Aztalan is considered one of the more interesting archaeological sites in the United States. It is located in a glacial drift region on the banks of the Crawfish River, about 2 1/2 miles east of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. More specifically, it lies in Sections 17, 20, and 21 of Township 7N, Range 14E, Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Although the association is purely fictional, the word Aztalan is derived from the name given to an ancient Aztec settlement before their migration southward to Tenochitlan (present-day Mexico City).

The ceramic pottery sherds found at this site are very interesting. Outside of the southern United States shell-tempered ceramic types are not common. They are known as Middle Mississippi Type characteristic of cultures located in the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley of the southern United States. Grit-tempered pottery, classified as Lake Michigan and Woodland Type, are the dominant ceramic form found throughout Wisconsin during this period; therefore, one would expect to find grit-tempered ceramics of this type at Aztalan. However, not only are shell-tempered ceramics found at Aztalan, they are the dominant ceramic type throughout this site.

Middle Mississippi Valley shell-tempered pottery is compact, fairly hard and well-fired. It is primarily found in 2 colors -- grayish-black and brick red. Both the interior and exterior surfaces of the sherds are smooth, and shape and design vary greatly in this pottery type. Although the majority of pottery found is undecorated and was used for cooking and storage, among the decorated samples there is much variance; in fact, there are at least 28 distinct forms of shell-tempered Aztalan pottery. Typical design methods include incising, modeling, and punctate decoration.

There are also 2 variations of Aztalan grit-tempered pottery --Lake Michigan and Woodland Type. Both are tempered with coarse black grit derived from crushing certain types of rock. Natural sand was only rarely used as a tempering agent. The pottery fragments found have rough exteriors with the imprints of cord-wrapped paddle , and smooth interiors. The Lake Michigan Type of vessel is circular-mouthed and has little or no decoration; when decoration is present it consists of simple geometric designs applied with cord-imprinting. The Woodland variety of Aztalan ceramics are angular-mouthed and typically have decorated rims.

Transitional forms of pottery have also emerged from the Aztalan Site. These pieces are all grit-tempered, but they borrow from the Middle Mississippi style. Clearly, the transitional forms represented an "improvement" (advancement in technology) on the grit-tempered pottery. Since the transitional types of pottery were found intermingled with both the shell and grit-tempered varieties, it is highly probable that they were used simultaneously. The existence of these transitional pieces probably indicate some degree of culture mixture.

Even though the presence of transitional types of pottery would point to a certain amount of contact with other cultures, the predominance of shell-tempered ceramics in Aztalan and its absence elsewhere in Wisconsin leads to one of two possible conclusions -- either the Aztalan people lived in relative isolation, or they inhabited this site for only a short period of time. Archaeological evidence supports the isolation hypothesis, suggesting that the Aztalan were a war-like, cannibalistic people. Such a violent way of life may account for a lack of cultural interaction with outsiders. The transitional types of pottery, then, may simply be the work of captives or adopted outsiders.

Aztalan will continue to be of significance for Midwestern archaeology in the United States. Nowhere outside of the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley regions has there been such a dominant presence of shell-tempered pottery. What this says about the Aztalan culture remains to be determined with any degree of certainty. What can be concluded, though, is that Aztalan is truly a "southern island" in a territory which is otherwise Upper Mississippi and Woodland throughout.

SOURCE:

Barrett, S.A. Ancient Aztalan, Greenwood Press Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, 1970.