discover illinois · 2009-10-19 · large mammals at the close of the ice age. along with mastodon...

Discover Illinois

Archaeology

ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY

ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Discover Illinois Archaeology

copyright 2009

DISCOVER ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY includesmaterial originally published in Illinois Antiquity, thequarterly publication of the Illinois Association for Ad-vancement of Archaeology. First Printing, 2001, SecondPrinting 2004, Third Printing 2009.

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

CULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDPEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA. . . . . . . . . .3PEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA. . . . . . . . . .3PEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA. . . . . . . . . .3PEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA. . . . . . . . . .3PEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA. . . . . . . . . .3

THE CULTURE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS . . . . .4THE CULTURE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS . . . . .4THE CULTURE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS . . . . .4THE CULTURE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS . . . . .4THE CULTURE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS . . . . .4

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS:THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS:THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS:THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS:THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS:REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

INVENTORY OFINVENTORY OFINVENTORY OFINVENTORY OFINVENTORY OFARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICALSITES AN ENDANGEREDSITES AN ENDANGEREDSITES AN ENDANGEREDSITES AN ENDANGEREDSITES AN ENDANGEREDCULTURAL RESOURCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26CULTURAL RESOURCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26CULTURAL RESOURCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26CULTURAL RESOURCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26CULTURAL RESOURCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

RESOURCES FOR FURTHERRESOURCES FOR FURTHERRESOURCES FOR FURTHERRESOURCES FOR FURTHERRESOURCES FOR FURTHEREXPLORATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27EXPLORATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27EXPLORATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27EXPLORATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27EXPLORATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Cover illustration by Andy Buttram. Courtesy of the Dickson

Mounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.

Alice Berkson Michael D. Wiant

Illinois’ rich cultural heritage began morethan 12,000 years ago with the arrival of theancestors of today’s Native Americans. We learnabout them through investigations of the remainsthey left behind, which range from monumentalearthworks with large river-valley settlements toa fragment of an ancient stone tool. After thearrival of European explorers in the late 1600s, asuccession of diverse settlers added to our cul-tural heritage, leading to our modern urban com-munities and the landscape we see today. Ar-chaeological studies allow us to reconstruct pastenvironments and ways of life, study the rela-tionship between people of various cultures, andinvestigate how and why cultures rise and fall.

DISCOVER ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY,summarizing Illinois culture history, is truly a

collaborative effort by 18 archaeologists fromacross the state, with a major contribution byDesign Editor Kelvin Sampson. Along with sum-maries of each cultural period and highlights ofregional archaeological research, we include ashort list of internet and print resources. A moreextensive reading list can be found at the IllinoisAssociation for Advancement of Archaeologyweb site www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/DIA.pdf.

We hope that by reading this summary ofIllinois archaeology, visiting a nearby archaeo-logical site or museum exhibit, and participatingin Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month pro-grams each September, you will become activelyengaged in Illinois’ diverse past and DISCOVERILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY.

IIIIILLINOIS AAAAASSOCIATION FOR

AAAAADVANCEMENT OF

AAAAARCHAEOLOGYFounded in 1969, IAAA unites all personsinterested in the archaeology of Illinois, andencourages site preservation and scientificstudy of our prehistory and early history.www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa

IIIIILLINOIS AAAAARCHAEOLOGICAL

SSSSSURVEYAn organization of professionalarchaeologists founded in 1965, IASdocuments, interprets and seeks to preservethe archaeological record of Illinois.www.illarchsurvey.org

3 Discover Illinois Archaeology

NATIVE AMERICANSNATIVE AMERICANSNATIVE AMERICANSNATIVE AMERICANSNATIVE AMERICANSWHERE DID THEY COMEWHERE DID THEY COMEWHERE DID THEY COMEWHERE DID THEY COMEWHERE DID THEY COMEFROM AND WHEN DIDFROM AND WHEN DIDFROM AND WHEN DIDFROM AND WHEN DIDFROM AND WHEN DIDTHEY ARRIVE?THEY ARRIVE?THEY ARRIVE?THEY ARRIVE?THEY ARRIVE?

To the best of our knowledge,people first arrived in the westernhemisphere during the last Ice Age,when land connected the continentsof Asia and North America. Currentresearch suggests that Asian peoplemay have arrived in North Americaas early as 17,000 years ago. Theyresided in present-day Alaska for aperiod of time before moving tolocations throughout the westernhemisphere. A new theory, basedon similarities of some artifacts,suggests the possibility that peoplealso migrated from Europe to NorthAmerica, but at this time there islittle supporting evidence for thisidea. Archaeologists and otherscientists continue to study artifactsand the context of their deposition,DNA, and linguistic evidence tolearn about this topic. By doing so,they expand our understanding ofhuman history and thecircumstances that encouraged thedevelopment of culture.

This series of cultural periods and sub-periods, defined byarchaeologists, is based on similarities and differences inartifacts and inferences about past lifeways. This chronologychanges occasionally as a result of discoveries and ongoingstudy. Age here is expressed as years before present, whichis defined as AD 1950, the standard for radiocarbon dating.

CULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDCULTURAL SEQUENCE ANDPEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICAPEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICAPEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICAPEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICAPEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA

Discover Illinois Archaeology 4

THE PALEOINDIAN PERIOD

Unlike most other parts of the world,North and South America were not inhab-ited until late in the Pleistocene Epoch, or IceAge. These earliest Americans are the an-cient ancestors of the Native Americansencountered by European explorers. Whenand how Paleoindians arrived, and fromwhere, are questions that continue to be

debated because information is limited. Mostscientists had believed that Paleoindiansentered North American across a land bridgebetween Siberia and Alaska that formedduring the Ice Age when vast quantities ofocean water were locked into glaciers, caus-ing a drop in sea level. However, recentdiscoveries have led some researchers tobelieve that Paleoindians arrived by boatand that they initially settled along coastalareas, eventually migrating inland.

Based on the repeated discovery of dis-tinctive chipped-stone spear points calledClovis points, which were first discovered inthe American Southwest amidst the bones ofextinct Ice Age animals, archaeologists knowthat by about 12,000 years ago small bandsof hunters lived in the region now known asIllinois. By this time, the massive continen-tal ice sheets that had once covered much of

the state had retreated northward, and spruceand pine forest and parkland had replacedglacial tundra.

CLOVIS CULTUREClovis points are found across the United

States and are distinctive because of theirlanceolate shape and long flakes, or flutes,

chipped into the base, orhaft element. Clovispoints were hafted on shortwooden or bone foreshaftsthat were in turn lashed tothe main spear shaft.These stone-tipped spearswere propelled by hand,perhaps with the aid of anatlatl, a handheld hookedstick that increased thepower and distance thespear travels, in effect ex-tending the reach of thethrower’s arm. The Clovistool kit typically includesend scrapers and sidescrapers, beveled flakes ofstone used to dress hidesand work bone and othermaterials.

Clovis hunters wereorganized into small,highly mobile familygroups that hunted a vari-ety of large and small ani-mals. While there is littleevidence of their use ofwild plant foods, it is hardto believe that they did nottake advantage of theseresources. At theKimmswick site, south ofSt. Louis, Missouri, re-

searchers from the Illinois State Museumunearthed Clovis points and other stone toolsin direct association with the bones a mast-odon. These forest-dwelling elephant-likecreatures died out with a number of otherlarge mammals at the close of the Ice Age.Along with mastodon bones, the remains ofother animals, such as the ground sloth, werefound at the site. In addition, modern gameanimals, such as the white-tailed deer, werealso recovered.

From other Paleoindian sites acrossNorth America, we know that bone andivory were worked into tools. The discoveryof bone needles indicates that animal hideswere fashioned into tailored clothing, foot-wear, bags, and other items. Hides wereprobably used to cover portable shelters likewigwams or conical tents. Rock shelters andcaves were seldom visited by Clovis groups,

who frequently moved through areas to in-tercept herds but apparently rarely settledinto any given area long enough to locate,explore, and routinely use these natural shel-ters. Clovis sites are typically found on promi-nent, well-drained landforms, such as blufftops and high terraces, that provide a com-manding view the surrounding area. Suchlocations were good spots not only for moni-toring the movements of herds but also forgathering together dispersed family groups.

Little is known concerning the socialand ritual life of Paleoindians. Becausegroups moved frequently, they did not rou-tinely bury their dead in cemeteries — peoplewho died were probably buried nearby, soonafter death. There are indications that somemale hunters were buried with new, freshly-chipped spear points that are much largerthan normal-size points used on huntingspears. Based on studies of hunting groupsthought to be similar to Paleoindians, widely-scattered Paleoindian groups likely met on aseasonal basis at particular, well-known ren-dezvous locations. These multi-band gath-erings would have been held for social andritual activities, the formation of alliancesbetween bands, the initiation of young peopleinto adult status, the selection of marriagepartners, feasting, and the sharing of infor-mation and knowledge about hunting prac-tices and the location of good chert sourcesand hunting grounds.

CLOVIS IN ILLINOISTypical Clovis sites in Illinois are small

scatters of stone tools and chipping debris.Often the bulk of material found onPaleoindian sites consists of chert (or flint)chipping debris, the waste products of toolmanufacture and maintenance, orresharpening. These artifact scatters repre-sent the durable remains of brief campsites,but some scatters could be the remains of killsites such as that at Mastodon State Park.Larger campsites and quarry-workshop sitesare less common but no less significant.Workshops are spots near chert outcropswhere stone tools were manufactured. Weknow that Clovis groups were highly mobilebecause at these workshops we find heavilyresharpened, or expended, Clovis pointsmade from non-local cherts. Workshops arealso important because they contain unfin-ished tools that were broken or rejectedduring manufacture, and these items pro-vide unique insights into Clovis technology.Workshops were also “classrooms” for teach-ing youngsters tool-making skills.

Large campsites, some encompassingseveral acres, are places on the landscapethat were periodically revisited because they

Illustration by Andy Buttram. Courtesy of the Dickson Mounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.


Paleoindian points from West-Central Illinois. Courtesy of the Dickson Mounds branch ofthe Illinois State Museum. Photograph by Micheal Brohm.

were adjacent to ideal hunting grounds, suchas wetlands, salt licks, and stream crossings.They were also ideal spots for bands to

congregate, owing to their proximity to over-land trails or to prominent landmarks. Theselarge sites, such as the Mueller site in St.Clair County in southwestern Illinois, aretypified by tools made from non-local cherts.More than 200 Clovis tools have been col-lected at the Mueller site. All but a few aremade from a single non-local raw material –Attica chert from the Wabash Valley inIndiana. At the Bostrom site, also in St. ClairCounty, large numbers of Clovis tools werealso recovered, but they are made from awide assortment of non-local cherts. TheBostrom site appears to be a well-used hunt-ing camp, possibly a gathering place forgroups coming from different directions,obtaining chert from a variety of sources. Incontrast, the Mueller site appears to be acampsite that was repeatedly visited by asingle group that periodically traveled acrossIllinois from the Attica chert source to theMississippi Valley.

While chert may have been exchangedbetween individuals in different bands, thiskind of exchange does not easily explain theoverwhelming pattern of non-local chert use,as evidenced at workshops and at campsitesall over Illinois and Indiana. In fact, differ-ences in cherts found at Clovis sites suggestthat Clovis groups followed seasonal or an-

nual rounds, moving as much as 480 to 640km (300 to 400 mi.) between chert sources insouthern Illinois, northern Illinois, western

Illinois, and eastern Indiana.

DALTON CULTUREThe groups that made Clovis

points and later styles of fluted points,such as Cumberland, were replacedby or incorporated into groups thatmade Dalton points. Dalton groupswere adapted to the developing, es-sentially “modern” climate and movednorthward in tandem with the spreadof deciduous woodlands. Evidence ofthis woodland adaptation is found inthe appearance of the chipped-stoneadze, hafted onto a short L-shapedhandle and used to make dugout ca-noes, wooden bowls, and other uten-sils and equipment. Dalton groups didnot trek hundreds of miles to hunt orretool, and they hunted modern gameanimals, like white-tail deer, becausemastodons and other large Ice-Agemammals were extinct. Dalton popu-lations were the first groups to settleinto the landscape, routinely usingcaves and rock shelters and local chertsources. Moreover, they were the firstto establish formal cemeteries andsystems of ritualized exchange. Theseexchange networks facilitated the for-mation of alliances with neighboringgroups. The inter-band allianceshelped to mediate potential conflictsand food shortfalls stemming from the

less mobile Dalton lifestyle.

DALTON INILLINOIS

The differing pat-terns of chert procure-ment evident in Illinoisbetween Clovis andDalton populations in-dicates that Clovisgroups were more mo-bile, traveling hundredsof square kilometerseach year to hunt and toretool at select chertsources. Dalton groups,on the other hand, ap-pear to have operatedwithin much smallerannual ranges (perhaps50-100 sq. km or 20- 40sq. mi.), and there is strong evidence ofritualized exchange between Dalton bands,which probably took place at multi-bandgathering places. In contrast, there is littleevidence in Illinois of Clovis ritualized ex-change.

In southern Illinois, Dalton sites typi-cally outnumber Clovis sites, indicating thatDalton groups not only used the landscape

more intensively, but also existed in largernumbers. While additional research is nec-essary to bolster these interpretations, thereis considerable evidence of Dalton groupsrepresenting the first populations to havetruly settled into southern Illinois, especiallythe Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. By“settling in,” we mean they explored andused the landscape (and it various resources)with greater intensity than ever before. Clovisgroups, in contrast, appear to have movedthrough the region more rapidly, less fre-quently, and in smaller numbers, probablyfollowing herd animals and apparently reus-ing specific locales and resources.

The settling-in process was triggeredduring the close of the Ice Age (about 9,000years ago) when temperate, deciduous forestexpanded northward up the Mississippi Val-ley into Illinois. With the retreating conti-nental ice sheets, Clovis groups were repeat-edly faced with new and dynamic climaticconditions, coupled with often rapid shifts inplant and animal communities, which con-tributed to large-mammal extinctions. Daltongroups probably moved northward into Illi-nois in tandem with the change in plant andanimal communities. Dalton groups werevery successful at carving a foraging lifestyleout of these developing, expanding wood-lands. New woodland habitants harboredseasonally predictable resources, such asnuts, white-tailed deer, squirrels, and othergame. Developments in Illinois during thefollowing Archaic periods are, in large part,built on the foraging lifestyle Dalton groupscarved out of the newly emerging deciduouswoodlands.

Brad KoldehoffIllinois Transportation Archaeological Re-search ProgramUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

John A. WalthallIllinois Department of Transportation

Clovis and Dalton points and scrapers from Illinois: a, Clovis point (littleuse wear); b, Clovis point (heavily used and resharpened); c, Dalton point(note beveling along right-hand blade edge); d-f, endscrapers; g-h, sidescrapers. Drawings courtesy of the Illinois Transportation Archaeologi-cal Research Program and the Wisconsin Archeological Society.


THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

The end of the Ice Age in Illinois led toan abrupt environmental change. The warmerclimate encouraged the growth of new plants,and in many areas deciduous trees replacedspruce and pine. Ice-Age mammals becameextinct, and Paleoindian people had to altertheir way of life and adjust to a changedenvironment. This new way of life, namedthe Archaic Period of Native American cul-

ture, began around 10,000 years ago andlasts until 3,000 years ago. The Archaic isdivided into three sub-periods: Early (10,000to 8,000 years ago), Middle (8,000 to 5,000years ago), and Late Archaic (5,000 to 3,000years ago).

Climatic changes during the ArchaicPeriod affected the types of plant and animalresources in Illinois. At the beginning of theArchaic, the average annual temperature wascooler, and there was more precipitation.Ice-age mammals such as the mastodon,mammoth, and peccary were extinct by thebeginning of the Archaic Period, replacedby animals new to Illinois, such as the white-tailed deer, raccoon, and opossum. A vari-ety of amphibians, reptiles, fish, and mus-sels, along with migratory waterfowl, be-came common. The cool, moist climate ofthe Early Archaic gradually changed so thatby 5,000 years ago, the average annual tem-perature and precipitation were similar topresent-day levels. In central Illinois,changes in weather patterns transformed thedeciduous forests of the Early Archaic to alandscape of vast prairies with forests bor-dering ponds, streams, and rivers. Forestspersisted throughout the Archaic Period insouthern Illinois and portions of northern

Illinois.Archaeologists have identified more

than 8,300 Archaic Period sites in Illinois.These include small, temporary campsitesthat may have been used by hunters andgatherers in search of game or plant foods tocollect, as well as larger villages that werethe location of long-term or repeated occu-pation. Such sites are identified by the

presence of certain chert pro-jectile point types, includinga variety of stemmed andnotched chipped-stone toolsthat functioned as spearpoints and knives. Stonetools at Archaic sites are of-ten made from nearby chertsources, indicating increas-ing familiarity with the re-sources available in certainlocations. Grooved axesmade from ground and pol-ished igneous rock are alsoassociated with the Archaicperiod. More perishable ar-tifacts made from animalbone and mussel shell aresometimes found in Illinois,but wooden items, plant fi-

bers, and animal hides that would have beenused extensively throughout prehistory arerarely preserved except as pieces of char-coal.

EARLY ARCHAIC HUNTERS ANDGATHERERS

Early Archaic people hunted animals asdiverse as white-tailed deer, elk, bear, cot-tontail rabbit and turkey. Wetland areasadjacent to lakes and marshes in the uplandswere favored resource areas, as were themajor river valleys. In addition to hunting,Early Archaic people gathered plant foodsas an integral part of their diet. Roots andtubers were available in early spring. Dur-ing the summer, berries and other plantscould be harvested, while in the fall, nutssuch as walnut, pecan, and hickory were animportant source of protein and fat.

There are many more recorded EarlyArchaic sites in Illinois compared toPaleoindian sites, suggesting a substantialincrease in population. Most Early Archaicsites are small, with few artifacts. Followinga settlement pattern similar to that of thePaleoindian Period, groups of Early Archaicpeople, perhaps only ten family members,lived at the sites for a short time before

moving to another location. The choice ofsite location, often on high river terraces orupland areas adjacent to wetlands, was basedon seasonal availability of resources. Someof the temporary locations later became vil-lages where Archaic people lived for ex-tended periods.

Few excavations have taken place atEarly Archaic sites in Illinois. The ModocRock Shelter, located at the edge of theMississippi River floodplain in RandolphCounty, was occupied by Archaic peoplesfor more than 6,000 years. Excavationsthere in the 1950s produced charcoal thatwas used for some of the first radiocarbondating in eastern North America. At theKoster site in Greene County, excavations inthe 1970s revealed a series of stratified occu-pations spanning the Archaic period. EarlyArchaic occupations there included some ofthe oldest evidence in North America of theuse of ground stone manos, metates, andpestles for food preparation, the establish-ment of a cemetery for deceased members ofthe community, and the presence of domes-ticated dogs.

Information on what Early Archaicpeople may have looked like, and how longthey lived is sketchy because few skeletonsfrom this period have been studied by oste-ologists. The Archaic people averagedaround five feet tall and lived for 25 or 30years. While they had relatively few dentalcavities because their diet was a healthymixture of foods with relatively little sugar,a comparatively large number of Archaicpeople had bone fractures and arthritis.During the Early Archaic Period, hunterscontinued to use spears for hunting. Use ofthe atlatl or spear thrower included placingweights on the atlatl shaft, probably improv-ing its balance, as well as serving as ritualobjects. Lanceolate projectile point types inthe Early Archaic lack the distinctive fluteassociated with the Paleoindian Period.

MIDDLE ARCHAIC PERMANENTSETTLEMENTS

The eastward expansion of the prairiefrom the Plains began around 8,000 yearsago with a warmer, drier climatic pattern.This notable shift, named the HypsithermalInterval, resulted in a climate slightly warmer,with less precipitation than that found inIllinois today. With fewer resources avail-able in the uplands, the focus of prehistoricsettlements shifted from generalized use ofupland areas to the major river valleys, which

Illustration by Andy Buttram. Courtesy of the Dickson Mounds branch of theIllinois State Museum.


Archaic diorama, Peoples of the Past exhibit. Courtesy of the Illinois State Museum.

offered abundant and diverse resources.Instead of living primarily in short-termoccupations, Middle Archaic people situ-ated base camps at the edge of the flood-plain, where a variety of seasonal resources

could be reached without having to move thesettlement location. Migratory waterfowl,fish, freshwater mussels, turtle, marsh rootsand tubers, and seeds from wild plants couldall be found in the floodplain, while nearbyupland forests supported white-tailed deerand offered protein-rich nuts for harvesting.

Evidence for this change in prehistoricresource exploitation patterns has been foundat sites in Illinois. In some areas, MiddleArchaic people concentrated on aquatic re-sources, especially in the warm-weathermonths. Archaeologists found evidence atthe Koster site that people built shelters withlarge support posts as early as 5000 B.C. Inaddition, abundant pits, some used for pro-cessing hickory nuts, large quantities of burntlimestone and fire-cracked rock, and numer-ous chipped-stone and ground stone arti-facts indicated a permanent settlement.Koster also had a cemetery where deceasedmembers of the community were buried.

The spear points or knives for the MiddleArchaic include large, side-notched pointsand artifact types that are specific to certainregions. Exploitation of an increased vari-ety of resources resulted in the use of agreater variety of ground-stone and boneimplements and chert tools, such as roughbifaces or “preforms,” choppers, end andside scrapers, drills and flake tools. Achipped-stone chert tool would have beenused to cut and shape deer bone implementsused in sewing and weaving, as well as tomake bone and shell ornaments. In compari-son to chert tools, ground-stone tools re-quired many hours of effort to make a single

axe or adze. Igneous or metamorphic rockwas pecked away and shaped into a roughform that was finished and polished with anabrasive material like sandstone. Largeigneous grinding stones or metates found at

Middle Archaic sitesdemonstrate both theextensive processingof nuts and otherplant materials, andthe sedentary natureof the occupations.

LATE ARCHAICREGIONALDEVELOPMENTS

During the LateArchaic, villageswith increased popu-lations continued tobe located near a va-riety of food re-sources. Some settle-ments, such as theRiverton Culture

communities along the Wabash River insoutheastern Illinois, may have had as manyas 200 residents.

There is little evidence for trade duringthe Early and Middle Archaic periods. Non-local items, such as unusual chert for stonetools, found on early sites in Illinois prob-ably were acquired as people moved fromplace to place. In con-trast, by the Late Ar-chaic period, materialswere obtained throughtrade from a variety ofplaces. Long-distancetrade now included ma-rine shell from the At-lantic and Gulf Coasts,hematite and magnetitefrom the Ozarks, cop-per from the Lake Su-perior region, galenafrom the Upper Missis-sippi Valley and south-eastern Missouri, anddistinctive chert typesfrom areas of the Mid-west outside Illinois. Use of large spearpoints or knives continued, but smaller dartpoints made during the Late Archaic couldfly farther and more readily penetrate ananimal. The use of specialized ground-stoneand chipped-stone tools continued in theLate Archaic, reflecting the increased ex-ploitation of regionally available animal andplant communities.

Late Archaic people relied on huntingand gathering like their predecessors, but for

the first time, they supplemented their dietwith cultivated plant foods. For example,sumpweed (Iva annua) seeds at the Napo-leon Hollow site, located on the IllinoisRiver in Pike County, were much larger thanthose found today in nature, indicating thatthey were cultivated. Sunflower, goosefoot,and squash were also cultivated in the LateArchaic Period.

In the Late Archaic, elaborate artifactsfound in the graves of some people suggestthat these individuals had a special status,perhaps as group leaders, hunters, or spiri-tual leaders. The types of artifacts includedin the graves are finely made axes, some ofcopper, finely crafted spear points madefrom non-local chert, marine shell, and pol-ished stone atlatl weights. Red ochre madefrom ground hematite was sometimessprinkled over the human remains and arti-facts. This distinctive Red Ochre mortuarycomplex, originally defined by archaeolo-gists working in the central Illinois Rivervalley, occurs across the southern GreatLakes region at the very end of the LateArchaic period.

The seven-thousand year span of theArchaic period includes several trends incultural adaptations, including an increasein population, settlement of larger villagesover increased periods of time during certainseasons of the year, exploitation of aquaticresources in floodplain environments, de-

velopment of specialized stone and bonetools and ceremonial objects, and the use ofhorticulture to supplement hunting and gath-ering.

Michael D. WiantDickson Mounds Museum

Alice BerksonPublic Service Archaeology ProgramUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Archaic artifacts from the Sampson collection, Knox and Fulton Counties,Illinois. Courtesy of the Dickson Mounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.


THE WOODLAND PERIOD

The Woodland period in Illinois prehis-tory was an era of growing population andincreasing cultural complexity that witnessedimportant changes in social and religioussystems, long-distance trade and communi-cation, and the fabric of everyday life. Theperiod began with the regional appearanceof pottery vessels and of small, shiftinggroups of hunters and gatherers. It ended

with large-village sedentary agriculturalistswho used the bow and arrow for hunting andfor territorial defense.

LATE ARCHAIC TO WOODLANDTRANSITION

The Early Woodland period is some-times called “Late Archaic with pots.” How-ever, in the Illinois/Mississippi Riverconfluence region, the cultural shift betweenTerminal Archaic and Early Woodlandgroups appears to be rapid and pervasive.This suggests more complex population in-teractions took place, not simply the addi-tion of clay-pot cooking technology to Ar-chaic lifeways. The principal Terminal Ar-chaic bluff-base occupations, called the Prai-rie Lake culture, have substantial villageswith associated cemeteries. Early Wood-land sites are usually small and imperma-nent, often located in large floodplains, andlacking evidence of associated burials ormortuary activity, but they contain frag-ments of the first Native American hand-made pottery in Illinois. From around 600 to200 B.C., pottery-making people from theGreat Lakes region to the north (Marionculture) and from the Mississippi Valley to

the south (Black Sand culture) made tempo-rary settlements in Illinois. At this time,Prairie Lake villages disappear from thearchaeological record, along with associ-ated Red Ochre mortuary ceremonialismand trade. In southern Illinois, the earliestWoodland pottery is associated with smallCrab Orchard culture settlements. Becauseof stable subsistence adaptations in this re-

gion, Crab Orchard cul-ture remains persist intoMiddle Woodlandtimes.

HAVANAHOPEWELLCULTURE

In the central Illi-nois valley, the arrivalof Marion peoples mayhave minimized BlackSand occupations andsparked interaction withresidents, perhaps in-cluding participation ina late form of the RedOchre mortuary cult.This may have led tothe local developmentof an Early Havana cul-ture and the fluores-cence of social, politi-

cal and ritual complexity that are the hall-marks of Middle Woodland times.

The “Havana” culture derives its namefrom the present-day town of Havana, situ-ated on the banks of the Illinois River in thecentral valley at the site of a major MiddleWoodland village and mound group. Theterm “Hopewellian” is used to underscorethe similarities of Middle Woodland tradegoods and mortuary ritual to artifacts andmortuary activities discovered at a mound/earthwork on Capt. M. C. Hopewell’s farmin south-central Ohio.

Rapid central Illinois valley culturechange resulted in early Havana sites andartifact assemblages by about 200 to 150B.C., followed by development of extensivemound building and participation inHopewellian mortuary ritual by around 100B.C. to A.D. 1. At this time, Middle Wood-land settlements spread south into the lowerIllinois valley, following an apparent exo-dus of Black Sand people 200 years earlier,eventually filling its drainage with over 350settlements, and more than 300 mound groupsand a variety of small mortuary-related sites.The richness of its natural resources and thedeparture of preceding Early Woodland

populations made the lower Illinois Valleyan ideal setting for the growth and develop-ment of Illinois Middle Woodland commu-nities and elaboration of social and politicalsystems associated with Hopewellian ritualand trade.

The first evidence of pioneerHopewellian Middle Woodland settlement(in the northern lower Illinois valley) seemsto be a single river-edge mortuary/rituallocality, surrounded by several single-house-hold to small-hamlet sized habitations. Sub-sequently, floodplain Hopewellian moundsand ritual centers were established at ap-proximately 15-20 km (9-12 mi.) intervalsalong the river. Each floodplain ritual pre-cinct was associated with larger bluff-basevillages (of perhaps 25 to 30 people) havingadjacent bluff-top mounded cemeteries, per-haps indicating separate subsistence territo-ries. Large populations of deer, fish, mus-sels, and migratory waterfowl were exploited.Middle Woodland communities also appearto have practiced an early form of horticul-ture in selecting certain edible seed plantsfor cultivation, including a variety of nutcrops and starchy and oily annual seed plantssuch as knotweed, goosefoot, marsh elder,and sunflower. Squash, gourds, and littlebarley were also grown, along with a smallamount of tobacco. While the earliest se-curely-dated contexts for corn are from A.D.500-600 (after Middle Woodland), someresearchers have contended that there wereMiddle Woodland experiments in corn-growing.

Initially, Illinois Hopewellian develop-ments were thought to have been fueled bydirect trade with Hopewellian centers inOhio. But recent studies have shown thatwhile some materials, such as obsidian, KnifeRiver chalcedony, mica, and marine shellswere transported great distances, most weremade or acquired nearby. Elaborately deco-rated pottery vessels, pipestone animal-ef-figy platform pipes, lead ore, and colorfulcherts appear to have originated in or nearIllinois. Given the similarities in Hopewellianritual practices between south central Ohioand the Illinois Valley, it is a near certaintythat communication existed on several lev-els. The focus of this interaction may havebeen different in adjacent regions and likelychanged through time. Gatherings at sacredHopewellian sites probably reinforced groupsolidarity through shared mortuary ritual,seasonal earth-renewal fertility rites, andcommunal feasting. Such ritual events likelyalso helped validate territorial, leadership,and marriage claims, while encouraging



Middle Woodland artifacts from the central Illinois River valley. Courtesy of the DicksonMounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.

wide-ranging trade in everything from food-stuffs to exotic ritual materials.

While the most extensive and complexpopulations of Middle Woodland consum-ers in Illinois are clearly those of the lower

and central Illinois River valleys, important“gateway” trade and ritual centers and theirsurrounding village clusters are found as farnorth as the Albany site (Whiteside County)and as far south as the Twenhafel site (Jack-son County). Havana culture settlementsand evidence of Hopewellian ritual havealso been discovered along other river sys-tems throughout the northern two-thirds ofthe state, including the Kankakee and WabashRiver valleys. Notably, Middle Woodlandresidents of much of the Mississippi valleyfrom the American Bottom to the Iowa Riverwere more marginal participants inHopewellian interaction, as were southernIllinois late Crab Orchard groups and earlySteuben communities in northern Illinois.Such groups may have played an importantrole in the Late Woodland cultural shift thatoccurred after the elaborate Hopewelliantrade and ritual system unraveled and disap-peared from the archaeological record atabout A.D. 350-450.

LATE WOODLANDThere are rapid regional culture

changes, including artifact assemblagechanges, and a shift in settlement patternsleading to Late Woodland cultures aroundA.D. 350 to 650. Several contemporaneousearly Late Woodland cultural groups arenamed White Hall, Weaver, Steuben, andRosewood for their ceramic styles. Theyabandoned the decorative ceramic diversityof Middle Woodland times in favor of acomparatively homogeneous group ofcordmarked jars. Distinctive Middle Wood-land projectile point styles and diagnosticchert tools like lamellar blades vanishedfrom the tool kit, as did the trade goods

associated with the Hopewellian communi-cation and exchange network.

From a subsistence and settlement per-spective, the Weaver culture inhabitants ofIllinois appear to be the children and grand-

children ofHopewellians. How-ever, it has been dif-ficult to separate thetwo cultural groupsfor study, becausethey often occupy thesame sites and thereappears to be less thana 100-year gap be-tween Havana andf u l l y - d e v e l o p e dWeaver assemblages(ca. A.D. 350-450).The period of culturechange may havebeen a fairly orderlyone. Some earlyWeaver culture ves-

sels seem to be copied from earlier MiddleWoodland ceramics, both in their shapesand in the cross-over use of design ele-ments. However, mortuary ceremonialism,as measured by grave offerings and distinc-tive mound structure, all but disappears. Bymid-Weaver times, comprehensive regionalsocial change had already occurred, butarchaeologists cannot yet provide an expla-nation for this change andthe disappearance ofHopewell. The earliest ap-pearance of maize agricul-ture and first use of the bowand arrow occur in the finalcentury of large-valleyWeaver occupations.

Late Woodland sitesare numerous throughoutIllinois after A.D. 700.They are called the Bluffculture in the southwest-ern part of the state,Dillinger in southern Illinoisand Maples Mills, BauerBranch, and Langford in thecentral and northern areas. Sitesfrom this period have been mostextensively studied along the majorriver valleys, particularly in the Ameri-can Bottom, where there is a smooth transi-tion from Late Woodland to “EmergentMississippian” communities after A.D. 850-900. The most substantial of these sitesappear to be much larger than the largestHavana and Weaver culture settlements,with perhaps 50 to 100 residents, hinting ata developing political complexity not re-flected in their mortuary sites. The bow andarrow was an efficient weapon for hunting

white-tailed deer, and at the margins of theirregional territories, it was used against hu-mans to emphasize territorial claims and todiscourage other transgressions. There ap-pears to have been substantial populationexpansion, not only in major river valleysbut also encompassing larger secondarystream systems, with over 200 late “JerseyBluff” phase habitation sites and more than300 burial Late Bluff mounds known fromMacoupin valley alone. During this period,individual health and life expectancy dete-riorated with increased dependence on maizein the diet. Late Woodland cemeteries showlimited evidence for social hierarchies, andfew burials contain grave offerings beyondoccasional cordmarked pottery vessels andsimple clay or limestone smoking pipes.

Because of the filling of the landscapeand the rapid development of regional cul-ture traditions, Bluff culture Late Wood-land groups were faced with the necessity todefend regional boundaries or accept as-pects of dissimilar nearby cultures. This isparticularly apparent in the lower IllinoisValley, whose numerous post-A.D. 1000Jersey Bluff phase occupants resisted Ameri-can Bottom Mississippian acculturation forat least 200 years, except at some largervalley-trench occupations where elementsof Mississippian mortuary ceremonialismwere integrated into local burial traditions.

Thus, a 1500-year period that beganwith mobile, extended-family groups of EarlyWoodland floodplainhunter-gatherers, latersaw small MiddleWoodland hamletswhere people pursuedintensive harvest-col-lecting of renewablenatural resources,practiced seed planthorticulture, and par-ticipated in the elabo-

rate Hopewellian mor-tuary ritual associated

with long-distance tradeand social interaction. Fi-

nally, Late Woodland timesaw the development of corn ag-

riculture, the arrival of bow-and-arrow technology, and the establish-

ment of large Bluff culture villages. Atabout A.D. 1000, a sometimes-violent clashof lifestyles resulted from the developmentof Mississippian towns and ritual systems inthe American Bottom.

Kenneth B. FarnsworthIllinois Transportation ArchaeologyResearch Program, University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign

Havana Ware pottery vessel from the Dickson Campsite, Fulton County, Illinois. Courtesy of the DicksonMounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.


THE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD

At the end of the first millennia, Illinoiswas the scene of tremendous social andpolitical transformations, resulting in thecreation of what archaeologists call Missis-sippian. The Mississippian period is distin-guished by the appearance of characteristicsfound in complex societies, such as largepopulation clusters, some verging on urbancenters, monumentally scaled architecture,maize and starchy seed agricultural systems,hierarchical organization, recognizable eth-nic diversity, and a rich array of accompany-ing political and religious symbols.

Mississippian material culture and tech-nology, while it differed in detail, sharedmany similarities with that of the precedingLate Woodland period. Mississippianshunted, fished, and fought with the bow andarrow. The main agricultural implementswere stone hoes made from southern IllinoisMill Creek chert, along with digging sticks.The vast majority of raw material needs

were obtained from nearby regional re-sources, with the Ozarks providing the mainsource of white cherts, galena, copper, redflint clays for figurines, minerals, and crys-tals. As in earlier times, a limited number ofobjects, such as seashells or mica, continueto be brought from distant sources. Corn andmany domesticated native plants providedtheir main foods but wild animals, espe-cially fish and deer, were important supple-ments. One of the earliest, most impressiveand influential centers of Mississippian cul-ture appeared in the American Bottom nearEast St. Louis. Now known as “Cahokia,”this massive political and cultural center andthe adjacent mound centers at St. Louis, EastSt. Louis, Mitchell, and Pulcher served asthe catalyst for change across much of thestate and the midcontinent over the threecenturies of its existence.

MISSISSIPPIAN ORIGINSBetween about A.D. 600 and A.D. 1000,

Late Woodland societies in the rich flood-plain of the American Bottom had becomeincreasingly more sedentary and were livingin many small communities spread acrossthe region. They had perfected a system ofmaize agriculture and become dependent onit. This lifestyle had led to increased num-bers of people and larger and more orga-nized villages. Socially and politically, thesepeople could be characterized as “tribal” innature, with patterns of informal leadershipand kin-dominated relationships.

At about A.D. 1050 this all changed.Within an archaeological “blink-of-an-eye”the lifeways of American Bottom popula-tions were transformed. The people aban-doned their scattered villages and clusteredinto one of several large temple mound andplaza centers. Subsequently, single-familyhouseholds re-occupied the countryside. The

influence of themound centers mayhave attractedpeoples from outsidethe area who wereethnically differentfrom the Cahokians.Massive temple andburial mounds, hugewooden post-circlesand large templeswere built in thesenew population cen-ters. These monu-ments were distrib-uted about a centralplaza and surroundedby multitudes ofhouses organizedinto discrete neigh-borhood clusters.Abandoning a tradi-

tion of diverse pottery designs, a new ho-mogenous shell-tempered ceramic style wasadopted, including many new vessel formssuch as water bottles, shallow plates andpans, cup-like beakers, and salt-processingpans. Even the basic houses they lived inchanged from single-post to wall-trench con-struction.

CAHOKIA LIFEWAYSWith the emergence of Mississippian

society we see a real dichotomy in peoples’lifestyles. The towns became the residencesof religious and political leaders, crafts spe-cialists, and their supporters. The country-side also contained the homes and templesof some leaders, but most of their followersprobably lived in the surrounding rural areason farmsteads or in hamlets. These farmswere the homes of small family groups whowere the primary producers of the maize that

allowed the towns to exist. The farms typi-cally included one or two buildings (eachabout 3.6 m x 4.5 m or 12 x 15 ft.) made ofupright poles interwoven with branches.Both their roofs and walls were covered withrain-repellent thatch. These were the resi-dences of Cahokian farmers as well as theirmain storage containers. Food and toolswere stored in the eaves of the houses and instorage pits dug in the house floor or in thesurrounding yard. Archeologically, suchfarm sites produce the broken remnants ofutilitarian pottery jars and bowls, stone hoes,small chert cutting and scraping tools, andplant and animal debris – the stuff of every-day life in the Cahokian world.

The evidence that may provide the mostinsight into these changes relates to the emer-gence of significant social divisions withinMississippian societies. The large moundsof the centers were platforms for the homesof the leaders and the temples of the gods.We now see the presence of a segment ofsociety, referred to by some as nobility, thatis intimately associated with spiritual, po-litical, and social power, and which is spa-tially segregated from those who comprisethe vast majority of the population. No-where is this separation more clearly indi-cated than in the Cahokia Mound 72 mortu-ary, where several burials show evidence ofa ceremony that involved the sacrifice ofmany followers and war prisoners. Suchburials also included elaborate shell capes,hundreds of arrows, chunky stones, micaand copper.

The leaders of Cahokia were respon-sible for organizing large communal feastsand celebrations of religious and politicalevents, which were a major factor in main-taining group solidarity. They also enhancedand formalized intricate religious practicesthat included priests, temples and a rich artthat focused on aspects of life renewal, fer-tility, and, later, warfare. These depictionsincluded some of the most spectacular im-ages produced in native arts, such as the redstone goddess figurines of Cahokia. Verylikely the same class of people were also thewar leaders in the numerous conflicts thatcharacterized the Mississippian period. Suchwar parties may have traveled long distancesoverland or along the rivers in large fleets ofdugout canoes to attack the palisaded vil-lages of their neighbors.

MISSISSIPPIAN INFLUENCESTo a large extent, the cultural history of

Illinois beginning a thousand years ago isintimately tied to the social and politicaltrajectory of the Mississippian peoples ofCahokia and the American Bottom.Cahokia’s influence through warfare, andpolitical, social, and economic interactionswith its neighbors had a profound, but un-



even, influence on the configuration of thelate prehistoric cultural landscape. In Illi-nois we see evidence of cultural changedirectly related to Cahokia among the peoplewho live in the valleys of the Illinois, Apple,Kaskaskia, and Vermilion rivers. The lowerIllinois River valley appears to have beenoccupied contemporaneously by scatteredMississippian groups and fairly dense popu-lations of Late Woodland peoples in the 11th

and 12th centuries. It is possible that thelower valley was actually a buffer zonebetween the American Bottom and centralIllinois River valley groups, suggesting aless than friendly relationship.

Mississippian groups also appear in theBlack Bottom on the Ohio River and in theWabash River valleys but Cahokia does notstrongly influence these people. They werefirmly tied to the Mississippian cultures ofIndiana and Kentucky. The largest of theseearly river towns was Kincaid, located onthe border of Massac and Pulaski counties.Here, in a fortified town containing nineteenplatform and mortuary mounds organizedaround two ceremonial plazas, resided thepeople of the most powerful southern Illi-nois chiefdom. While Kincaid dwarfed itsneighbors, it was less than one-fifteenth thesize of Cahokia. Like many other outlyingcenters, most of Kincaid’s population livedin the surrounding farms and hamlets. Thepalisaded town center functioned as the abodeof society’s elite, and as a ceremonial-politi-cal center and a place of refuge in troubledtimes for the entire population.

In several localities, including the Spoonand LaMoine Rivers, the Apple River valleyin northwestern Illinois, and the lowerKaskaskia River valley, Mississippian vil-lages appear in the 12th century. Archaeolo-gists debate about the origins of these vil-lages but, in general, they seem best ex-plained by the movement of actual residentsof the American Bottom to these locations.The newcomers brought their distinctivelifestyle patterns and, through comminglingwith the resident Late Woodland inhabit-ants, created distinctive new Mississippiancultures. There is little evidence of contin-ued contact between these outlying Missis-

Duck effigy bowl from the Vandeventersite, Brown County, Illinois. Courtesyof the Dickson Mounds branch of theIllinois State Museum.

sippian peoples and those of the AmericanBottom, indicating independence fromCahokian control.

MISSISSIPPIAN IN THE ILLINOISRIVER VALLEY

The most thoroughly studied groups ofnorthern Mississippians are the peoples wholived in the Spoon River and adjacent centralIllinois River valleys. During the 12th to 15th

centuries, at least seven major fortified templetowns were built there. These villages carryon the general patterns of American BottomMississippian life, but one adapted to thediffering social and political realities of the

northern regions.While villages of300 to 500 resi-dents are often laidout in an orderlyfashion about acentral plaza, smallplatform and burialmounds, as well asfarmsteads, are lo-cated outside thevillages. Theyused the same toolsas their moresoutherly rela-tions, althoughthey had ties to thewest that led to thereplacement of the

stone hoes with those made from bison scapu-las. They were farmers, hunters, and fisherswho, based on excavated animal and plantremains, lived in a very productive environ-ment. Because of excavations at DicksonMounds and the Larson and Orendorf vil-lages we know much about thehealth, lives and deaths ofthese early natives. Weknow, for example,that while the peoplewere fairly healthy,the valley was a dan-gerous place since the ma-jority of the villages are sur-rounded by stout fortifications.It is apparent fromarcheologically recovered skel-etons showing signs of violentdeath and mutilation, and fromburned villages, that warfare was aconstant threat.

There is little evidence in the outly-ing Mississippian areas for the rigid seg-mentation of society into distinct hierarchi-cal groups similar to the American Bottom.While the village leaders may have lived inlarger houses fronting on the plaza, theywere still neighbors to their followers resid-ing in adjoining houses laid out in neat rows.The leaders did possess locally significantpolitical and religious symbols, such as stoneanimal effigy pipes, copper ornaments, andstone “swords” and “maces,” and their sta-tus was recognized in death with more elabo-rate offerings. While they were clearly still

“chiefs,” northern Mississippian societieswere less stratified and more egalitarian innature than those at Cahokia, probably as aresult of the relatively small populations andtheir location in a frontier.

A similar pattern of interaction is foundin the upper Illinois River valley. Around900 years ago, a new cultural pattern arisesin the valley north of the Big Bend nearStarved Rock State Park. The new culture isreferred to by archaeologists as the LangfordTradition and emerges out of the interactionof Late Woodland groups with the new Mis-sissippian chiefdoms of the central IllinoisRiver valley, changing their lives dramati-cally. The previous Late Woodland peoplelived in small, widely scattered camps, grow-ing some corn, hunting elk, but living a fairlymobile lifestyle. While the Late Woodlandpeople may have traded and even intermar-ried with the Mississippians, we see an in-creased level of violence in the central andupper Illinois River valley during this pe-riod. The Langford people clustered to-gether in large villages, perhaps with a cen-tral open plaza, and often accompanied by acommunal burial mound area. They alsomodified their pottery vessels to more closelyresemble those of their Mississippian neigh-bors and became more dependent on cornagriculture. This material culture andlifestyle has been labeled Upper Mississip-pian by archeologists to distinguish its blendof Late Woodland and Mississippian char-acteristics.

By 600 years ago, Mississippian culturedisappears from the American Bottom andareas to the north such as the Illinois Riverand the Apple River valleys. There havebeen suggestions that small, but significant,shifts in climatic conditions, increased inter-nal disputes and external warfare, or deterio-ration of local environmental conditions

through over-exploitation may have beenimportant in this event. No answers arecompletely satisfactory but we do know thatMississippian peoples in southern Illinoisand the southeastern United States did con-tinue their traditions until the 16th century, insome cases until contact with Europeans.

Thomas E. EmersonIllinois Transportation ArchaeologicalResearch ProgramUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Artist's rendering of Settlement D at the Orendorf site, Fulton County, Illinois. Drawingby Kelvin Sampson. Courtesy of the Upper Mississippi Valley Research Foundation.


THE LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD

In Illinois, the Late Mississippian Pe-riod extends from A.D. 1300 until thearrival of French explorers in A.D. 1673.During this time we have no written recordspertaining to Illinois. Native American

history is recorded through oral traditionand by artifacts and related materials, thesubject of archaeological research.

The Late Mississippian Period was atime of great change. Some changes haveto do with the impact of distant Europeans.After A.D. 1500, as Europeans expandedtheir contacts along the coastal areas, Na-tive Americans obtained European goodsthrough trade networks long before theirfirst encounter. Epidemics of Europeandiseases, such as smallpox, may have sweptthrough Illinois, decimating native popu-lations. But many of the important changesin the Late Mississippian Period happenedbefore and did not have to do with thedistant effects of European contact.

Much changed in Illinois after aboutA.D. 1250. In the Illinois River valley andsouthern Illinois, Mississippian culturecontinued until after the 13th century, butthe population seems to have diminishedand the center of Mississippian influenceshifted south. In the northern part of Illi-nois, there were several varieties of “Up-per Mississippian” culture. Some groupsmoved into, and out of, the state. It isdifficult to say what caused this change.The waning influence of Cahokia mighthave created a local political vacuum insouthern and western Illinois, destabiliz-ing the region and leading to increased

violence. The decline of Cahokia prob-ably had little effect on northern and east-ern Illinois.

The climate also became cooler andfarming people had to adjust to a shorter

growing season andharsher winters.Whatever the cause,social instabilityclearly increased --the violence that waspresent in Mississip-pian times escalatedand many areas of thestate seem to havehad fewer and fewerpeople, continuing atrend that started atthe beginning of Mis-sissippian times.

SOUTHERNILLINOIS -THE LATEMISSISSIPPIANS

Mississippianinfluences continued

to lessen in Illinois all through the LateMississippian Period. Cahokia and itssurrounding temple mound centers haddeclined by A.D. 1300. Mississippianpeople continued to occupy smaller templemound centers in southern Illinois andalong the Illinois River until at least A.D.1400. South of the American Bottom,along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers,Mississippian culture continued for an-other century. In Arkansas and Tennessee,Mississippian culture was still present anddocumented by the first explorers in the1540s. Mississippian culture ceased shortlythereafter and much of the area around thesouthern tip of Illinois seems to have beenabandoned by Mississippians before thattime.

In the Ohio and Wabash River valleysin Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, a LateMississippian phase called Caborn-Welborn (A.D. 1400-1600) follows theMississippian Angel Phase. Like thoseparticipating in other Late Mississippiancultures, Caborn-Welborn people lived ina simpler fashion than their predecessors,who had built the impressive Angel Moundssite in southern Indiana. Caborn-Welbornpeople, whose tribal affiliation is notknown, were not present when Europeansarrived; in fact, explorers found few peopleliving in this region.

CENTRAL ILLINOIS -MISSISSIPPIAN AND UPPERMISSISSIPPIAN PEOPLE

In the Illinois River valley, the moundcenters and extended networks of smallersettlements established after A.D. 1100continued during the early part of the LateMississippian. After A.D. 1200, until per-haps A.D. 1400, Mississippian sites be-came more common in the Sangamon andLaMoine rivers region of the Illinois Val-ley. Although still rare, a few more smallMississippian sites were found in the lowerIllinois River valley. While earlier Missis-sippians occupied tributary streams of theIllinois River, nearly all later Mississip-pian settlements in central Illinois wereconfined to the river valley.

After A.D. 1300, Mississippian terri-tory in the Illinois River valley between themouth of Spoon River and Peoria appearsto have been shared with a group of Oneotapeople archaeologists identify as BoldCounselor. There is substantial evidencefor violence at this time, although it is notknown if the Bold Counselor and LateMississippians were fighting one other ora common foe. By A.D. 1400, a smallnumber of Bold Counselor Oneota peoplewere living with Mississippians at theCrable site, the last Mississippian templemound center. By A.D. 1450, Mississippi-ans had abandoned the Illinois Valley. Atpresent, the tribal affiliation of IllinoisRiver valley Mississippians and BoldCounselor Oneota is not known.

Between about A.D. 1300 and A.D.1500, there were a number of Oneota vil-lages along the Mississippi River betweenQuincy, Illinois and Muscatine, Iowa.These communities also were abandonedbefore European explorers visited Illinois.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS - UPPERMISSISSIPPIAN CULTURES

During the Mississippian Period,people identified by archaeologists asLangford became prominent in northernIllinois. At about the same time, Oneotaculture was emerging to the north andwest. Before A.D. 1300, Oneota waspresent across much of the Upper Missis-sippi River valley from Minnesota to north-ern Missouri and northern Illinois to Ne-braska. Two divisions of Oneota, Fisherand Huber, were present in northern Illi-nois during the Late Mississippian Period.Lastly, another Upper Mississippian group,identified as Danner on the basis of their



Oneota jar from the Norris Farms #36 site,Fulton County, Illinois. Courtesy of the DicksonMounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.

Marine shell spider gorget from theNorris Farms #36 site, Fulton County,Illinois. Courtesy of the Dickson Moundsbranch of the Illinois State Museum.

distinctive pottery, appears to have movedinto Illinois at the very end of the LateMississippian Period.

Langford culture was similar to Mis-sissippian culture found in the Illinois Rivervalley. Langford groups lived in smallvillages with mounds, but probably had aless complex social structure. They farmedintensively but also relied heavily on hunt-ing and gathering, espe-cially the rich wetlandresources of northernIllinois. Langfordculture in the up-per part of theIllinois Valleyappears tohave endedsoon afterA.D. 1300, al-though it per-sisted longerin northeasternIllinois. Thetribal affiliation ofLangford is cur-rently unknown.

The Fisher Oneota cul-ture emerged during the 12th century innorthern Illinois, occupying the region withgroups still following Langford traditions.By about the 15th century the Fisher peoplehad changed enough to be known as theHuber Oneota. Huber Oneota culture wasconcentrated largely in northeastern Illi-nois and northwestern Indiana in the Chi-cago/Kankakee area. Huber culture per-sisted until after A.D. 1600, when the ear-liest European trade goods began to comeinto Illinois. Some archaeologists havesuggested that the Huber culture might berelated to certain Siouan people, such asthe Winnebago. Very similar Oneotagroups in Iowa and Missouri have beenidentified as the Ioway and Missouri tribes,close relatives of the Winnebago.

People making Danner pottery cameto Illinois near the end of the Late Missis-sippian Period. Pottery essentially identi-cal to Danner is found along the southwest-ern shore of Lake Erie until the 16th cen-tury. Sites with Danner ceramics in Illi-nois have many types of European tradegoods, so these people were not in Illinoisbefore the 17th century. Sometime be-tween A.D. 1550 and A.D. 1650, peoplemaking Danner pottery must have movedto Illinois. Excavations at the Grand Vil-lage of the Illinois, also known as theZimmerman site, and a village in northeastMissouri, confirm that those with theDanner ceramic tradition were members ofthe Illinois tribe.

Period. Copper and marine shell artifacts(and the trade networks that moved themaround the country) were still very impor-tant, but the items are not as elaborate. AsEuropean trade goods become available af-ter A.D. 1600, changes in technology tookplace far in advance of the coming of the firstEuropeans. For instance, when Jolliet andMarquette came to Illinois in 1673, theyfound the Indians fully armed with guns andbusily occupied collecting furs for the Frenchtrade.

AT THE TIME OF CONTACTProgressively through the Late Mis-

sissippian Period, large areas of Illinoisappear to have been depopulated, sug-gesting there was much conflict. BetweenA.D. 1500 and A.D. 1600 there appears tohave only been a few places in Illinois thatwere occupied. Near Chicago, HuberOneota maintain a large population, butall of northwestern and central Illinoisappear to have been uninhabited. In all ofeastern Illinois between the KankakeeRiver and the Lower Wabash River, wherethe Caborn-Wellborn people lived, thereare no recorded pre-contact sites laterthan A.D. 1400. All the former Mississip-pian and/or Oneota occupants of the cen-tral and lower Illinois River valley hadmoved elsewhere by A.D. 1450 and very

few Oneota villages seem tobe present along the Missis-sippi River in Illinois afterA.D. 1500. Up the Mis-

souri River, west of Illi-nois, l ived Oneota

people who becameknown as the Mis-souri tribe. Northof Ill inois, andwest of the HuberOneota in the Chi-cago Region, theland was also un-occupied all theway to the Missis-

sippi River. In theIowa/Minnesota/Wis-

consin tri-state regionlived another Oneota

group, the forebearers of theIoway tribe. It was into this landscapelacking permanent settlements that theNative American groups known as theIllinois Tribe moved sometime after A.D.1600. It was the Illinois who met theFrench explorers here and they who gavethe state its name.

Duane EsareyUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

LIFE IN THE LATE MISSISSIPPIANPERIOD

Mississippian lifeways in the southernpart of Illinois probably changed little in theLate Mississippian Period. Mississippiansocial structure probably continued to havemultiple levels of status based on lineage.Upper Mississippians are assumed to havehad social systems where personal status

had more to do with accom-plishments. For instance, a

person’s participation in thetrade networks probably

conferred consider-able status.

Climate changeor decreasing hu-man populationsprobably relateto another im-portant changeon the Illinois

landscape. Afterabout A.D. 1500,

and for the first timein thousands of years,

bison herds were present onthe prairies of central and north-

ern Illinois. This new resource was veryquickly incorporated into Upper Mississip-pian diets and cultural practices. By A.D.1200 elk also seem to become more com-mon in Illinois. Nonetheless,for people throughout Illinois,farming of corn, beans,squash and a focus on hunt-ing and gathering river-ine and aquatic re-sources remained theprimary means ofgetting food.

Many of theUpper Mississip-pians in northernIllinois lived inlong houses inwhich a number offamilies resided.Farther south, Mis-sissippians usedsingle-family houses,much as they had for sev-eral centuries. In the IllinoisRiver valley, Oneota and Mississippianpeople crowded into a few large towns anddid not live throughout the countryside asthey had in the previous centuries. In ex-treme southern Illinois, Mississippians stillbuilt larger towns with temples, althoughnever again on the scale of Cahokia.

Artifacts associated with the height ofMississippian Period art and symbolism areless common during the Late Mississippian


THE COLONIAL PERIOD

The Colonial Period began in the sum-mer of 1673, when a small party of Frenchexplorers became the first Europeans to setfoot on land that would later become theState of Illinois. Leaders of the expeditionincluded a young Canadian fur trader namedLouis Jolliet and a Jesuit priest named JacquesMarquette. Jolliet and Marquette, accompa-nied by five boatmen in two birchbark ca-noes, descended the uncharted waters of theMississippi River to the mouth of the Arkan-sas River. Upon determining that the Missis-sippi does, indeed, flow south toward theGulf of Mexico, the explorers reversed courseand returned to the Great Lakes via theIllinois River.

Jolliet and Marquette are justifiably fa-mous for their geographical discoveries inthe Midwest. But their cultural discoverieswere equally important. The explorers vis-ited two villages of Illinois Indians on their1673 voyage: a Peoria village located near

the Mississippi River in northeastern Mis-souri, and a Kaskaskia village located on theIllinois River, opposite Starved Rock, innorth-central Illinois. Marquette’s descrip-tion of the Illinois Indians and their way oflife is our earliest detailed account of thelargest and most powerful Indian nation thatoccupied Illinois during the late 1600s. TheIllinois suffered drastic decreases in popula-tion and territory during the 1700s and early1800s as they adjusted to life with their newEuroamerican neighbors—first the French,then the British, and ultimately the Ameri-cans.

Information about Native Americansand Euroamericans who lived in Illinois

historically can be found in two very differ-ent places: first, in written documents thatdescribe particular people, places, and events;second, in archaeological remains of thecamps, villages, and forts that people occu-pied. Together, documents and archaeologytell powerful stories about the rich history ofIllinois and its diverse peoples. This sectionfocuses on the Colonial Period of Illinoishistory (A.D. 1673-1778), when NativeAmerican tribes shared their lands withFrench and British colonists.

NATIVE AMERICANSIn the late 1600s, the Illinois and Miami

nations were the predominant Native Ameri-can ethnic groups in Illinois. The Illinoiscontrolled most of central, western, andsouthern Illinois, land that became known toFrench settlers as the “Illinois Country.”The Miami occupied several villages in north-ern Illinois. In the early 1700s, however, as

Illinois territoryshrank and the Mi-ami departed forpresent-day Indiana,other tribes began mi-grating into the IllinoisCountry to fill the void.By 1770, a variety oftribes—including theMesquakie (Fox),I o w a , K i c k a p o o ,Mascouten, Piankashaw,P o t a w a t o m i , a n dSauk—occupiedmuch of the territoryformerly claimed bythe Illinois. The eth-nic landscape be-came even more di-verse in the early

1800s when the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk)tribe migrated into the Rock River valley.However, treaties and land cessions withthe United States government led to thevirtual abandonment of the state by NativeAmerican tribes in the early 1830s.

Illinois Tribes. At the time of Europeancontact, the Illinois nation was a powerful,but loosely organized, confederation of in-dependent tribes. The tribes spoke a com-mon Algonquian language, had similar waysof life, and shared a large territory in thecentral Mississippi River valley. In the late1600s there may have been as many astwelve different Illinois tribes, but over timemany of these disappeared or merged with

others. Five Illinois tribes survived into the1700s: the Cahokia, Kaskaskia,Michigamea, Peoria, and Tamaroa. Onlythe Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes continued toexist in the early 1800s.

The Illinois had a diverse economybased on agriculture, hunting, fishing, andthe gathering of wild foods. Maize (corn)was the most important crop, but they alsoraised beans, squash, pumpkins, and water-melons. Women stored vast quantities ofmaize in underground pits to be eaten dur-ing the lean winter months. Male huntersgenerally pursued game animals as indi-viduals or in small groups. In June, how-ever, huge numbers of people left the vil-lages for communal bison hunts in the prai-ries. Upon finding a herd, runners wouldsurround the bison on foot and, firing theirguns and arrows, drive them toward theremainder of the hunting party where theywere shot. After skinning and butcheringthe animals, women and girls would pre-serve the meat by smoking it on woodendrying racks. In the summer of 1688, theIllinois killed more than 1,200 bison and avariety of other animals on a single huntingexpedition.

The Illinois were mobile and lived inthree types of settlements during the year.Summer villages, located near rivers, wereinhabited in April and May during maizeplanting and again from mid-July to mid-October when the maize crops were har-vested. The summer villages were re-occu-pied from year to year and were quite large,some containing as many as 350 mat-cov-ered longhouses. Summer hunting camps,established in the prairies in June and Julyduring communal bison hunts, were occu-pied briefly and consisted of temporary bark-covered lodges. Winter villages, inhabitedfrom mid-October to the end of March, werelocated in river bottoms where good huntingwas expected, often some distance awayfrom the summer villages. To ensure goodhunting, winter villages were smaller, con-taining from five to twenty oval, mat-cov-ered lodges called wigwams. However,larger winter villages were sometimes con-structed when the Illinois were in danger ofbeing attacked.

Archaeologists have documented sev-eral Historic Period Illinois villages in north-ern and western Illinois. Using historicaldescriptions and archaeological surveys,they rediscovered the Grand Village of theIllinois (Zimmerman site) in La Salle County

Robert A. Thom painting, Jolliet and Marquette Visit Great Village of the Illinois.Reproduced with permission of The Illinois State Historical Society.


Engraved arrow-shaft wrenchmade from bison rib, Guebertsite, Randolph County, Illinois.Courtesy of Robert Warren,Illinois State Museum.

Reconstructed main gate, Fort de Chartes, Randolph County, Illinois. Courtesy of GaryAndrashko, Illinois State Museum.

archaeological excavations that uncoveredthe original limestone foundation, fireplacefootings, and fragments of cedar porch col-umns.

In 1718, the governor of the Frenchcolony of Louisiane sent a detachment ofsoldiers up the Mississippi River from NewOrleans to build a fort that would serve asthe seat of French military and civil powerin the Illinois Country. Fort de Chartres, thefirst of three forts with that name, was com-pleted in 1721 on the east bank of the Mis-sissippi between the villages of Cahokia andKaskaskia. This fort and its successor werebuilt of wood and soon deteriorated. Theywere replaced, in 1755, by a massive lime-stone fortification that enclosed a number ofstone buildings. No battles were ever foughtat the stone fort, but it did become an impor-tant staging area for French troops and theirIndian allies, who fought British forces hun-dreds of miles east of the Illinois Countryduring the French and Indian War (1755-1763).

British Colonists. The French com-mandant surrendered Fort de Chartres toBritish troops in 1765, two years after Francerelinquished Louisiane east of the Missis-sippi River to England. Many residents ofCahokia and other French villages respondedby abandoning their homes and movingwest of the Mississippi to Ste. Genevieveand the newly established town of St. Louis.The British gave Fort de Chartres a new

name, Fort Cavendish, but they abandonedit in 1772 when the Mississippi threatenedto undercut its western wall. Part of the fortdid, indeed, wash away and the remaindersoon fell into ruin. Today, some sections ofthe fort have been reconstructed based onthe results of archaeological excavations.

Robert E. WarrenIllinois State Museum

near Starved Rock. This site was occupiedintermittently by the Kaskaskia and Peoriatribes from 1673, whenJolliet and Marquettevisited the village, untilabout 1720. Excava-tions there uncovered adistinctive shell-tem-pered pottery (Dannertype) and a variety ofFrench trade goods. Ani-mal remains indicate thatbison provided over halfthe total meat supply, al-though elk, deer, fish,bear, and dog were alsoconsumed. Illinois vil-lages along the Missis-sippi River in southwest-ern Illinois were occu-pied by the Cahokia,Kaskaskia, Michigamea,and Tamaroa tribes dur-ing the 1700s. One ofthese, the River L’AbbeMission site, was aCahokia village andFrench chapel located onthe first terrace of MonksMound in MadisonCounty. Another exampleis the Waterman site, a for-tified Michigamea villagethat was strategically lo-cated for protection fromraiding Indian war partiesnear the French Fort de Chartres in RandolphCounty.

Kickapoo Tribe. The Kickapoo Indiansspoke an Algonquian language distantlyrelated to that spoken by the Illinois. Whenthey first came into contact with the Frenchin the late 1600s, the Kickapoo were livingin southern Wisconsin. In alliance with theSauk, Fox, and Mascouten tribes, theKickapoo pushed the Illinois tribes south-ward and took over much of their territory.The Kickapoo began to establish villages incentral and eastern Illinois about 1770. Theyceded their Illinois lands to the United Statesin 1819, but some remained in the state until1834. The Kickapoo economy was based ona mixture of agriculture, hunting, and gath-ering. In summer they lived in relativelypermanent villages of rectangular bark-cov-ered houses that were often located in up-land prairies near the prairie-forest border.

Archaeologists have conducted exca-vations at two Kickapoo settlements in cen-tral Illinois: the Grand Village of theKickapoo in McLean County and the Rhoadssite in Logan County. Historical documents

indicate these sites were occupied discon-tinuously between about 1790 and 1832.

Many artifacts from the sites are ofEuroamerican origin (e.g., muskets, cop-per kettles, silver crosses) and reflect aheavy reliance on trade goods obtainedfrom British or American merchants.However, excavations also show thatthe Kickapoo maintained their traditionaleconomic focus on maize agriculture andthe hunting of white-tailed deer.

EUROAMERICANSThe migration of Euroamericans into

the Illinois Country began slowly during theFrench era (1673-1765) and actually de-clined during the British era (1765-1778),but eventually reached flood proportions atthe end of the Colonial Period when theAmericans seized control (1778-present).

French Colonists. The 1673 voyage ofJolliet and Marquette paved the way forFrench expansion into the Illinois Country.Among the first to arrive was René-RobertCavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who sought tocreate a profitable fur-trade empire. In 1682,La Salle descended the Mississippi River toits mouth and claimed title to the entiredrainage basin in the name of Louis XIV,King of France. He then returned to Illinoisand built a fortified trading post named FortSt. Louis atop a prominent sandstone clifflater known as Starved Rock. Excavationsat Starved Rock in the late 1940s uncoveredmany European arti-facts, including a leadbale seal that dates tothe reign of Louis XIV(1643-1715). The baleseal was found in asquare cellar that LaSalle evidently con-structed beneath a pow-der magazine or ware-house inside the fort.

At the end of the17th century, the Frenchshifted their hold in Il-linois to the MississippiRiver. In 1699, threepriests from the Semi-nary of the ForeignMissions in Quebec founded a mission at avillage of Cahokia and Tamaroa Indianslocated in the American Bottom east ofpresent-day St. Louis. The mission attractedFrench traders. Soon a village was formedthat took the name of Cahokia, the second-oldest (after Peoria) permanent Europeansettlement in Illinois. The Cahokia Court-house, built about 1740 and dismantled in1901, was reconstructed in 1940 based on


THE AMERICAN PERIOD

The American Period traditionally be-gins with George Rogers Clarks’ capture ofthe British-held town of Kaskaskia in 1778.“Americans,” however, were in Illinoisprior to this date and Clark’s army includedguides familiar with southern Illinois. Clark’svictory and the end of the RevolutionaryWar resulted in a flood of American immi-grants into southern Illinois. These earliestsettlers primarily were small farmers drawnfrom the hilly back country of the Carolinas,

Kentucky, and Tennessee. Following natu-ral migration routes such as the Tennesseeand Cumberland Rivers, these settlers fannedout across southern Illinois along dirt roadsor “traces” that linked the Ohio and Missis-sippi Rivers. By 1818 the American popula-tion of Illinois was approximately 35,000,99% of whom were farmers. Archaeologicalexcavations at the Watts site, a late 18th- toearly 19th-century American site in the Ameri-can Bottom, provided information about thetypes of cellars and artifacts found on theseearliest American farmsteads.

SETTLERS AND NATIVEAMERICANS

American settlement remained largelyconfined to southern Illinois, the lower Illi-nois River valley, and Galena in northwest-ern Illinois until the 1830s. Native Ameri-cans continued to maintain a traditional life-style centered around farming, hunting, andfishing throughout the remainder of the stateduring this same time. As late as 1833,Chicago had only 300 American citizens,almost all of whom were engaged in the fur

trade with the estimated 2,000 Native Ameri-cans who surrounded them. Archaeologicalinvestigations at two early 19th-century Na-tive American settlements — the Grand Vil-lage of the Kickapoo in McLean County andthe Potawatomi-occupied Windrose site inKankakee County — revealed that NativeAmerican groups engaged in the fur trademaintained many aspects of their traditionalculture, despite pressure from missionariesand settlers to change their way of life.

Although certaintools and weap-ons compatiblewith a traditionalway of life, suchas guns and brasskettles, were ac-cepted, items as-sociated with ac-culturation suchas cows andAmerican-styleclothing were re-jected. Ameri-can sentiment forthe “removal” ofall NativeAmericans fromIllinois reached apeak after the

Black Hawk War of 1832. Governmentofficials negotiated a series of treaties withthe various Native American groups in whichtribes relinquished their lands in Illinois inreturn for trade goods, money, and newlands west of the Mississippi River. Despitethe treaties, many Native Americans did notwish to leave Illinois and had to be forciblyremoved to reservations.

The removal of the Native Americansresulted in a dramatic influx of Americansettlers into northern Illinois. By 1837 theAmerican population of Chicago had grownto over 4,000, an increase of over 1000% inonly four years. These new settlers, the ma-jority of whom were from the northern UnitedStates, traveled west to Illinois by way of theSt. Lawrence River and the Erie Canal. Thesenorthern settlers followed a different cul-tural tradition than those in the southern partof the state, a difference that is evident in thearchitectural landscapes of the two regions,as well as in the archaeological remains offarmsteads within the two areas. Even todayin southern Illinois, it is not unusual to seethe remains of old log structures located next

to early roads. Settlers of southern ancestryconstructed their homes, barns, and out-buildings of hewn logs, a pattern that per-sisted in the region into the early 20th cen-tury. In central and northern Illinois, in con-trast, the richer farmland yielded better eco-nomic conditions and prosperity. Larger andmore ornate houses of milled lumber domi-nated the 19th-century landscape and largestone and milled lumber barns were the rulerather than the exception.

The marked difference between thelifeways of 19th-century farmers in the north-ern and southern parts of the states has beendemonstrated through archaeology. Exca-vation of several farmsteads in southernIllinois including the Davis, Huggins, andFairview Farm sites revealed that the inhab-itants of these farms relied on hogs and cornfor their sustenance, similar to farms in otherparts of the Upper South. Excavation of ruralfarmsteads in northern Illinois, such as theHughlett site near Galena, reveal a differentpattern, one centered on the wheat and cattlecomplex of the northern states.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTSAND GROWTH

Throughout the 1840s, stagecoaches andfreight wagons remained the primary meansof transporting people and goods across thestate. Taverns, ranging in size from smallone-room log houses to large two-story build-ings with bedrooms for travelers and stablesfor their horses, sprang up along almostevery road in the state. The archaeologicalexcavation of one such site, the Young Tav-ern in Marion County, provided detailedinformation about a one-room pioneer south-ern homestead that also served as a tavern.The excavation of Old Landmark, a secondtavern on the same property, revealed that bythe 1830s taverns had become more likemodern-day hotels, consisting of large struc-tures with kitchens, dining rooms, and bed-rooms designed for the use of travelers.

The need for a better method of ship-ping Illinois products to exterior marketshelped fuel an internal improvement boomin the 1830s. The two most significantachievements of this boom were the Illinoisand Michigan Canal, begun in 1836 andcompleted in 1848, and the construction ofthe Illinois Central Railroad in the 1850s.The completion of these two transportationsystems meant that farm products and manu-factured goods could now be shipped out of

George Parrish Jr. painting, George Rogers Clark Raids Fort Sackville. Reproduced withpermission of The Illinois State Historical Society.


Illinois to distant markets. The recent dis-covery and excavation by archaeologists ofseveral sunken canal boats provides first-hand documentation on the construction of

the boats used on the Illinois and MichiganCanal.

By 1850 Illinois had become the fourth-largest state in the Union in terms of popula-tion. Led by Chicago, a series of Illinoiscities including Peoria, Galena, and Quincyexpanded rapidly, becoming the state’s firsturban and industrial centers. Industrial ac-tivities included ship building, mining, rail-road construction, and stoneware potteryproduction. Archaeologists have excavatedseveral 19th-century stoneware pottery pro-duction sites, including the Jugtown site inGrundy County and the Wilhelm Pottery inMadison County, providing a wealth of pre-viously unknown information about the typesof vessels that formed one of Illinois’ earli-est industries.

URBAN AND RURAL LIFEThe inhabitants of early cities in Illinois

followed a way of life that was greatly dif-ferent from that of the rural countryside,while also showing wide variation in termsof wealth, ethnic background, and occupa-tion. Middle to late 19th-century urban house-hold sites investigated by archaeologistsrange from that of Abraham Lincoln, awealthy Springfield lawyer and future presi-dent of the United States, to those of labor-ers, clerks, wagon drivers, and other lower

Mid to late 19th century coinsplowed from abandoned farm-steads, Knox County, Illinois.Courtesy of Kelvin Sampson.

class workers in Alton, Illinois. Archaeolo-gists have been able to use the artifacts fromthese sites, particularly the ceramics andfood remains, to examine issues such as

socio-economic status, genderrelationships, consumerism,and differences in food prepa-ration and consumption be-tween lower and upper classhouseholds in 19th-century Il-linois.

The population of Illinoisbecame steadily more ethni-cally diverse throughout the19th century. Among the newimmigrants to the state werefreed African Americans, whoestablished a series of farmingcommunities in southern Illi-nois and the lower Illinois Rivervalley during the 1840s and1850s. Such communities musthave been important in help-ing fugitive slaves travel alongthe Underground Railroadthrough Illinois to freedom.Ongoing archaeological inves-tigations at one of these com-munities, Miller Grove in PopeCounty, are providing our first

glimpses of the material culture and lifewaysof free African-American farmers in Illinoisprior to the Civil War.

Although Illinois contains numerousCivil War-related sites including Confeder-ate prisoner-of-war camps, training camps,hospitals, and ma-jor military basessuch as the city ofCairo (U.S. Grant’sheadquarters dur-ing the early partof the war), fewof these siteshave been in-v e s t i g a t e darchaeologically.One exception isthe site of the UnitedStates Marine Ways, aformer naval shipyard once lo-cated in Mound City in southernIllinois. Limited archaeological in-vestigations at this river-front site un-covered the remains of the “ways” or frame-works on which noted Union gunboats suchas the Carondelet and Cincinnati were builtand launched into the Ohio River. CivilWar-related artifacts including bullets, uni-form buttons (both Union and Confederate),and other equipment are often encountered

during the excavation of civilian homes andhotels occupied during or shortly after theCivil War.

ARCHAEOLOGY OF RECENT SITESThe late 19th and early 20th centuries

were a period of increased industrializationand the standardized, mechanical mass pro-duction of everyday items such as bottles,stoneware ceramics, and clothing, previ-ously made by hand. This change has beenvividly documented at a number of archaeo-logical sites in the state, most often in theform of a great increase in all types ofartifacts, almost all of which were mass-produced and non-local in origin. Hand-made items such as bone clothing buttons,bone-handled tools, hand-forged iron tools,and bottles with hand-finished lips disap-pear and are replaced by mass-produceditems available throughout the country.

Archaeological investigations also havetaken place at a number of early 20th-centurysites, primarily as a byproduct of the excava-tion of 19th-century household sites that con-tinued to be occupied into the 20th century,such as the Fairview Farm site in southernIllinois. Other types of 20th-century archaeo-logical sites that have been investigated in-clude Camp Pomona in Union County, whichcontains the remains of a 1930s African-American occupied Civilian ConservationCorps (CCC) camp.

In sum, archaeological investigations ata number of American Period sites have

provided us with muchinformation regard-

ing 19th- and 20th-century lifewaysnot found in writ-ten records of thetime. The ar-chaeological as-

semblages fromthese sites vividly

document the transfor-mation of Illinois froma frontier territory at thewestern edge of Ameri-can settlement to a

highly industrializedstate in the heart of the

Midwest.

Mary R. McCorvieUSDA Forest ServiceShawnee National Forest

Mark J. WagnerCenter for Archaeological InvestigationsSouthern Illinois University Carbondale

Pearlware teacup and saucer from the Young Tavern site, Marion County,Illinois. Courtesy of the Sangamo Archaeological Center.


THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS:

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES

NORTHWESTERN ILLINOISThe archaeology of northwestern Illi-

nois is similar to that of central and north-eastern Illinois and eastern Iowa. However,this region is unique for distinctive mineralresources, such as Moline and Galena cherts,galena crystals (lead ore), and Rock Riverpipestone, that were used extensively byNative Americans.

Paleoindian artifacts are found through-out the region.Clovis and Daltonlithic workshopsassociated withMoline chert quarrysites are locatednear the mouth ofthe Rock River.Dalton points arefound in the QuadCities area in largenumbers, but thisarea represents theknown northernextent of their dis-tribution.

Diagnostic ar-tifacts from the en-tire span of the Ar-chaic period arecommon across theregion. The termi-nal Middle ArchaicPeriod has been il-luminated by recentexcavation ofEisle’s Hill, a late Middle Archaic occupa-tion buried in a colluvial fan in the Missis-sippi Valley near Muscatine, Iowa. It datesto around 2,500 B.C. and features a deep,charcoal-rich midden, large roasting pits,oval houses, Osceola projectile points anddrills, full-grooved pebble axes, and beauti-fully fashioned three-quarter and half-grooved (Keokuk) axes. Extensive musselshell middens and mounds located along theshores of the Mississippi and Rock Riverrapids in the Quad Cities region are tenta-tively attributed to the Late Archaic andEarly Woodland cultures. Late Archaic NeboHill artifacts found south of the Quad Citiesrepresent the northern extent of that culturalcomplex.

The Early Woodland Period is repre-

sented by Black Sand variety Liverpool ce-ramics, found throughout the region, andMarion Thick ceramics, known mostly fromthe middle and southern areas. A buriedBlack Sand occupation dating to around 500B.C. was also excavated at Eisle’s Hill. Thesite yielded contracting stemmed points,celts, and very large circular houses withentryways oriented to the southeast.

Middle Woodland sites are prolific, andmajor sites are lo-cated at regular in-tervals along theMississippi andRock Rivers.Bluff-top andf l o o d p l a i nm o u n d s ,earthworks, andlarge conical, lin-ear and compoundmound types arefound at some ofthese sites. TheAlbany site, whichoriginally con-tained 96 mounds,is the largestHopewell villageand mound com-plex in Illinois.Artifacts from thesite include Ha-vana andHopewell ceram-ics; chipped-stone

artifacts, some made of non-local cherts;plain and effigy platform pipes made fromRock River pipestone; unmodified galenacrystals, and a rich assortment of diagnosticHopewell mortuary artifacts. By A.D. 300,Middle Woodland is succeeded by theWeaver culture, which is defined by WeaverPlain ceramics and Steuben points madefrom local Burlington chert. Followers ofthe Weaver tradition were the first Wood-land people to establish substantial habita-tion sites in the interior along smaller streams.

During the Late Woodland, large moundgroups that feature low, linear and conicaltypes were constructed in the Quad Citiesarea and north along both the Rock andMississippi Rivers. Effigy mounds are foundin the extreme northern limits of this region.

Sparse evidence indicates that people fol-lowing the linear and effigy mound traditionwere using Madison cord-decorated andSepo-like ceramics. The terminal LateWoodland Period is represented by GrantCorded and Collared ceramics in the north-ern part of the Mississippi valley, and byscattered small villages that yield StarvedRock Collared ceramics and maize and elkremains in the upper Rock River valley.

The Mississippian Period is representedby Oneota, Middle Mississippian, Langford,and Fisher cultures. Substantial MiddleMississippian sites are found along the lowerApple River valley in Jo Daviess Countyand in Adams and Hancock counties. TheApple River sites feature platform and coni-cal mounds, Stirling Phase artifacts, and, atthe 12th-century Lundy site, ceramics almostidentical to those found in the central IllinoisValley at the Larson Site. Mississippi Val-ley Oneota sites are generally small and rareon the Illinois side except for Adams andHancock counties, where they are large andmore frequently found like those found acrossthe Mississippi River in Iowa. LangfordTradition sites and one Fisher site date toA.D. 1100-1300, and are found on the upperRock River.

Historic Native American groups of thisregion include the Illinois, Kickapoo, Sauk,Mesquakie (Fox), Winnebago, and Ottowa.The Crawford Farm site, which was exca-vated by the University of Illinois in 1960-1961, is located on the south shore of theRock River four miles from its mouth. It ismost certainly the principal village of theSauk (Saukenauk) that was reported byZebulon Pike in 1805. Native Americanpresence in this region essentially endedwith the expulsion of the Sauk from Illinoisafter the Black Hawk War in 1832.

Ferrel AndersonQuad Cities Archaeological Society

NORTHEASTERN ILLINOISFew people who live in Northeastern

Illinois realize that this part of the state hasa rich prehistoric and historical heritage. Formost, archaeology means exhibits of exoticcultures and art displayed at Chicago’s sev-eral world-class museums. Yet there arethousands of recorded archaeological sites

Northwestern

Northeastern

Southern

AmericanBottom

Central

West Central

LowerIllinois Valley

Wabash River

Regional divisionsof Illinois


(from 13,000 years old to less than 100 yearsold) in the region and many county andmunicipal museums and historical societiesexhibit local artifacts representing prehis-toric, early historic and Euroamerican pio-neer lifeways.

While the culture history of Northeast-ern Illinois follows the general pattern notedfor the rest of the state, specific adaptationswere influenced by the local landscape andavailable natural resources. The landscapeis relatively young, exposed and developedafter the retreat of the Wisconsinan glacialadvance approximately 14,000 years ago,leaving extensive wetlands. Marshes, pondsand kettles dotted the hilly morainal uplandsand marshes abounded in other poorlydrained areas. North-to-south flowing riv-ers (the Chicago, Upper Des Plaines, DuPage, Fox, and Upper Rock) and a majoreast-west water corridor (the Kankakee,Lower Des Plaines, and its manytributary creeks, which join toform the Upper Illinois) pro-vided important transportationroutes as well as food and mate-rials for making tools, clothing,and housing. The more deeplyentrenched east-west corridorcontains sites that are larger,more deeply buried, and betterpreserved, including the exten-sively-studied Grand Village ofthe Illinois (Zimmerman site),Gentleman Farm, New Lenox,and Utica Mounds.

Northeastern Illinois is achert-poor region, presentingproblems for prehistoric peopleswho used chert for making spearand arrow points and a varietyof other tools. Chert-bearingdolomite and limestone is cov-ered in most areas by up to 60 m(200 ft.) of glacial till. Heat-treating chert to improve its qual-ity, use of bipolar manufactur-ing to break up small pieces ofchert, and reworking brokentools were techniques for cop-ing with local chert resources.

Important sites from alltime periods have been investigated in North-eastern Illinois. One of the few extensivelystudied Clovis sites in Illinois is located in aplowed field on a hillside overlooking awetland not far from the Fox River in LakeCounty. Repeated surface collections andlimited excavations at the 11,000-year-old

Hawk’s Nest site have yielded over 150chipped stone tools, including fluted pointsand preforms, end and side scrapers, andgravers. Stone for tool manufacture comesprimarily from quarries along the Des Plainesor Illinois rivers, but exotic chert types fromup to 350 miles away have been identified atthe site.

The New Lenox site in Will County isimportant for understanding the transitionfrom prehistoric to early Historic Periodlifeways in northeastern Illinois. Radiocar-bon dates range from A.D. 1278 to 1666 forthe site. Nearly 350 excavated featuresinclude a burial, hearths, processing, storageand trash pits, and several structures. Thecomplete structures include an Oneota longhouse, a semi-subterranean burned structurewith post holes around the perimeter, and a24-m x 16-m (79-ft. x 53-ft.) enclosure,which may have had a ceremonial function.

Well-preserved animal and plant remainsshow that hunting and fishing as well asnative grass seeds augmented the typicalMississippian diet of corn, squash and beans.Also present are European trade goods (brass,iron, seed and necklace beads), and an arrayof ceramic types, substantiating historical

accounts of intermingling among Midwest-ern Native American groups during the 17thcentury.

The 36-ha (90-acre) Grand Village ofthe Illinois State Historic Site is situated onthe north side of the Illinois River, a littleover a mile upstream from Starved RockState Park. Studies of the site from the 1940sto 1990s add to our knowledge of this impor-tant locality where Marquette and Jollietvisited a village of 1,150 Kaskaskia in 1673.Although occupied since Archaic times, theUpper Mississippian and Historic materialsare the best known. Excellent preservationof plant and animal remains allows detailedexamination of subsistence practices; dis-tinct ceramic assemblages may be linked todifferent historic period Indian tribes; and anassortment of trade goods (particularly beads)and documents provide evidence aboutFrench and Indian interaction.

Field school excavations at Macktown,a 12-ha (30-acre) National Register site lo-cated in the Winnebago County Forest Pre-serve just south of Rockton, have uncoveredevidence of mid-19th-century cellars, priv-ies, and cisterns, as well as Native Americancamp sites that span the Middle Archaic toLate Woodland time periods. While His-toric Period artifacts are clustered aroundspots where structures once stood, prehis-toric remains are spread out across the 12 ha(30 acres). Excavations have focused on alarge Woodland shell midden and habita-tion, and on the cellar of the early 19th-century Hayes Tavern.

Northeastern Illinois was once home toa succession of diverse prehistoric and His-toric Period cultures. More than 5,550 ar-chaeological sites are recorded for the re-gion at this time, demonstrating that sub-stantial remains of the past are still present,though threatened by burgeoning urban de-velopment.

Rochelle LurieMidwest Archaeological Research Services

WEST CENTRAL ILLINOISThe Illinois River and its principal tribu-

taries, the LaMoine and Spoon rivers, drainmuch of west-central Illinois. Throughoutmost of human history, the area was anunusually productive mosaic of mixed for-est and prairie. Ten thousand archaeologicalsites recorded here during two centuries ofscientific inquiry provide unique perspec-tives about 12,000 years of human existencein the region.

Excavation at the Hoxie Farm site, Cook County, 2001-2002. Photo courtesy IllinoisTransportation Archaeological Research Program.

Discover Illinois Archaeology 20Some time after the last glacial retreat,

Paleoindian hunters and gatherers movedonto a landscape of spruce and deciduousforests. Little is known of their lifeways.Aside from numerous fluted points found atsome 70 upland locations, evidence ofPaleoindian activity is limited to the discov-ery of butchering marks on young mastodonbones recovered near Spring Lake.

There is a ten-fold increase in the num-bers of Early Ar-chaic sites, corre-sponding to thewarmer, drier cli-mate. Over 1,200Archaic sites are re-corded in almostevery ecologicalniche, but the onlyArchaic habitationsite test excavatedis the Rench site.Excavations at theMorse and Mortonsites produced in-formation about theLate Archaic RedOcher mortuarycomplex.

Following Early Woodland Marion andBlack Sand phases, primary occupation ofthe Illinois Valley continued throughout theMiddle Woodland period between 200 B.C.and A.D. 200. Increasing numbers of MiddleWoodland people began to cultivate inten-sively starchy seed plants, and populationsconsolidated around large centers that fea-tured substantial earthen mounds. Somemounds were cemeteries for elite personswho were placed in log tombs, along withelaborate artifacts, often obtained throughlong-distance trade. Excavations at suchcenters as Clear Lake, Dickison, Havana,Liverpool, Ogden-Fettie, Sister Creeks, andSteuben formed the basis for the identifica-tion of the Middle Woodland Havana Tradi-tion. By A.D. 300, Havana Hopewell cul-ture was beginning to wane and ceramicforms became simpler with the appearanceof Weaver ware. For the first time in sixcenturies, habitation sites were dispersedover the landscape.

The Late Woodland period betweenA.D. 500 and 1100 was characterized bywidespread population movement, refiningof plant husbandry, and social adjustment.Regional Late Woodland pottery types in-clude the Adams tradition along the Missis-sippi and Bauer Branch in the LaMoine

River drainage. Near the end of the LateWoodland, ceramic traditions such as MaplesMill, Mossville, Sepo, and Starved RockCollared appeared in western Illinois. Com-binations of these regional pottery traits andoutside influences indicated that Late Wood-land peoples readily interchanged ideas andprobably intermarried. The principal focusof habitation again became the major val-leys, with nearly 600 recorded sites. By

A.D. 800, corn began to replace native plants,the first of a series of adaptations generatedby close contact with the developing culturalcenter of Cahokia that would forever changethe face of Woodland culture in westernIllinois.

By A.D. 1100, Mississippian peoplebegan to move out of the Cahokia region intowestern Illinois, introducing elements of anew lifeway that were quickly adopted bylocal Woodland people. This movementfeatured exotic religious expressions, rigidforms of social control, and a vast array ofnew technologies. The abrupt appearance atthe Dickson Mounds, Kingston Lake,Emmons, and Crable sites of human sacri-fice, important persons buried with greatmaterial wealth, and ceremonially equippedsubordinate leaders dramatically reflects theimpact of these social changes. The primaryfocus of this occupation was a 100-milestretch of the Illinois River valley and itsmajor tributaries between Peoria andMeredosia, Illinois. There, Mississippianemigrants joined local Woodland groups informing a distinctive variation of CahokiaMississippian called the Spoon River Cul-ture. Over a 400-year period, they erected aseries of fortified temple mound centerssurrounded by related clusters of support

communities. Excavations at sites such asEveland, Larson, Orendorf, and Myer-Dickson provided unprecedented informa-tion about community life. Increased popu-lations led to greater reliance cultigens, prin-cipally corn, and encouraged consolidationof large numbers of people into restrictedvillages. Such consolidation, coupled withpoor diet selection, caused disease to be-come more prevalent, and the general healthof the population deteriorated. Competitionfor land and resources led to increased war-fare throughout the 13th century.

Around A.D. 1300, Oneota people fromthe northern Mississippi Valley moved intowestern Illinois. Although generally similarto Mississippian, the Bold Counselor cul-ture lacked temple mounds and the associ-ated elite leadership. Settling an unoccupiedsection of the Illinois Valley, the Oneotafound little peace for all of their effort.Nearly half of the adults in one of theircemeteries, Norris Farms 36, were killed ina series of ambushes and raids on theirvillage, an indication of unprecedented so-cial unrest. The abandonment of the Crablesite near Anderson Lake in the mid-1400smarked the end of extensive prehistoric Na-tive American occupation in western Illi-nois.

The two centuries between the end ofMississippian occupation and the arrival ofEuropeans are not well documented. Fol-lowing sporadic occupation by groups oflate Oneota people, small bands ofPotawatomi and Kickapoo moved south andwestward into the Mississippi and Illinoisriver valleys. Early settlers’ accounts arerife with references to the presence of Indi-ans or to their recently abandoned“wigwams” along virtually every majorwaterway in western Illinois.

Native American occupation in the late17th century around Lake Peoria included300 cabins in 11 villages, comprised prima-rily of Peoria and Kaskaskia. This locationalong the Illinois River would be the princi-pal theater of European and Native Ameri-can activity in west-central Illinois until thelatter were removed in the 1830s.

Alan D. HarnDickson Mounds Museum

THE AMERICAN BOTTOM REGIONTraditionally, the American Bottom

refers to the Mississippi River floodplainbetween Alton and Chester, and includesfrom north to south Madison, St. Clair,

Larson site excavation, west-central Illinois, Fulton County. Photo courtesyof the Dickson Mounds branch of the Illinois State Museum.


Monroe, and Randolph counties in south-western Illinois. The confluence of the Mis-souri and Illinois rivers with the MississippiRiver occurs to the north, while to the souththe Kaskaskia River joins the Mississippi.Numerous smaller tributaries, such asCahokia, Prairie du Pont, and Fountain creeksflow into and across the aquatic-rich bottomto the Mississippi. For over two centuries,there has been an abiding interest in thelegacy left behind by Native Americans andthe more recent remains of Euroamericans.Most of the early work was born out ofcuriosity centered on the mounds at the edgeof the bluffs and those concentrated on thefloodplain east of St. Louis. Systematic in-vestigations began in the 1920s and since the1950s, a wealth of information has beengenerated, mostly centered around the largeMississippian center of Cahokia. Since the1970s, archaeological resource surveys andexcavations required by historic preserva-tion laws, especially those connected withthe FAI-270 project, resulted in recordingnearly 6,000 sitesin the four Illinoiscounties encom-passing the Ameri-can Bottom.

Evidence inthe form of flutedpoints character-izes the earliest hu-man habitation inthe region. A num-ber of largePaleoindian siteswith extensive oc-cupation have beenidentified. Signifi-cantly, the nearbyKimmswick site inMissouri produced fluted points in associa-tion with the mastodon. With the onset of theHolocene, the Late Paleoindian occupationDalton culture exhibits marked changes intechnology, subsistence, and settlement pat-terns, documented in the 1950s at the ModocRock Shelter in the southern part of theregion. Highway salvage excavations at theNochta site near Collinsville revealed bur-ied Dalton and Early Archaic features. Alongwith information from Modoc, excavationsat Nochta and the upland Strong site havecontributed to our understanding of theMiddle Archaic. Sites during this period areoften restricted to the aquatic-rich Missis-sippi floodplain or adjacent bluff crest whereresources were readily available.

The Late Archaic period is the best-known part of the pre-ceramic sequence inthe American Bottom. The initial sequenceof complexes are known from early to late asFalling Springs, Titterington, Mule Road,Labras Lake, and Prairie Lake. The well-documented Prairie Lake phase is character-ized by large permanent settlements alongthe margins of abandoned ox bow lakes, aswell as numerous smaller extractive campswith distinctive projectile point styles readilylinked to similar forms found to the south.

The shift from the Late Archaic to theEarly Woodland in the American Bottom isassociated with the production of ceramicvessels and other changes, especially in settle-ment patterns. Marion culture sites knownas the Carr Creek phase are smaller, seasonalencampments distributed as a series of clus-ters within the American Bottom. Subse-quent Florence phase pottery, found nearGoose Lake, stands in marked contrast to theundecorated Marion ceramics and is geo-graphically restricted to southern St. Clair

County. More recently, Black Sand occupa-tions have been identified from excavationsin the northern part of the region. MiddleWoodland sites parallel the Havana sequencein the Illinois River valley to the north, butthe intensity of occupation and participationin the Hopewellian Interaction Sphere is farless than the Havana tradition or the CrabOrchard to the south. During the MiddleWoodland to Late Woodland transition, wesee changes in the location of settlementsacross the American Bottom, with large per-manent villages located on the Mississippifloodplain and the cultivation of numerousnative crops.

The development of Mississippian cul-ture in the American Bottom is marked by

significant increases in population and afocus of small villages with distinct organi-zational plans on the floodplain. These plans,identified at the Range, Westpark, andCahokia sites, embody certain symbolicmessages regarding the organization of so-ciety. Maize is introduced into the existingbroad spectrum diet. Two separate culturaltraditions, Pulcher and Late Bluff, emergethat are critical in the development of Mis-sissippian culture. The Pulcher tradition per-sists into the beginning of the Mississipianperiod, while there is a significant change atthe end of the Late Bluff tradition with theemergence of Cahokia as the dominant com-munity of over 10,000 persons at the onset ofthe Mississippian.

Cahokia represents the coalescence ofmany traditions into a single community andthe redefinition of society. Mississippianmound centers are distributed the length of thevalley with the largest and most numerousmounds distributed in the northern part of thevalley opposite St. Louis. The Mississippiantradition at Cahokia lasts until the end of the14th century when Cahokia was abandoned asa Mississippian mound center.

Sites along the bluff margins betweenCenterville and Dupo represent the 15th- and16th-century Oneota utilization of the Ameri-can Bottom, possibly by individuals derivedfrom Cahokia Mississippian populations.When the French arrived at the end of the17th century, the area was occupied by Illi-nois groups, especially near the present settle-ment of Cahokia. Historical archaeology inthe region has been focused on the earlyFrench settlements such as the historic townof Cahokia, as well as the later Americansettlements of the 19th century.

John E. KellyWashington University

CENTRAL ILLINOISCentral Illinois stretches from the

Wabash River westward to the Illinois Rivervalley and from the Shawnee Hills north-ward to the Illinois and Kankakee rivers. Itis largely a flat to gently rolling plain, brokenonly by several rivers such as the Vermilion,Iroquois, Mackinaw, Sangamon, Kaskaskia,and their tributaries. Before it was farmed,central Illinois had long been a vast prairie,cris-crossed by streams and dotted bymarshes and shallow ponds. The changingvariety of plants and animals that flourishedon this landscape sustained people through-out the past.

Excavation of a 19th-century brick cellar in McLean County, Illinois. Photo courtesy of the Public ServiceArchaeology & Architecture Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Discover Illinois Archaeology 22Despite relatively little archaeological

research in central Illinois, a total of 8,236sites has been recorded. However, com-pared with major river valleys, central Illi-nois generally had a small resident popula-tion except during the Early Archaic.

Although rare, Paleoindian sites tendto be located on high ground. For example,in Vermilion County isolated fluted pointshave been found on late Ice Agemoraines overlooking streamvalleys. A substantial increasein the number of 8,000 to 9,000-year-old Early Archaic camp-sites suggests a rapidly growingpopulation. Early Archaic campsare also often found on higherelevations of end moraines, sug-gesting that there was more wa-ter on the upland surface at thattime. There is a sharp decline inthe number of Middle Archaicsites in central Illinois. Thisreduction corresponds to a pe-riod of warmer and drier cli-mate, during which prairie ex-panded at the expense of forest.Upland Middle Archaic settle-ments, such as the Barton-Milnersite near Tonica, cluster aroundand along a reduced number ofpermanent water sources. AtBarton-Milner, Middle Archaicresidents constructed a shelter atthe edge of a pond more than5,000 years ago. Late Archaicsites are more numerous in theregion. Excavations at the Pabstsite near Clinton and the Airportsite near Springfield provide in-formation on Late Archaic culture and theenvironment 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.

Woodland sites are more common alonglarge rivers than elsewhere in central Illi-nois. Few Early Woodland sites have beenfound, but their apparent absence may bedue to our lack of understanding of EarlyWoodland artifacts, rather than a change inNative American land use. Middle Wood-land sites related to the Havana tradition arewidely dispersed across the major river val-leys of the region, from the Kankakee in thenorth to the Kaskaskia in the south. Excava-tions have been carried out at several MiddleWoodland village sites in the Kaskaskiavalley, including the Boulder site in theCarlyle Reservoir and the Jasper Newmanand Sweat Bee sites in the Shelbyville Res-ervoir. The Lake Fork mound complex near

Elkhart is especially unusual. It is situatedon a bluff overlooking what was a vastshallow lake, rather than on a major stream,but we know little about life here 2,000 yearsago. The number of Late Woodland sites incentral Illinois increases substantially, alongwith the diversity of regional traditions rep-resented. Late Bluff culture sites are com-mon in the central Kaskaskia drainage, while

Maples Mills sites extend into the Sangamondrainage. Sites with collared pottery relatedto the Albee tradition occur in the northerndrainages, but they also extend into the up-per Kaskaskia valley and the upperSangamon drainage. The Hood site is anexample of an Albee-related seasonal camp.

After A.D. 1000 cultural differencesbetween the northern and southern drain-ages in central Illinois become more strik-ing. Middle Mississippian hamlets and farm-steads, possibly related to Cahokia or to theVincennes Culture of the Wabash Valley,are widespread in the Kaskaskia drainageand the Shoal Creek drainage. A few ofthese sites have small platform mounds, butno major ceremonial centers have been iden-tified. Middle Mississippian sites seem to beless common in the Sangamon drainage, but

a few, such as the Shire Site, have beenidentified. Sites associated with the UpperMississippian Langford culture and theFisher-Huber Oneota tradition occur in theUpper Illinois and Kankakee drainages.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries,tribes of the Illinois confederacy may haveused central Illinois as a hunting territory,but few sites are known. During the secondhalf of the 18th century the Illinois werereplaced by the Kickapoo and Potawatomi.Several important Kickapoo sites occur inthe region, including the Grand Village inMcLean County and the Rhodes site in Lo-gan County.

As part of the settlement of theBlackhawk War, the Native American tribesthat remained in Illinois moved west of theMississippi River, though a few, likeShabbona’s band in LaSalle County, re-mained. Settlers move into the region ingreater numbers during the early to middlepart of the 19th century. The invention ofplows that could work prairie sod and tech-nology to drain the wet prairie would trans-form central Illinois into one of the mostproductive agricultural regions in the world.

Charles R. MoffatIllinois Transportation ArchaeologyResearch Program, University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign

THE LOWER ILLINOIS VALLEYThe lower Illinois River valley extends

from McKee Creek in Brown County southto the confluence of the Illinois with theMississippi River at Grafton. In the past, thebroad alluvial floodplain, up to five mileswide, was covered by a dense forest ofcottonwood, willow, and other water-toler-ant trees interspersed with wet prairie,sloughs and shallow lakes. Tributaries flow-ing into the Illinois River cut through pre-cipitous limestone bluffs, allowing accessinto the vast uplands to the east and into thedissected bluffs adjoining the MississippiValley on the west.

For more than a century, extensive ar-cheological studies in the region have ex-plored the rich record of human history in anenvironment that offered the abundant re-sources of the river, floodplain, bluff-edgeand uplands. To date there are 4,112 sitesrecorded in the lower Illinois valley, span-ning the entire range of Illinois history fromPaleoindian through the Historic Period. Ofthe 25 Paleoindian sites recorded here, thebest known is the Scenic Hills or Ready site.

Koster site excavation, lower Illinois River valley, Greene County.Photo courtesy of the Center for American Archeology.


More than 200 fluted points and otherPaleoindian tools recovered from the sitesuggests repeated occupations by groups ofIllinois’ first residents.

The bluff-base settlement called theKoster site in Greene County is a corner-stone of lower Illinois Valley archaeology.First occupied 8,700 years ago, the site is aseries of mostly Archaic period camps andvillages layered one over another. Re-occupation of Koster continued for centu-ries with soil from higher elevations cover-ing over and separating cultural deposits.Excellent preservation of animal bones,charred plant remains, and tens of thousandsof artifacts chronicle the history of environ-mental change and human life in this part ofIllinois.

Early Archaic settlements were season-ally-shifting residential camps found in up-land areas, the bluff base and floodplains.These include bluff-base sites such as Koster,Titus, and Napoleon Hollow, and Twin Ditch,situated on the Greene County floodplain.Settlements probably centered around campsthat served as temporary home bases. Dur-ing the Middle Archaic, increasingly abun-dant river valley resources drew more per-manent settlements, as evidenced by housefloors associated with year-round base campsat Koster. Seasonal or multi-seasonal en-campments in the floodplain focused onharvesting riverine re-sources such as mussels,fish, waterfowl, andweedy plants. At thesame time, upland re-sources were gathered atspecial-purpose huntingcamps, nut collection ortool manufacturingworkshops such asBuckshaw Ridge in PikeCounty. By the Late Ar-chaic Period 4000 yearsago, larger numbers ofpeople in the lower Illi-nois valley were livingin permanent villages,cultivating native seed crops, and engagingin long-distance exchange to acquire materi-als such as copper and marine shell.

Archeologists have intensively investi-gated some of the 1,172 Woodland Periodsites in the lower Illinois valley. Early workcentered on floodplain burial mounds, in-cluding Kamp, Peisker, and Moundhouse;and those situated on the blufftops, such asGibson, Klunk, and L’Orient. Habitation

sites from the Early Woodland, representedby the Marion and Cypress phases, tend to bescarce and scattered. By Middle Woodlandtimes, there is evidence of population growth,large base camps, and an increased use of allvalley and tributary areas for villages.Knowledge of every day life comes fromexcavations at Apple Creek, Macoupin,Crane, Loy, Smiling Dan, and other sites.These sites chronicle the development ofmore sophisticated gardening practices, in-tensive harvesting of riverine and backwaterlake resources, unprecedented artistic ex-pression and a complex social and politicalorganization that included a far-reachingtrade system. Elaborately decoratedHopewell vessels from the Elizabeth Moundsshow incised geometric patterns and birdmotifs, excellent examples of the diverseceramics of the period. Clay figures such asthose from the Knight site in Calhoun Countyand Smiling Dan in Scott County giveglimpses of clothing and hair styles at aroundA.D. 100.

Late Woodland peoples at theNewbridge site in Greene County and Wor-thy-Merrigan in Calhoun County begin torely more on corn as a food staple, supple-mented by native seed cultivation and hunt-ing. With an increasing population, villagesare more common across the landscape andthere is a greater number of associated burial

mounds. Ceramics technology continues toimprove, with stronger and longer-lastingpottery, but decorations are less elaboratethan Middle Woodland pottery types.

Mississippian cultures did not penetratein large numbers into the lower Illinois Rivervalley. The Audrey site, located along AppleCreek in Greene County, is the only exampleof a palisaded Mississippian village. Smallhamlets, such as Hill Creek Homestead at a

tributary outlet in Pike County, are situatedalong the edges of the valley, suggesting amore scattered Mississippian presence. Thispattern continues into the Oneota Period.

Numerous tribes moved through thisregion during the 17th and 18th centuries,with a few remaining Tamaroa, one of theIllinois tribal groups, living at the southernend of Calhoun County. The Naples Ar-cheological District at the northern end ofthis region produced the only evidence ofHistoric Period Native American use, bring-ing to a close thousands of years of NativeAmerican cultures in the lower Illinois Rivervalley.

Karen A. AtwellFarmland Archaeological Services

WABASH RIVER AND ITSTRIBUTARIES

The Wabash River and its tributariesdrain eastern Illinois from the headwaters ofthe Vermilion River in Livingston County tothe confluence of the Wabash and Ohiorivers in Gallatin County. There has beenlittle archaeological research in this regioncompared to some areas of Illinois. The3,557 recorded archaeological sites in theWabash River drainage represent fewer thaneight percent of registered sites in Illinois.

Human history in the Wabash Riverdrainage is similar to the rest of Illinois, butthere are interesting differences. Some ofthese differences may represent local devel-opments, but others reflect the influence ofother cultures.

The Late Archaic Period Riverton cul-ture is the best known prehistoric culture inthe region. It represents a complex system ofsettlements based on differences in site loca-tions, artifact assemblages, and site func-tion. The principal villages were located inthe Wabash River floodplain, , , , , where Rivertonpeople carried out most domestic activitiessuch as food preparation and storage, toolproduction and repair, clothing fabrication,and building construction. At other settle-ments, often occupied during a particularseason, Riverton people sought specific foodssuch as roots, tubers, berries, nuts, fish,turtles, migratory waterfowl, and white-taileddeer.

Less well known but equally interestingare the Middle Woodland communities inthe region. At present, archaeologists havedocumented 120 Middle Woodland sites inthe Wabash River drainage, mostly locatedalong the Wabash River and its major tribu-

University of Chicago excavation at Cove Hollow, Johnson County, Illinois, 1939.Courtesy of the Illinois State Museum.

Discover Illinois Archaeology 24taries. Villages and hamlets, some withmounded cemeteries, dot the Wabash Rivervalley floodplain from its confluence withthe Ohio River to at least Terre Haute, Indi-ana. In particular, the pottery from thesesites reflects the influence of far-flung MiddleWoodland cultures including the Havana-Hopewell culture of the Illinois River val-ley, the Crab Orchard culture of southernIllinois, and Ohio River valley Middle Wood-land cultures, especially that represented bythe simple and complicated stamp potteryfound at the Mann sitein southwestern Indi-ana. The Allison Cul-ture is a later localMiddle Woodland cul-ture (circa A.D. 250 -A.D. 300). The bestexamples of the Allisonculture are the Stonerand Lowe sites, , , , , withcopper and non-localstone artifacts showingadditional evidence ofconnections with othercultures and regions.

By A.D. 1000, twoMississippian centers,Kincaid in Massac andPope Counties, Illinois,and the Angel Site nearEvansville, Indiana, influenced life in theWabash River valley. Mississippian sitesare found along the lower reach of the WabashRiver in floodplain settings, along the lowerreach of the Embarras River, and to a lesserextent, in other sections of the Wabash Val-ley. Particularly noteworthy is the OtterPond site in Lawrence County. Located ona terrace of the Embarras River, the site hastwelve large platform mounds arranged in arectangular pattern around a central, openplaza. Among the artifacts found at OtterPond are Mill Creek hoes, manufactured ataboriginal quarries along Mill Creek in UnionCounty. The presence of these artifacts andothers from distant locations underscoresthe importance of long-distance commercebetween large Mississippian communities.Smaller Mississippian communities arefound nearby in both the Embarras andWabash valleys.

Centered at the mouth of the WabashRiver in Indiana and Illinois is a series ofsites that represent the Caborn-Welborn cul-ture, named after two sites in Indiana.Caborn-Welborn people occupied this areafrom A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1600. As did the

Mississippians before them, Caborn-Welborn people grew corn, collected fishand mussels, and hunted white-tailed deer,but they also occasionally hunted bison, ananimal then relatively new to the area. Thepresence of European trade goods on lateCaborn-Welborn sites suggests these peoplehad contact with Europeans, either indi-rectly through Native American neighborsor in direct contact with French traders.

The Wea and the Piankashaw tribeswere resident along the Wabash River in the

17th and 18th centuries. Although there aremany historical documents, including maps,that refer to the locations of Wea andPiankashaw villages, archaeologists haveyet to discover these sites. By 1746, theShawnee tribe established a village whereShawneetown stands today. The Kickapooand Potawatomi resided along the Vermil-ion River and the headwaters of some of theother Wabash River tributaries.

Michael D. WiantDickson Mounds Museum

SOUTHERN ILLINOISEncompassing the Mississippi and

Ohio River floodplains, the Cache River-Bay Creek wetland corridor, the southernportions of the glaciated till plains, andthe dissected uplands of the Shawnee Hillsand eastern Ozarks, the southern Illinoisregion exhibits some of the greatest topo-graphic and environmental diversity inthe state. The prehistoric archaeologicalrecord is likewise diverse and varied, asthe region is also a transitional zone be-tween Midwestern and Southeastern cul-

ture areas.The Paleoindian and Early Archaic

record of the region is similar to otherparts of the state except for a greaterfrequency of certain projectile point typesmore common in the Midsouth. The firstnotable concentration of settlement takesplace in the late Middle Archaic Period,the same time as the major Koster siteoccupations in southwestern Illinois. Acluster of large Archaic sites with heavymiddens is documented in the South andBankston forks of the Saline River, espe-cially the Carrier Mills locality in SalineCounty.

The Early and Middle Woodlandare represented by the Crab Orchardtradition, a culture centered in southern-most Illinois and largely restricted toareas of deciduous forest. Ceramics ap-pear in the region by 600 B.C., but nodistinctive Early Woodland ceramiccomplex has yet been identified. Ves-sels are thick cord- or fabric-marked jarswith flat bases; fabric-marked surfacessoon predominate until around A.D. 1,when cord marking again assumes someimportance. Hopewellian burial moundceremonialism makes only limited in-roads in the area; the major exception isin Jackson County, with the Twenhafelmound and village complex and severalnearby sites.

Rock shelters are an important as-pect of the record of this region, provid-ing spaces for short-term occupationsranging from the late Paleoindianthrough Mississippian times. Most ofthese do not show a great deal of useuntil the Middle Archaic. Although suchsites are most numerous in the interioruplands, there are large, deeply-strati-fied shelters on the edge of the Missis-sippi floodplain.

Most of the state’s prehistoric rockart is within the region, usually on sand-stone outcrops in remote locations awayfrom major settlements. Most of it islate prehistoric in age, very late LateWoodland and Mississippian. Examplesmay be seen in the Piney Creek NaturePreserve on the Jackson/Randolphcounty line and at Millstone Bluff inPope County.

One special feature of the region arethe so-called Late Woodland “hill forts.”These are ten upland enclosures createdby placing low stacked rock walls acrossthe necks of bluff-bound projections or

Excavation at the Miller Grove site, Pope County, Illinois.Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service.


fingers. In a few instances, other stonefeatures are also present. The sites arescattered across the region on the mar-gins of the most rugged terrain in theShawnee Hills away from major LateWoodland settlements. Most contain fewartifacts. Although popularly viewed asforts, refuges, or even buffalo corrals,these sites appear to be some kind ofspecial locations reserved for periodicsocial or ceremonial activity, perhapswhere the wall serves to delimit thesacred area from the mundane world.Examples of these can be seen in GiantCity State Park in Jackson County andon the Rimrock Trail at the Pounds Hol-low Recreation Area in Gallatin County.

The Mississippian Period is repre-sented by a number of large mound cen-ters along the Ohio and Mississippi riv-ers. The best known is the Kincaid site,located in the Black Bottom of the OhioRiver near Paducah, Kentucky. TheKincaid site, portions of which are stateowned, was investigated in the 1930sand 1940s by the University of Chicago.Kincaid developed as a center early inthe period and reached its zenith in the13th century, serving as the principal siteof a chiefdom that extended from nearthe mouth of the Ohio to the SalineRiver. After A.D. 1300, Kincaid de-clines as a political power and is in-creasingly replaced by smaller local cen-ters. There is a movement by somegroups into interior upland settings, asevidenced by Millstone Bluff, a late Mis-sissippian village on a isolated hill top inthe upper Bay Creek drainage. The Mis-sissippian of the region is stylisticallydifferent from the Cahokia sphere and ismore closely linked to the lower Ten-nessee-Cumberland-Ohio valleys andSoutheast Missouri.

Other important Mississippian lo-cales include the Great Salt Spring onthe lower Saline River in GallatinCounty, a location where small groupsprocessed the brine from a natural saltspring to produce salt. Centuries of ac-tivity produced large accumulations ofdebris including countless pieces of largeceramic pans, used in the process. Insouthern Union County, near the com-munity of Mill Creek, is the source areafor the chert used to make most Missis-sippian hoes, adzes, and many of thelarge knives used in Illinois and adja-cent areas. The Mill Creek chert localityfeatures several quarries, nu-merous workshops, one smallmound center, the Hale site,and at least one permanent hill-top village, Dillows Ridge, whereoccupants manufactured these toolsfor local use as well as extensivetrade.

Although thereare indications ofscattered settlementspersisting as late asthe early 1500s, Mis-sissippian occupa-tion in most of theregion had dis-appeared byaround A.D.1450. Thesingular ex-ception is theC a b o r n -W e l b o r nphase, a lateMississippian ex-pression on the OhioRiver centered aroundthe mouth of the WabashRiver. Thought to be in part

The Illinois Archaeological Survey (IAS), anorganization of professional archaeologists,was formed in 1956 in response to the UnitedStates Federal-Aid Highway Act, whichinitiated the construction of interstate highways.In Illinois, and elsewhere, agreements providedfor the salvage of archaeological, historical,and paleontological data from proposedhighway routes. Among the first actions of theIAS was to create a site file, an inventory ofarchaeological sites in Illinois. Today, theIllinois Archaeological and Paleontological

ILLINOIS INVENTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS INVENTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS INVENTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS INVENTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICALILLINOIS INVENTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICALResources Protection Act requires theIllinois Historic Preservation Agency,with the assistance of the Illinois StateMuseum, to maintain an inventory ofarchaeological and paleontological sites.Archaeologists routinely submit informationon sites, which is transformed into a GeographicInformation System-based file and madeavailable to qualified individuals for researchand cultural resource management. The filenow includes information on more than 60,000sites, as shown on this map in red.

descended from people associated theAngel site in Indiana, Caborn-Welbornpopulations persist into the 1600’s, withsome sites yielding European tradegoods. Following the dissolution ofCaborn-Welborn, the region is appar-ently uninhabited except for occasionalintrusions by distant groups, such as theShawnee, who began traversing the re-gion beginning in the late 17th century.

Brian M. ButlerCenter for Archaeological Investiga-tions Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale


ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

AN ENDANGERED CULTURAL RESOURCE

Archaeological sites contain artifactsand traces of past human activity that allowus to learn about the people who once livedin Illinois. Most of the more than 60,000sites recorded thus far in Illinois were foundat or near the present-day land surface, and

they contain items as diverse as stone tools,hand-built ceramics, animal bone, charrednuts and seeds, garbage pits and housefloors. For at least 12,000 years of NativeAmerican occupation, these remains rep-resent the only direct evidence of culturesthat once flourished here. More recentsites may be the location of a pioneercabin, a rural tavern, a stoneware manufac-turing facility, or an immigrant's home-stead. Like other non-renewable resources,archaeological sites are being destroyed ata rapid rate by construction projectsthroughout the state. The following sec-tion provides answers to some basic ques-tions about archaeological sites in Illinois.

Can I surface collect or dig on private landCan I surface collect or dig on private landCan I surface collect or dig on private landCan I surface collect or dig on private landCan I surface collect or dig on private landin Illinois?in Illinois?in Illinois?in Illinois?in Illinois?

The only sites on private land havinglegal protection in Illinois are burial sites.No one, including professional archaeolo-gists, may excavate or disturb burialmounds, or collect burials, burial artifacts,or burial markers without legal authoriza-tion. Generally a person only needs thepermission of the landowner to collect fromor dig on non-burial sites in Illinois. How-ever, collecting artifacts from or diggingon a site that is in a proposed developmentproject under review for the project's ef-fects on cultural resources would be a prob-lem, since it could be seen as part of anattempt to avoid compliance with state andfederal laws protecting sites.

Where do I go to report a site?Where do I go to report a site?Where do I go to report a site?Where do I go to report a site?Where do I go to report a site?The Illinois State Museum in Spring-

field keeps the state archaeology site file, asrequired under state law. Contact the IllinoisState Museum, Research and CollectionsCenter, 1011 East Ash Street, Springfield,

IL 62703. Phone (217) 524-0328.

Can I collect artifacts orCan I collect artifacts orCan I collect artifacts orCan I collect artifacts orCan I collect artifacts ordig on public lands?dig on public lands?dig on public lands?dig on public lands?dig on public lands?Are there state and federalAre there state and federalAre there state and federalAre there state and federalAre there state and federallaws that protect sites?laws that protect sites?laws that protect sites?laws that protect sites?laws that protect sites?

All archaeologicalsites on federal land areprotected under federallaws such as the Archaeo-logical Resources Protec-tion Act, the Native Ameri-can Grave Protection andRepatriation Act, and theNational Historic Preserva-tion Act, and all artifacts on

federal land are property of the federal gov-ernment. All archaeological sites on landsowned by state government agencies, stateuniversities, counties, townships, munici-palities, and special districts (such as forestpreserve districts) are protected by Illinois'Archaeological and Paleontological Re-sources Protection Act. All artifacts foundon state or local public land are property ofthe state. Sites and artifacts on federal landhave been protected since 1903, on stateland since 1961, and on local public landsince 1990. No surface collection or excava-tion may be done on these public lands byanyone, even professional archaeologists,without legal authorization.Copies of federal archaeologylaws are available from federalagencies, libraries, the IllinoisHistoric Preservation Agency(IHPA), and on the internet at“www.cr.nps.gov/archeology.htm”.State archaeology laws areavailable from IHPA, librar-ies, and on the internet at“www.legis.state.il.us”.

I have heard stories of peopleI have heard stories of peopleI have heard stories of peopleI have heard stories of peopleI have heard stories of peoplebeing arrested and prosecutedbeing arrested and prosecutedbeing arrested and prosecutedbeing arrested and prosecutedbeing arrested and prosecutedfor taking artifacts across statefor taking artifacts across statefor taking artifacts across statefor taking artifacts across statefor taking artifacts across statelines, are they true?lines, are they true?lines, are they true?lines, are they true?lines, are they true?

Yes, but this can only hap-pen to someone who obtainsartifacts illegally.

What should I do if I find human remains?What should I do if I find human remains?What should I do if I find human remains?What should I do if I find human remains?What should I do if I find human remains?All burials are protected by the Human

Skeletal Remains Protection Act. Underthis law you are obligated to notify thecoroner within 48 hours of any discovery. Ifyou believe the remains are from an ar-chaeological site, you may contact IHPAafter you notify the coroner. If the coronerdetermines that human remains are not acrime scene, their office will transfer juris-diction to the IHPA.

When are archaeology sites in develop-When are archaeology sites in develop-When are archaeology sites in develop-When are archaeology sites in develop-When are archaeology sites in develop-ment projects subject to cultural resourcement projects subject to cultural resourcement projects subject to cultural resourcement projects subject to cultural resourcement projects subject to cultural resourcereview laws?review laws?review laws?review laws?review laws?

Any development project that is onfederal land, or that uses money originallyfrom the federal government, or that mustget a permit or license from a federal agency,is subject to federal review. Any develop-ment project that uses money originallyfrom state agencies, or that must get a per-mit or license from a state agency, is subjectto state review.

Additional information about these andother topics, including State Permits to digor collect artifacts, and the status of humanremains in private collections, can be ob-tained from the Illinois Historic Preserva-tion Agency, 1 Old State Capitol Plaza,Springfield, IL 62701-1507. Phone (217)782-4836, TTY (217) 524-7128, FAX(217)782-8161.

Mark E. Esarey, Cahokia Mounds State His-toric SiteJoseph S. Phillippe, Illinois Historic Preser-vation Agency

Field school at Hildemeyer, a Mississippian Period site near Peoria, Tazewell County,Illinois. Summer 2000. Courtesy of Western Illinois University.

Dickson Mounds Museum archaeologist, Duane Esarey identifing artifacts forvisitors. Courtesy of the Dickson Mounds Branch of the Illinois State Museum.

INTERNET RESOURCESINTERNET RESOURCESINTERNET RESOURCESINTERNET RESOURCESINTERNET RESOURCES

www.illinoisarchaeology.orgwww.illinoisarchaeology.orgwww.illinoisarchaeology.orgwww.illinoisarchaeology.orgwww.illinoisarchaeology.orgILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS MONTH ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS MONTH ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS MONTH ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS MONTH ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS MONTH (IAAM) pro-vides a state-wide calendar of events, a poster and related materials eachSeptember.

www.museum.state.il.uswww.museum.state.il.uswww.museum.state.il.uswww.museum.state.il.uswww.museum.state.il.usIllinois State MuseumIllinois State MuseumIllinois State MuseumIllinois State MuseumIllinois State Museum web sites includes museumlink Illinoismuseumlink Illinoismuseumlink Illinoismuseumlink Illinoismuseumlink Illinois, anoverview of the state’s natural and cultural history, and a link to DicksonMounds Museum.

http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/cultural/cultural.htmhttp://dnr.state.il.us/orep/cultural/cultural.htmhttp://dnr.state.il.us/orep/cultural/cultural.htmhttp://dnr.state.il.us/orep/cultural/cultural.htmhttp://dnr.state.il.us/orep/cultural/cultural.htmIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Natural Resources link has articles and bro-chures on prehistoric and historic sites, plus a 40-page booklet IllinoisHistoric Cemetery Preservation Handbook.

www.illinoishistory.gov/www.illinoishistory.gov/www.illinoishistory.gov/www.illinoishistory.gov/www.illinoishistory.gov/The Illinois Historic Preservation AgencyIllinois Historic Preservation AgencyIllinois Historic Preservation AgencyIllinois Historic Preservation AgencyIllinois Historic Preservation Agency has links to state-wide his-toric and archaeological sites you can visit.

www.caa-archeology.orgwww.caa-archeology.orgwww.caa-archeology.orgwww.caa-archeology.orgwww.caa-archeology.orgCenter for American Archeology Center for American Archeology Center for American Archeology Center for American Archeology Center for American Archeology (CAA)Educational programs for all ages based in Kampsville, Illinois.

www.cahokiamounds.comwww.cahokiamounds.comwww.cahokiamounds.comwww.cahokiamounds.comwww.cahokiamounds.comTake a virtual visit to the World Heritage site.

http://riverweb.cet.uiuc.edu/http://riverweb.cet.uiuc.edu/http://riverweb.cet.uiuc.edu/http://riverweb.cet.uiuc.edu/http://riverweb.cet.uiuc.edu/Environmental and cultural information and images about the AmericanBottom region.

www.saa.orgwww.saa.orgwww.saa.orgwww.saa.orgwww.saa.orgSociety for American Archaeology Society for American Archaeology Society for American Archaeology Society for American Archaeology Society for American Archaeology (SAA)National organization of professional archaeologists; includes quarterlynewsletter and curriculum materials.

www.sha.orgwww.sha.orgwww.sha.orgwww.sha.orgwww.sha.orgSociety for Historical Archaeology Society for Historical Archaeology Society for Historical Archaeology Society for Historical Archaeology Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA)National organization of archaeologists who study the historic period;includes bibliographies.

http://archaeology.about.comhttp://archaeology.about.comhttp://archaeology.about.comhttp://archaeology.about.comhttp://archaeology.about.comModerated by a former Midwest archaeologist, this web site is a wealth ofaccurate information on a broad range of topics, including educationalresources.

PUBLICATIONSPUBLICATIONSPUBLICATIONSPUBLICATIONSPUBLICATIONS

MagazinesMagazinesMagazinesMagazinesMagazinesIllinois AntiquityIllinois AntiquityIllinois AntiquityIllinois AntiquityIllinois Antiquity www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa www.museum.state.il.us/iaaaQuarterly Publication of the Illinois Association for Advancement ofArchaeologyamerican archaeologyamerican archaeologyamerican archaeologyamerican archaeologyamerican archaeology www.americanarchaeology.com.www.americanarchaeology.com.www.americanarchaeology.com.www.americanarchaeology.com.www.americanarchaeology.com.Quarterly Publication of the Archaeological Conservancy

Peer-reviewed JournalsPeer-reviewed JournalsPeer-reviewed JournalsPeer-reviewed JournalsPeer-reviewed JournalsIllinois ArchaeologyIllinois ArchaeologyIllinois ArchaeologyIllinois ArchaeologyIllinois Archaeology www.illarchsurvey.org.www.illarchsurvey.org.www.illarchsurvey.org.www.illarchsurvey.org.www.illarchsurvey.org.Midcontinental Journal of ArchaeologyMidcontinental Journal of ArchaeologyMidcontinental Journal of ArchaeologyMidcontinental Journal of ArchaeologyMidcontinental Journal of Archaeology www.midwestarchaeology.org.www.midwestarchaeology.org.www.midwestarchaeology.org.www.midwestarchaeology.org.www.midwestarchaeology.org.

BooksBooksBooksBooksBooksEmerson, Thomas E., Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. FortierEmerson, Thomas E., Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. FortierEmerson, Thomas E., Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. FortierEmerson, Thomas E., Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. FortierEmerson, Thomas E., Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier(editors) Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation acrossthe Midcontinent. University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Archaic Societies:Diversity and Complexity across the Midcontinent. State University ofNew York Press, 2009.Fagan, Brian M.Fagan, Brian M.Fagan, Brian M.Fagan, Brian M.Fagan, Brian M. Ancient North America The Archaeology of a Continent.Thames and Hudson, London, 2005.Farnsworth, Kenneth B. and Thomas E. Emerson Farnsworth, Kenneth B. and Thomas E. Emerson Farnsworth, Kenneth B. and Thomas E. Emerson Farnsworth, Kenneth B. and Thomas E. Emerson Farnsworth, Kenneth B. and Thomas E. Emerson (editors) EarlyWoodland Archeology. Center for American Archeology, KampsvilleSeminars in Archeology, Volume 2. Kampsville, 1986.Folwer, Melvin L.Folwer, Melvin L.Folwer, Melvin L.Folwer, Melvin L.Folwer, Melvin L. The Cahokia Atlas: A Historical Atlas of CahokiaArchaeology. Revised Edition. Illinois Transportation ArchaeologicalResearch Program, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1997.Hall, Robert L. Hall, Robert L. Hall, Robert L. Hall, Robert L. Hall, Robert L. An Archaeology of the Soul: North American IndianBelief and Ritual. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1997.Harn, Alan D.Harn, Alan D.Harn, Alan D.Harn, Alan D.Harn, Alan D. The Prehistory of Dickson Mounds: The Dickson Excavation.Reports of Investigations, No. 35. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, 1980.Justice, Noel D.Justice, Noel D.Justice, Noel D.Justice, Noel D.Justice, Noel D. Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinentaland Eastern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington &Indianapolis, 1987.McManamon, Francis P.McManamon, Francis P.McManamon, Francis P.McManamon, Francis P.McManamon, Francis P. (General Editor) Archaeology in America AnEncyclopedia. Vol. 2, Midwest and Great Plains/Rocky Mountains.Greenwod Press, Westport, CT, 2009.Markman, Charles W.Markman, Charles W.Markman, Charles W.Markman, Charles W.Markman, Charles W. Chicago Before History: The Prehistoric Archae-ology of a Modern Metropolitan Area. Studies in Illinois Archaeology 7,Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield, 1991.Mazrim, RobertMazrim, RobertMazrim, RobertMazrim, RobertMazrim, Robert The Sangamo Frontier History & Archaeology in theShadow of Lincoln. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2006.Milner, George R.Milner, George R.Milner, George R.Milner, George R.Milner, George R. The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of EasternNorth America. Thames & Hudson, London, 2004.Pauketat, Timothy R.Pauketat, Timothy R.Pauketat, Timothy R.Pauketat, Timothy R.Pauketat, Timothy R. Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on theMississippi. Penguin, 2009.Penney, JamesPenney, JamesPenney, JamesPenney, JamesPenney, James Prehistoric Peoples of Southern Illinois. Center forArchaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, 1986.Silverberg, Robert Silverberg, Robert Silverberg, Robert Silverberg, Robert Silverberg, Robert Mound Builders of Ancient America: The Archaeol-ogy of a Myth. New York Graphic Society, Ltd., 1968.Struever, Stuart and Felicia Antonelli HoltonStruever, Stuart and Felicia Antonelli HoltonStruever, Stuart and Felicia Antonelli HoltonStruever, Stuart and Felicia Antonelli HoltonStruever, Stuart and Felicia Antonelli Holton Koster: Americans inSearch of Their Prehistoric Past . Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1979.Tanner, Helen Tanner, Helen Tanner, Helen Tanner, Helen Tanner, Helen Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. University ofOklahoma Press, Norman, 1987.Temple, Wayne C.Temple, Wayne C.Temple, Wayne C.Temple, Wayne C.Temple, Wayne C. Indian Villages of the Illinois Country. Illinois StateMuseum Scientific Papers, Vol. 2, Part 2. Springfield, 1977.Trigger, Bruce GTrigger, Bruce GTrigger, Bruce GTrigger, Bruce GTrigger, Bruce G. (editor) Handbook of North American Indians, Vol.15, Northeast. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1978.Tucker, Sara Jones, and Wayne C. TempleTucker, Sara Jones, and Wayne C. TempleTucker, Sara Jones, and Wayne C. TempleTucker, Sara Jones, and Wayne C. TempleTucker, Sara Jones, and Wayne C. Temple (compilers) Atlas andSupplement Indian Villages of the Illinois Country. Illinois State MuseumScientific Papers, Vol. I, Part 1. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, 1977.Wagner, Mark J. and Mary R. MccorvieWagner, Mark J. and Mary R. MccorvieWagner, Mark J. and Mary R. MccorvieWagner, Mark J. and Mary R. MccorvieWagner, Mark J. and Mary R. Mccorvie The Archaeology of FrontierTaverns on the St. Louis-Vincennes Trace. Popular Science Series, Vol. XI.,Illinois State Museum, and the Illinois Department of Transportation, 1993.Walthall, John A.Walthall, John A.Walthall, John A.Walthall, John A.Walthall, John A. (editor) French Colonial Archaeology: The IllinoisCountry and the Western Great Lakes. University of Illinois Press, 1991.Walthall, John A. and Thomas Emerson Walthall, John A. and Thomas Emerson Walthall, John A. and Thomas Emerson Walthall, John A. and Thomas Emerson Walthall, John A. and Thomas Emerson (editors) Calumet and Fleur-De-Lys: Archaeology of Indian and French Contact in the Midcontinent.Smithsonian Press, 1992.

FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS IN ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGYFOR ADDITIONAL READINGS IN ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGYFOR ADDITIONAL READINGS IN ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGYFOR ADDITIONAL READINGS IN ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGYFOR ADDITIONAL READINGS IN ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGYSEE www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/dia.pdf.SEE www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/dia.pdf.SEE www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/dia.pdf.SEE www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/dia.pdf.SEE www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/dia.pdf.

For Further Explorations into Illinois Archaeology

www.illinoisarchaeology.org

Excavations at the Morton site near Dickson Mounds,Summer 2009. All images courtesy of the DicksonMounds Branch of the Illinois State Museum.

discover illinois · 2009-10-19 · large mammals at the close of the ice age. along with mastodon...

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