Anthropology professor Colin Betts ’93 began a long-term project this summer that has already collected unexpected and intriguing data from northeast Iowa’s mysterious effigy mounds. Using new remote-sensing equipment, he and student researchers were able to “see” into two effigy mounds—shaped like birds—without disturbing the ground. First looks at the data suggest the mound structures built by native peoples and dating to between 750 and 1000 A.D. were originally much more elaborate than they appear now.
“I’m thrilled with how well it’s turned out,” Betts says. “It has far exceeded my expectations.”
Betts’s research, conducted with Luther juniors Anna Luber and Linh Luong, focused on two mounds on private land near the Mississippi River, about 45 miles east of Decorah. Their study has historical roots in both past mounds research at Luther and in the funding for that research. Betts says this exploration is an extension of work that former Luther anthropology professor R. Clark Mallam did in the 1970s and ’80s. Among other things, Mallam and his students outlined effigy mounds in northeast Iowa in powdered limestone and took aerial photographs in hopes of identifying patterns among the mound groups. Coincidentally, the bird mounds that Betts’s group began researching this summer are the first mounds that Mallam studied.
Rare undergrad experience
Betts hopes to be able to see patterns in the data he collects from inside and around the mounds. The team used a gradiometer, measuring changes in the magnetic field, and a resistivity meter, which determines soil density by measuring its resistance to electrical currents. Later, Betts will also employ ground-penetrating radar. It’s rare for undergraduates to have access to this type of equipment, which Betts also teaches with during the academic year. “The number of schools in the United States that offer a dedicated undergraduate remote-sensing experience can maybe be counted on one hand,” Betts says. “But in some respects, this is where archaeology is going because we recognize [sites such as the mounds] are finite resources. When you dig, you destroy them.”
Another, perhaps even larger issue for the effigy mounds, Betts says, is that many are burial sites and all are sacred areas for Native Americans. “I had to clear this with the State Archaeology Office, which has an Indian Advisory Board,” Betts says. Remote sensing is the only way research can be done—nothing can physically penetrate the ground— and Betts knows of no one else doing such work on the mounds.
A history of grant help
The gradiometer was purchased through an endowed Anthropology Department collections fund and an equipment fund bolstered in recent years by donations from Harvey Klevar, professor emeritus of anthropology. The resistivity meter and ground-penetrating radar equipment were funded by grants from the R.J. McElroy Trust and the Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation, Inc., two Iowa-focused foundations with a history of assisting learning at Luther.
The McElroy Trust granted the funding for the resistivity meter, plus a bit more, as a challenge. McElroy encouraged Luther to leverage its grant to seek the rest of the funding for the ground-penetrating radar from other sources—to ensure that Luther was able to get all of the necessary equipment. So Jeanie Lovell, who oversees corporate and foundation support for Luther, contacted another Iowa foundation, Kinney-Lindstrom. The foundation’s past president, Lowell Hall ’56, was also a Luther regent emeritus. His son, Kent Hall ’81, is currently the treasurer and a trustee on the Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation board. The foundation had funded some of the work done by Mallam and recognized that Betts’s research continues those studies. An Iowa State Historical Society grant provided for additional GPS equipment.
Data turns into fascinating images
Betts, Luber, and Luong spent two warm, humid weeks in July gridding the grassy mounds with yellow cord and moving the resistivity meter and gradiometer systematically over the surface. The collected data was fed into a software program back in Betts’s third-floor Koren office, where the researchers manipulated it to create images of what’s under the earth.
The goals of this ongoing research are to see how well-preserved the mounds are, to get an idea of their interior structure, and to see what areas outside of the mounds may be important as ritual components. After only a few weeks of research, the team found several unexpected images that raise new questions. Magnetic spots, called dipoles, seem to appear in intentional spots—could they have been caused by ritual fires? The largest bird’s head appears to be looking to the left, which can’t be seen in Mallam’s photographs. A border that includes a triangle around the large bird’s head, not visible to the naked eye, also shows up. And the large bird’s wings appear two-toned in the gradiometer readings—could they have been constructed of two different types of soil? Why?
The mounds now appear more detailed than expected, and at this point, the data raises more questions than answers. These are all things that Betts’s research teams will look for in other mounds in future months and years to see if there are patterns. Each bit of information adds to an overall understanding of the ancient mounds and the people who built them.