Stone tools, pottery and more: State archaeologist helps uncover Iowa’s past

IOWA CITY — Two centuries after Chief Black Hawk — a Sauk Indian leader — reportedly shot down an American flag at Fort Madison during the War of 1812, archaeologists pieced together where he may have stood during the encounter. They dug trenches and relied on written accounts to pinpoint the ravine where Black Hawk claimed to have made that historic rifle shot.

The thrill of discovery — like this endeavor — embedded within archaeology is what first made Iowa’s state archaeologist, John Doershuk, interested in the field.

“When a lot of people drive across the landscape, they just see corn,” he said. “But archaeologists know that underneath that corn, there's layer upon layer … of preserved ancient history down there.”

Archaeology is the study of human history as embodied in material remains. In Iowa, archaeologists have traced humanity back at least 13,000 years thanks to more than 31,300 recorded ancient sites. Stone tool debris, pottery, glass, metal and animal bones are the most common artifacts found in the state.

Growing up in Ohio, Doershuk was always interested in history. After attending an archaeological field school following his high school graduation, he fell in love with the hands-on and thrilling process of excavation. Even more so, he learned how the investigations — which he jokingly called “glorified playing in the dirt” — exposed ancient revelations about humankind.

“What turns a lot of people on about archaeology is the potential for discovery,” he said. “Digging is really just the minor component of a very intensive analytical process.”

He obtained a Ph.D. in archaeology at Northwestern University, where he specialized in Midwestern archaeology. From there, he became an archaeological consultant until moving to Iowa in 1995 to join the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist as a research director. In 2007, Doershuk rose to be Iowa’s state archaeologist and has directed the office ever since. He was paid $124,304 last fiscal year.

The UI office is a research laboratory and state repository on the Iowa City campus, complete with a team of 21 full-time employees and part-time staffers, students, interns and volunteers. The repository currently houses about 4 million artifacts from 14,000 sites around the state, and its library boasts more than 300,000 digitized records.

Because it’s embedded within a university, the office has a hybrid function, Doershuk said. It completes active archaeological research as well as state compliance work, which ensures no “significant” archaeological evidence is destroyed due to any land developments. The significance of evidence varies on its associations with past peoples and events.

“When you get those significant things, those are non-renewable resources,” Doershuk said. “If we destroy those, we wipe out the past. We’ve got one shot at saving them.”

Doershuk’s day-to-day work life varies: Sometimes, he’s communicating with federal and local partners about projects, and other times, he’s out in the field searching for the next discovery. He also teaches courses at the UI and supervises student researchers.

Looking back at his career so far, he recalled some of the office’s most significant findings under his leadership.

Around a decade ago, when the city of Des Moines was expanding its sewer plant, the office researchers uncovered a 7,000-year-old village and the oldest human remains discovered in the state. The office also was involved in the investigation of the former superintendent of Effigy Mounds National Monument, who was sentenced for stealing the ancient remains of more than 40 Native Americans.

Iowa was the first state to pass a law protecting ancient human remains. Doershuk said one of the most important aspects of his job is working with 26 Native American tribes to identify and repatriate ancient Indigenous remains.

“For many decades, archaeologists viewed themselves — and the public allowed them to view themselves — as the keepers of the past,” he said. “But in recent years, particularly during the last two decades or so, there's been a greater emphasis on collaboration with descendant communities.”

The office currently is working on two archaeological sites along a segment of Highway 61 that will be expanding to four lanes. A large group of archaeologists are intensively excavating the sites, trying to gather as much information as possible before construction. Thousands of artifacts will be transported to the lab for processing, analysis and interpretation.

Smaller-scale excavations are also taking place statewide in the midst of wetland enhancements, trail projects and infrastructure projects.

These archaeological endeavors across Iowa — and beyond — help humans understand how their identities came to be, Doershuk said. Artifacts buried for centuries present relatively unbiased views of the past, compared to written histories, and we can learn from them.

“We very much live by decisions made by our ancestors, whether direct or indirect,” he said. “It's important to understand how that works, and archaeology is a lens on to that.”

Brittney J. Miller is an environmental reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com