Gary Brenner's Archaeological work at the Renner Site (23PL1)



Gary Brenner's Archaeological work at the Renner Site (23PL1)

By Michael Fuller

St. Louis Community College

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1. Along the east right-of-way of Vivion Road. This excavation was conducted from 1986 until 1991. It was a series of 5 x 5 foot excavations squares that were lined up parallel to the right-of-way. This had been a wooded fence row to the Renner farm and the city of Riverside wanted it cleaned up and graded so that it sloped down to Vivion Road.

How many units?

Most of these units were excavated only to a depth of 2 feet. There was a single deep refuse pit at GPS:

One of Gary’s maps show a number of pit features in this excavation. How many pits were encountered?

North 39 degrees 10.523'

West 94 degrees 36.924'

That deep pit was approximately 5 feet deep. The fill of that pit was purely Middle Woodland. It contained a large copper pen, a set of deer antlers with tines removed. The pit contained a celt and several projectile points. I would interpret this as the remains of a ceremonial feast and not day-to-day refuse.

Here is a picture of those excavation units:

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Here is Gary's picture with him in the deep pit (his head just appear):

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Here is my picture of the copper pen. The artifact is 15.7 cm in length. The center diameter is 6 mm and it tapers to 4 mm at one end and 3 mm at the other end. It weighs 23 grams. My first thought when holding it was that it was that it was not a weaving tool or simple functional artifact. Size and weight is more like a MesoAmerican perforator!!! [pic]

2. Excavation units just north of Wedel's 1937 block excavation. Gary excavated a block of pits measuring 20 x 20 feet to pick up the edge of Wedel's 1937 units and to explore more of the midden that he had discovered. The GPS for the center of this block is:

North 39 degrees 10.508'

West 94 degrees 36.919'

It was a pit in the west half of this block where Gary Brenner discovered the burial of an dog in a shallow, rock lined pit.

Any other pits in the block?

The animal had an abscessed tooth, but no obvious signs of trauma or butchering. Sometimes, the dog is called a coyote, because its features are more primitive than a modern domesticated dog, but it seems logical that it is a dog and not a coyote. The dog burial feature was discussed in Gary's article in the Kansas City Archaeological Bulletin No. 2.

I have a copy of this coming from the KC Museum.

A scraper and knife were found in association with the dog and they were from the same chert source. The offerings with the dog a piece of igneous rock (basalt/felsite) that had been shaped into plummet that measured 6.7 cm in length, 3.5 cm in width, 2.2 cm thick and weighs 57 grams. Here is my picture of the plummet:

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3. Excavation unit in the center of space used for playground.

Gary excavated a 20 x 5 feet trench during 1982 in the cornfield where cultivation had disturbed a rich pit feature. It turned out to be a single pit feature with lots of organics staining and artifacts. This rich pit would be close to the center of the area excavated by SCI and Steve thinks SCI saw the shadows of his units. The GPS on the rich pit is:

North 39 degrees 10.507'

West 94 degrees 36.896'

That single rich pit contained a small copper pen that was approximately 4 cm in length. This was not a deep pit; it extended only approximately 2 feet beneath the surface.

Yes, we saw this previous trench and I think we found his excavated pit. Would need to see a sketch of where that pit was located within the trench to verify.

4. New Garage excavation.

The original garage for the renner house was to the northwest of the home, but it was demolished in the 1980s. Gary built a new garage for the house and excavated the footprint for that garage which is directly south of the Renner Home. Gary has an interesting observation that the Renner site does have a slight "high point" and that is where the old family house is situated.

The GPS for the northwest corner of the garage excavation is:

North 39 degrees 10.458'

West 94 degrees 36.931'

It was a 4 ft. deep pit feature in this block excavation area that yielded the two clay figurines. The most interesting is the clay figurine of a pregnant female (my interpretation). Here is my image of the figurines:

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Length 8.2 cm, width 5.5 cm, thickness 1.9 to 3.3 cm, Weight = 101 grams. The pit with the clay figurine also contained a deer antler tool (Gary interprets it as a projectile point but other functions might be possible), and several large sherds to vessels approximately 3 to 5 gallons in capacity. Here is my image of the antler tool. [pic]

Gary did find a partial line of postmolds with stones packed in this area. They seemed to be 4 ft apart and ran in a curving line. He probed outside of his garage excavation and found evidence that the line of rocklined postmolds seemed to be arching around and towards the Renner house (high point of the site). Interesting though that there was some kind of fence or line of small diameter ceremonial posts.

I have seen Gary’s map of this work. I need to know how many units (5 X 5 ?) and the number of features encountered. I am extremely interested in the arc of posts as I just saw a paper at the SAAs about Middle Woodland large post circles where the posts were chinked with stone. Any info Gary can provide about this feature would be very helpful.

5. Minor excavation ahead of placing the granite monument on the north edge of the site. Nothing significant found. GPS:

North 39 degrees 10.528'

West 94 degrees 36.905'

How big and any features?

6. Minor excavation ahead of constructing the Gazebo. This was immediately to the west of the block of Wedel's pits.

How big and any features?

7. The bathroom building was constructed in 1988 without any testing. Gary watched the construction of the water and powerconduits to the bathroom and picnic shelter. He salvaged a single pit feature in 1988 that was filled with grass and charcoal. Professor Mary Adair has that sample.

Only one feature identified?

In addition, what can Gary tell us about Burk’s work: the units behind the house and the narrow diagonal trench near the restroom and pavilion (we were able to locate this trench as well in our 2009 work)? Size of excavtions, features identified/excavated?

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