Models of Mill Creek Midden Formation: Implications For Future Research

Researchers in the 1950s viewed the deep Mill Creek village middens of northwestern Iowa as tell-like deposits resulting from intensive occupations over relatively long periods of time. This view persisted for the next two decades and provided the basis for the investigation of climatic, environmental, and cultural change. In 1973 Baerreis and Alex (1974) proposed an alternate model arguing that the middens developed as a result of the aboriginal practice of banking earth against house walls in conjunction with cycles of abandonment and subsequent reoccupation of village sites. This paper discusses these two models in the light of findings at the Brewster site and arrives at the following conclusions: (1) the "tell hypothesis" best fits the available data at the Brewster site; and (2) a better understanding of Mill Creek culture process can be obtained by adoption of a composite model which encompasses a variety of site types.