Legacy collections are amazing and often untapped sources for archaeologists. In Phipps Site Ceramics, Joseph A. Tiffany does a great service to archaeology of the North American Plains by making data from one such collection available. Situated on a terrace along Mill Creek in western Iowa, Phipps (ca. AD 1100–1150) is the type-site for the Mill Creek culture (ca. AD 1100–1250), and it is pivotal to archaeologists’ understanding of the development of Mill Creek culture and the Middle Missouri tradition more broadly. Excavated numerous times between 1934 and 1994, and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964, the site has produced an expansive artifact assemblage. However, the ceramics from the 1955–1956 (55/56) field seasons have long been underanalyzed and underreported. Tiffany attempts to remedy that problem in this volume. He provides a detailed description and discussion of the 55/56 ceramics, and he considers stratigraphic sequences to make inferences about the occupation sequence at Phipps. However, like so many legacy collections, the Phipps assemblage is missing many of the notes and, in some cases, the contextual data necessary for testing ideas about or explaining patterns seen in the ceramic data.
Tiffany provides a helpful description of the site setting and its excavation history in Chapter 2 and outlines his analytical methods in Chapter 3. He then digs into the description of assemblage attributes (Chapters 4, 5, and 6), which are a useful trove of data. In addition to basic attributes (e.g., tempering, rim forms), Tiffany provides a detailed discussion and description of decorations. The accompanying graphics are one of the data chapters’ greatest strengths. They include both detailed line drawings of each motif type and full-color photos of ceramics from the Phipps assemblage. The description of each ware type (Chapter 5) helps to contextualize the assemblage within the larger Mill Creek framework for archaeologists working with Mill Creek collections and beyond. Tiffany provides clear and concise ware definitions and brief discussions of their distribution beyond the Phipps site. The tables and descriptions are infinitely helpful to anyone researching Mill Creek ceramics. Furthermore, Tiffany's discussion includes descriptions of all nonlocal wares (e.g., Great Oasis William's Wedge Lip and Middle Mississippian Powell Plain), which also makes this volume helpful to those who are investigating the interaction between Mill Creek and neighboring groups.
One of the biggest challenges for interpreting the 55/56 Phipps ceramics—and the excavations overall—is the lack of contextual data. What paperwork is available has inconsistent (and potentially erroneous) daily excavation elevations, and data are missing on excavation and screening techniques. In some cases, contextual data are missing. This lack of consistent provenience data constrains Tiffany's research avenues to assess the second half of his stated goal: to determine “what can be learned about the ceramics and their distribution” (p. 11). Specifically, Tiffany's goal is to understand site development by identifying peaks in the vertical distribution of ceramics, which he correlates with the “major occupation levels” (p. 75). Although relative elevations of units have been lost, sufficient provenience data remain that Tiffany is able to reconstruct the depth that sherds were recovered below ground surface, though not necessarily the horizontal distribution (Chapter 7). Tiffany uses this vertical data to compare the distribution of ware types to the six available profiles from auger tests, excavation squares, and excavation trenches (Chapter 8). Unfortunately, this approach necessitates assuming that the ground surface for each profile is at the same elevation, which Tiffany demonstrates is not true: “There is a 30 cm difference in the position of the buried A horizon in both units” (p. 74), even just a few meters apart.
Furthermore, the lack of provenience data precludes associating ceramics with features. Under normal circumstances, such associations would be essential to understanding the depositional sequence, given that artifacts deposited in features will be recovered from lower depths than the ground's surface at the time of deposition. Despite these limitations, Tiffany identifies two peaks in the ceramic distribution. The first extends between levels 5 and 7, and the second is at level 11. Tiffany determines that the latter concentration is associated with the initial site settlement. Tiffany concludes (Chapter 9) that the data indicate a continuous occupation of the site for at least 64 years. During that time, the assemblage shows evidence of contacts with multiple outside groups. He argues that contact with Middle Mississippian groups was the primary driver in the development of the fortified hamlet-based settlement system.
Phipps Site Ceramics provides a wealth of data concerning the pottery from an important site associated with the Middle Missouri tradition of the eastern Great Plains. Furthermore, Tiffany undertook the herculean task of reconstructing the excavation history and what remains of the provenience data for the ceramics. This monograph will be an important resource for anyone studying the late precontact period of western Iowa and surrounding regions of the Great Plains.
