthia Beaudette at 563-263-2331 ext. 323 or cynthia.beaudette@muscatinejournal.com

Details

What: Dig It! Eisele Hill archaeological excavation exhibit, Jan. 14-April 1

Where: The Muscatine Art Center, 1314 Mulberry Ave.

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday as well as 7-9 p.m. Thursday; and 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed Mondays and holidays.

Who: The Muscatine Art Center is open to the public. There is no admission, but donations are welcome.

Contact: 263-8282