2008 Woodie Awards
Will the circle be unbroken?
Lauren Matovina - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: 80 Hours
- Page 1 of 1
According to Black Elk, a deceased member of the Lakota tribe, everything yearns to be a circle. The sky, the Earth, the stars, the wind, and the Sun. Even the seasons and life evolve in circular form.
Today at 7 p.m. in Macbride Auditorium, James Collins, an archaeologist in the State Archaeologist's Office, will continue the UI Explorers Lecture Series with a talk titled "Annular-Stamped Pottery, American Indian Circle Symbolism, and Gendered Ritual Space at the Dolomite Ridge Site." Collins' curiosity about the symbolism of the circle and the rituals attached to it sprang from an interest in the American Indians' medicine wheel - a circle of stones used for spiritual and ritual purposes.
"I became very interested in the iconography of Indian circle symbolism and rituals attendant to that topic," he said.
According to his research, the history of the circle as a symbol dates back to proto-historic period and is almost always present in the artifacts that are unearthed at the Dolomite Ridge Site, as well as other excavation sites. He also found evidence of both male and female artisans. In the American Indian culture, males are associated with stone tools, while females generally are connected with pottery. At this particular site, the stone tools were separate from the pottery.
"Essentially, I theorized that circle symbolism is used primarily in ritual contexts, and therefore that the pottery decorated with circles was probably used as ritual paraphernalia," Collins said. "Given this hypothesis, I revisited the material and structural assemblage from the site. By doing so I was able to isolate two adjacent activity areas that appear to have been gender-specific ritual nodes."
There is also evidence appearing to demonstrate that the circle is prominent in American Indian prayer rituals, mainly those pertaining to corporeal transition, spiritual transformation, or other types of supernatural change.
As an employee of the State Archaeologist's Office, Collins also does contract work for the Iowa Department of Transportation, making sure the DOT does not disturb any historic or significant land for road construction projects. In fact, this is how he stumbled across the Dolomite Ridge Site. He is a member of numerous conservation and archaeology groups, such as the Society for American Archaeology, and he has written many pieces for various prestigious publications, including Plains Anthropologist and American Antiquity. He is working on editing a volume on Meskwaki archaeology to be published next the spring.
"In order to keep your mind working, you're always finding something else," Collins said. "Research builds itself if one has the ability and resources to follow where your intellect will take you."
E-mail DI reporter Lauren Matovina at
lauren-matovina@uiowa.edu
Today at 7 p.m. in Macbride Auditorium, James Collins, an archaeologist in the State Archaeologist's Office, will continue the UI Explorers Lecture Series with a talk titled "Annular-Stamped Pottery, American Indian Circle Symbolism, and Gendered Ritual Space at the Dolomite Ridge Site." Collins' curiosity about the symbolism of the circle and the rituals attached to it sprang from an interest in the American Indians' medicine wheel - a circle of stones used for spiritual and ritual purposes.
"I became very interested in the iconography of Indian circle symbolism and rituals attendant to that topic," he said.
According to his research, the history of the circle as a symbol dates back to proto-historic period and is almost always present in the artifacts that are unearthed at the Dolomite Ridge Site, as well as other excavation sites. He also found evidence of both male and female artisans. In the American Indian culture, males are associated with stone tools, while females generally are connected with pottery. At this particular site, the stone tools were separate from the pottery.
"Essentially, I theorized that circle symbolism is used primarily in ritual contexts, and therefore that the pottery decorated with circles was probably used as ritual paraphernalia," Collins said. "Given this hypothesis, I revisited the material and structural assemblage from the site. By doing so I was able to isolate two adjacent activity areas that appear to have been gender-specific ritual nodes."
There is also evidence appearing to demonstrate that the circle is prominent in American Indian prayer rituals, mainly those pertaining to corporeal transition, spiritual transformation, or other types of supernatural change.
As an employee of the State Archaeologist's Office, Collins also does contract work for the Iowa Department of Transportation, making sure the DOT does not disturb any historic or significant land for road construction projects. In fact, this is how he stumbled across the Dolomite Ridge Site. He is a member of numerous conservation and archaeology groups, such as the Society for American Archaeology, and he has written many pieces for various prestigious publications, including Plains Anthropologist and American Antiquity. He is working on editing a volume on Meskwaki archaeology to be published next the spring.
"In order to keep your mind working, you're always finding something else," Collins said. "Research builds itself if one has the ability and resources to follow where your intellect will take you."
E-mail DI reporter Lauren Matovina at
lauren-matovina@uiowa.edu
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