Excavation attempts to explain past

Cheryl Ann Munson, director of the Bone Bank excavation project and assistant scientist in anthropology, includes the quote "It's not what you find, it's what you find out" at the bottom of all her e-mails. Discovering the remains of the Native American Caborn-Welborn culture is the goal of a two-year rescue excavation under way at a site called Bone Bank, located along the Wabash River in Posey County, Ind.\nIt is not known why the village was abandoned. European diseases and warfare are credible possibilities, according to the Hovey Lake Village Site Web site. \nThe Bone Bank site is situated near Hovey Lake Village, a 30-acre site positioned along Hovey Lake. Munson said about 1 percent of the original site remains because of erosion during the last 400 years from the Wabash River. Graduate student Rexford Garniewicz, who has previously helped Munson excavate the Bone Bank site, said, "this site is important in the field of archaeology because the site is almost destroyed now, and it will probably only be a matter of 10 years before it is completely gone." \nThe excavation is being funded by a grant from Indiana's Department of Natural Resources. The state has never awarded a grant for such a project, Munson said, because Indiana has never provided funding for endangered archaeological sites. She said Indiana is supporting the excavation project because the site is being eroded by the Wabash River.\nIn a race against time, Munson said she and her crew are busy "trying to interpret the prehistory of these villages."\nThe grant issued was for $100,000, said Steve Kennedy, the grants program manager for the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. Munson said the rescue excavation project will work to save what little is left of this endangered archaeological site.\n"It is important that in the future, when the site is gone, people can look at the information and data they collect here and know the pre-history of southwestern Indiana," Garniewicz said.\nThe recovery project began Oct. 18, focusing on the northern region of the site, Munson said. Although the recent rain has caused the Wabash to rise and fall, she said they are about half done with their work for this part of the excavation.\nThis site acquired its name during the 1800s when many human burials were washed into view, according to the Bone Bank's Web site. French naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur made the first archaeological excavation at the Bone Bank during the early 1800s. Although the artifact collection Lesueur accumulated was destroyed during World War II, many of Lesueur's drawings survived and present information about a component of the location that no longer exists today, the Web site said. \nBone Bank was one of several villages of the Caborn-Welborn culture that thrived from 1400-1700. The refuse dumps that remain have provided clues into their ways of life, according to a press release. The people of the Caborn-Welborn culture are known to have been settled farmers who also traded widely with tribes from Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Tennessee and the Gulf Coast, according to the Hovey Lake Village Site Web site. The culture that existed at the Bone Bank was also present at the Hovey Lake Village Site.\nMunson said Bone Bank is on private property and is not publicly accessible because of the steepness of the poison ivy-covered bank and the proximity of the river.\nGarniewicz said he is interested in the animal remains at the site so he can discover what the natives ate and the various animals that existed at the time. Munson said artifacts from each level of excavation will eventually be brought to IU to be washed, catalogued, analyzed and studied.\n"Hopefully, there will be exhibits," Munson said. "Excavations such as this are widely publicized by lectures, television programs and public open houses"