Have your arrowheads, stone tools, pottery and other
items identified, see prehistoric artifacts and talk with archeologists at the
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Museum of Natural History as part of the
inaugural Artifact Show and Identification Day on Saturday, Sept. 29.
Artifacts from Central Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest
will be on display from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the museum, located on the first
floor of the University Library. The free event will include artifact
identification (no appraisals) by Ray Reser, museum director, and Jeffery Behm,
professor of anthropology from UW-Oshkosh. Members of the public are invited to
bring a few pieces or their entire collection. Behm will give a
presentation at 3 p.m. on recent archaeological excavations conducted at the
Markman Site, an early historic Meskwaki (Fox) Village on the Wolf River of
Waupaca County.
“Central Wisconsin has long been a transitional area for
plants and animals as well as a cultural crossroads for our region’s first
peoples,” said Reser. “Stone tools, and much later ceramics, are some of the
very few pieces of that distant past to help us understand and tell the story
of what that world was like and how people adapted to rapidly changing climates
and food sources. Our state also holds some of the oldest documented Mammoth
and Mastodon kill sites in North America, providing a tantalizing glimpse of
life on the edge of the retreating glaciers.”
Reser earned his doctorate in archaeology and
paleoanthropology from the Australian National University and holds an
undergraduate degree in geo-archaeology from UW-Stevens Point. In addition
to his duties as museum director and curator of the archaeological and
anthropological collections, Reser is a member of the Wisconsin Archaeological
Survey, a registered professional archaeologist and a listed consulting
archaeologist with the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
Behm, an expert in Midwestern archaeology, earned his
doctorate in archaeology from UW-Madison. He is a member of the Wisconsin Archaeological
Survey and a listed consulting archaeologist.
The UW-Stevens Point Museum of Natural History is an
outreach and educational facility aligned with the College of Letters and
Science and is the only public natural history museum in north central
Wisconsin. The museum is open during regular library hours: Monday–Thursday,
7:45 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.;
and Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight. Metered parking is located in Lot R, which is
accessible from Portage or Reserve streets.
Ray Reser is available for media interviews prior to and
during the Saturday Artifact Show and Identification Day. Contact: 715-346-2858
(museum) or 715-346-4888 (office) or at rreser@uwsp.edu.
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