Topic 4
Earthlodge Features — A Raised Altar and Exterior Shrine
The West Pasture investigations have discovered two unusual features associated with the Plains Village lodges that may have had spiritual significance. In Drover’s House, a raised platform at the back center of the lodge is interpreted as an alter area. In front of an unexcavated house at the Three Toes site, an unusual cluster of artifacts by the entrance is interpreted as a possible shrine.
AN EXTERIOR SHRINE
An unusual feature was found in Area A at the Three Toes Site (41RB110). Feature 5 was discovered during a May 2004 excavation, and it is associated with an unnamed prehistoric house. A test trench roughly defined the east and west walls of a pithouse, and Feature 5 was was found the northern most end of the test trench. This feature has puzzled West Pasture archeologist for some time, but recognized as a unique feature with significant meaning. The individual artifacts associated with this feature are representation of resources the people group living in West Pasture, ca. A.D. 1250-1400, depended upon. One possible explanation for this feature, could it have been created as a shrine to the Great Provider?
Feature 5 found in Area A at the Three Toes Site. It is an unusual cluster of items found together just outside a house entryway. Is this cluster of items fortuitous, or might it have been a shrine? Perhaps it was an offering of symbolic items placed in a sacred spot by the doorway?