The Minnesota Historical Society s archaeology collections contain more than 950,000 artifacts dating from ca. 11,500 years ago to the present. They are acquired through excavation, surface survey, and underwater recovery techniques in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, portions of Canada, and through donations from private collections. The Society also serves as the repository for archaeological discoveries made on Minnesota public land by designation of the state archaeologist. Together these materials make up nearly 4,000 distinct collections, each representing a particular excavation or survey.
Archaeological collections constitute the historical record of long-ago Minnesota.
For the more recent past, archaeological findings provide knowledge of architectural detail as well as living conditions and daily life styles not available from other sources. The Old Copper Complex of the Lake-Forest Archaic period, dating from 6000 to 3000 B.P., comes to life through a group of spear points, awls, knives, and other copper items collected in the 19th century by The Rev. Edward C. Mitchell. Materials recovered from the Grand Portage National Monument tell us about the French and British fur trade, which thrived between about 1680 and 1816. Excavations at Ft. Artifacts from excavations of the milling district near St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River reveal Minnesota s rich industrial history.