Mero Site
The Mero Site is a stratified, multicomponent Prehistoric site located on the Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin, United States. It was excavated in 1960 by Ronald and Carol Mason under the auspices of the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with financial backing from the landowner, Peter Mero.
Results of Data Analysis
Excavations at the site yielded Prehistoric artifacts and animal bone.Three stratified areas were identified at the site:
- Stratified Area I - cultural deposits from this area dated from the Middle Woodland period and are designated North Bay I Complex. Artifacts and animal bone were recovered from a buried beach area, and another stratigraphic layer underneath the beach. Late Woodland and Upper Mississippian cultural remains came from the top levels.
- Stratified Areas II and III - cultural deposits from the lower strata of these areas are designated North Bay II Complex, and the top levels correspond to Late Woodland and Upper Mississippian. Stratigraphic layers were consistent between these two areas but could not be matched with the layers in Stratified Area I.
Components
Several Prehistoric components were present at the site:- Middle Woodland - dates to approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 500 and is characterized by the North Bay I and North Bay II Complexes. The diagnostic artifact is the grit-tempered pottery that is described as very heavily tempered and poorly constructed with rough surface in North Bay I and somewhat smoother and more moderately tempered in North Bay II. Both North Bay I and II have close affinities to the Middle Woodland Hopewell Culture.
- Late Woodland - dates to approximately A.D. 500-1000 and is characterized mainly by Heins Creek Ware pottery, named after the nearby Heins Creek Site also in Door County, Wisconsin, along with other regional Late Woodland pottery types such as Point Sauble Collared and Madison Cord-Impressed. It is thought that the Heins Creek Ware evolved out of the Middle Woodland North Bay Complex. The Madison Cord-Impressed is affiliated with the Late Woodland Effigy Mound culture. A radiocarbon date of A.D. 720 was obtained from the Late Woodland deposits at the Heins Creek site and based upon the similarity of pottery between the two sites, that probably dates the Late Woodland component at Mero as well.
- Upper Mississippian - dates from approximately A.D. 1200-1400 and is the largest component at the site. The characteristic artifact is Oneota pottery. Unlike other Oneota components in the American Midwest, much of the pottery is grit-tempered than shell-tempered, rarely has handles, and is rarely decorated. The stratified sequence demonstrates that the incidence of grit temper decreases over time and is replaced by shell temper in the upper strata. Other typical Oneota traits such as arrowshaft straighteners, sherd discs, smoking pipes, storage pits and evidence of agriculture, are not present at Mero. The component was designated “Mero Complex” by Mason, and is considered to have close affinities to the Grand River Focus.
Animal Remains
Artifacts
Pottery Artifacts
Archaeologists often find pottery to be a very useful tool in analyzing a prehistoric culture. It is usually very plentiful at a site and the details of manufacture and decoration are very sensitive indicators of time, space and culture.No whole or reconstructable vessels were recovered from the site, so the analysis was based upon examination of rim and body sherds. Due to the large number of very small sherds, an effort was made to convert a raw sherd count into an estimated minimum number of vessels present. This provided a more accurate estimate of the relative proportions of pottery types represented.
11,835 sherds overall were recovered, representing a minimum of 501 vessels. Within the North Bay I and II Complexes, there were 951 sherds representing 59 vessels. For the Late Woodland, there were 2,256 sherds representing 111 vessels. The Upper Mississippian component had 8,628 sherds representing 331 vessels.
Several pottery types from different time periods were present. Some of them are listed below:
| Type | No. of vessels | Tempering Material | Description | Cultural Affiliation |
| North Bay Cordmarked | 3 | Grit | Cordmarked to smoothed-over cordmarked surface finish; vertical rim profile; flat to rounded lip; no decoration | Middle Woodland |
| North Bay Plain | 9 | Grit | Plain surface; vertical rim profile; no decoration except for lip; lip may be plain or impressed with cord-wrapped object | Middle Woodland |
| North Bay Dentate Stamped | 7 | Grit | Plain surface w/dentate-stamped decoration; rim profile vertical to slightly everted | Middle Woodland |
| Becker Punctated | 8 | Grit | Plain surface w/punctate decoration; vertical rim profile | Middle Woodland |
| Dane Incised | 5 | Grit | Cordmarked surface w/incised decoration | Early to Middle Woodland |
| Heins Creek Cordmarked | 15 | Grit | Cordmarked surface; no decoration except rarely on lip; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and vertical to slightly everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Heins Creek Corded-Stamped | 23 | Grit | Surface decorated with discontinuous stamped patterns applied with cord-wrapped stick; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and vertical to slightly everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Heins Creek Cord-Wrapped Stick | 5 | Grit | Surface decorated with cord-wrapped stick impressions; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Point Sauble Collared | 21 | Grit | Cord-impressed surface, collared rim, row of punctates beneath collar | Late Woodland |
| Aztalan Collared | 4 | Grit | Collar and lip decorated w/twisted cord impressions; vessel body below collar is cordmarked; mouth of vessel is angular | Late Woodland |
| Madison Cord-Impressed | 24 | Grit | Cord-impressed decoration ; globular vessel form with restricted orifice and slightly everted rim profile | Late Woodland |
| Oneota | 331 | Grit or shell | Predominantly plain surfaces, mostly undecorated; decorations when they occur consist of incised or trailed lines sometimes associated with punctates or embossed stamps; lips sometimes notched; handles are rare; most vessel forms are globular jars with restricted orifice and sharply everted rim profile; there are also shallow bowl forms represented | Upper Mississppian |
Other Artifacts
Non-pottery artifacts recovered from the site included:- Chipped stone artifacts - including 118 projectile points, scrapers, 82 blanks, 4 knives, 8 drills, one spokeshave and one hand axe. Of the projectile points, 78 were triangular points and 40 were stemmed and notched.
- Ground stone artifacts - including 4 hammerstones, 12 net sinkers and 3 celts.
- Bone and antler artifacts - including 20 split bone awls, 5 deer ulna awls, 4 drifts, 1 decorated/grooved awl, 1 socketed antler projectile point, 1 socketed deer metapodial projectile point, 5 mat needles, 5 counters, 11 hair pins and 2 tooth pendants.
- Copper artifacts - including 1 awl and 1 tanged spatulate knife.
Significance
The Oneota Mero Complex is unique due to its high proportion of grit-tempered pottery and the low incidence of decoration. It is also unique that the site does not have many of the traits usually found in Oneota contexts such as arrowshaft straighteners, smoking pipes, sherd discs, storage pits or evidence of agriculture. The reason may be that the site was not a village but rather a temporary site for a specialized activity such as fishing.