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Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center / Past Cultures / Specific Sites

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Tainter – Cradleboard

Cradleboard On the ceiling just inside the entrance to Tainter Cave is a drawing that appears to show a cradleboard. The figure has a circular head inside a rectangular box with horizontal lines across the body area and a smaller circle on the chest area. Cradleboards were often used by Native peoples to carry babies. They tended to cause flattening of the back of the skull, and burials from a 1500-year-old site in the same valley show evidence of that type of flattening. Tainter Cave is in southwestern Wisconsin.

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MVAC Educational Programs are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these programs do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This project was supported in part by the National Science Foundation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.