Storied Space: Documenting a Megalith at the Menominee Reservation, Wisconsin, USA

Abstract

Abstract Throughout the precolonial era, monumentality in the midcontinent was expressed through a variety of earthen constructions from circular mounds to animal effigies to geometric shapes to depictions of spiritual beings. Here, we describe an example of megalithic monumentality located at the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, USA. This archaeological feature uses a mix of the natural geology alongside anthropogenic efforts to depict the Menominee legend of a battle between the Thunderbird and Serpent. The encountering and documentation of this megalith were the result of ongoing collaborative efforts that brought together archaeological techniques with Menominee knowledge sets. We describe the megalith and draw on the only other known megalithic effigy from Wisconsin, a serpent effigy, located in ancestral Menominee territory and documented more than a century ago. Together, these two megalithic features illustrate currently unrecognized monumental construction efforts in the midcontinent and highlight the value and importance of collaborative approaches to documenting and preserving archaeological heritage.