Saturday, September 10, 2011 Morning session

7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Registration

8:00 to 9:00 a.m. Annual Business meeting

9:00 to 9:15 a.m. Break

9:15 to 9:30 a.m. Lithic Analysis: An In-depth Look at Surface Collections from the Gehring Site

Dan Blodgett (Southern University Edwardsville)

In 2009, an archaeological field school for University Edwardsville was held at the Gehring site (11MS99), located in the American Bottom. The surface collection for this field school accumulated over 29,000 lithic artifacts that are currently being analyzed and were the focus of this research project. The analysis of these lithic artifacts focused on the identification of chert types, diagnostics, tools, and the types of lithic debitage that occurred within the collection in an attempt to determine the function and chronology of the site. The determinations of function and chronology yielded by this research were then compared with previous work at the site in the hopes of gaining a better understanding of what the Gehring site was like in the past. My findings revealed that the site was in use from the Middle Archaic through the Mississippian periods and that it was predominantly occupied during the Middle Woodland and Mississippian periods. Based on the materials available I am able to determine that the site was one of habitation during the Middle Woodland and Mississippian periods, but the exact function of the site is uncertain for the other periods present based on the small amount of material evidence from them. These findings are generally consistent with those of the previous work on the site.

9:30 to 9:45 a.m. Sourcing Silurian chert in northeast Illinois

Doug Kullen

Two varieties of chert occur in the Silurian age limestones of northeast Illinois, but only one of these was readily accessible to prehistoric flintknappers. Chert from the Elwood Formation was not naturally exposed in northeast Illinois. Chert of the Joliet Formation was available from outcrops exposed in ravines and side stream valleys flanking the Des Plaines River, and from secondary deposits in streambeds. Both kinds of Silurian chert may occur as inclusions in glacial till, but exposures of the Joliet Formation would have served prehistoric flintknappers as the main, local source of raw material in the area.

9:45 to 10:00 a.m. Unraveling a Mystery: 2010-2011 Excavations at the Hickory Hill Site in Southern Illinois

Mark J. Wagner (Southern Illinois University)

From ca. 1834-1864 the state-owned Hickory Hill site represented the home of John Hart Crenshaw, a prominent southern Illinois salt maker who owned both African- American slaves and indentured servants before the Civil War. Over the past century a series of lurid stories have developed regarding Crenshaw’s treatment of his African- American workers. In 2010-2011 the CAI initiated investigations at the site designed to provide the state of Illinois with more accurate information regarding the history and archaeology of this important slavery-related property. This paper summarizes the results of these investigations, which succeeded in locating features, artifacts, and landscape information associated with the Crenshaw family and later occupations.

10:00 to 10:15 a.m. Preliminary Analysis of War of 1812 Buttons from Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis, Hancock County, Illinois.

Rich Fishel (Illinois State Archaeological Survey)

Recent archaeological investigations at Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis, two short-term War of 1812 military posts in Hancock County, Illinois, uncovered a diverse artifact assemblage that included a wide array of button types. Of the hundreds of recovered buttons, approximately 70 percent exhibit military insignias. In addition to briefly describing the assemblage, what these buttons can and cannot tell us regarding the occupations of the two military posts is also discussed.

10:15 to 10:30 a.m. Break

10:30 to 10:45 a.m. Cemetery Preservation Keeps History Alive!

Dawn E. Cobb, Illinois State Museum/Illinois Historic Preservation Agency

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have joined together to present two cemetery preservation training workshops to teach people how to preserve important historical resources – our cemeteries. In the Basic class participants learn the proper techniques for uncovering and cleaning buried markers and straightening simple markers. The Advanced class teaches the more complicated repairing and resetting techniques related to multi-base markers. Both classes stress the importance that having a preservation plan will lead to a successful cemetery preservation project.

10:45 to 11:00 a.m. Archaeology – The scanning of the Illinois State Archives archaeological files.

Hal Hassen (Illinois Department of Natural Resources), Tom Emerson, and Mike Lewis (Illinois State Archaeological Survey)

The history of Illinois archaeology has not garnered the attention it warrants. Files within the Illinois State Archives contain important letters, memos, maps and photographs reflecting upon the history of archaeology in Illinois. Through a joint agreement among the Illinois State Archives, the Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois State Archaeological Survey a project was initiated in 2010 that will enable the scanning of these documents which in some cases have become quite fragile. The goal is to provide internet access for researchers.

11:00 to 11:15 a.m. A Clay Floor and an Early Mound at Kincaid.

Corin C. O. Pursell and Paul D. Welch, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

One of the major objectives of the 2011 excavations at Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site was locating, identifying and dating a white clay sediment layer found beneath the Mxo8 mound in excavations by the University of Chicago in 1938. Originally interpreted as a deposit, the layer lies atop the submound surface and thus potentially dates to Early Kincaid, an understudied period at this site. We relocated and exposed a portion of the deposit, which is anthropogenic and includes a light- colored clay and sand prepared surface. It is associated with at least three superimposed structures, and apparently early ceramics.

11:15 to 11:30 a.m. 2011 in the Black Bottom: Investigating (very) Early Kincaid

Brian M. Butler and Corin C. O. Pursell, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

One of the objectives of the 2011 SIUC field school was to investigate an area in the western part of Kincaid that yielded very unusual magnetic signatures. Confounding expectations, the area proved to be an Archaic midden with only small amounts of Mississippian materials in the plowzone and slopewash deposits. On the ridge crest the cultural deposit is 80 to 90 cm deep and its basal portions date to the late Middle Archaic or very early Late Archaic.

11:30 a.m. IAS Awards Ceremony

Noon to 1:30 p.m. Lunch at .

Michael Wiant (ISM-Dickson Mounds) A Glimpse at the Future of Dickson Mounds Museum.

Afternoon session

1:30 to 1:45 p.m. Mapping ’s Epicenter.

John E. Kelly (Washington University) and James A Brown (Northwestern University)

One of our objectives over the last twelve years is the mapping of Cahokia’s epicenter, including the later configuration of the central palisade and the Ramey Palisade. This presentation briefly highlights the work from this past summer and some of the new ideas emerging regarding this sacred landscape.

1:45 to 2:00 p.m. The 2011 Excavations on the North and East Palisade

William Iseminger (Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site) and Susanna Bailey (PARC)

As one of the site’s major architectural constructions this presentation summarizes this summarizes this past summers work on the north wall and a return to an area of the east wall opened in 1973.

2:00 to 2:15 p.m. Ongoing Investigations at the East St. Louis Site for the New Bridge Project.

Brad Koldehoff ( Research Institute)

This paper provides an overview of ongoing archaeological investigations in East St. Louis by the Illinois State Archaeological Survey for the Illinois Department of Transportation. More than 2,000 archaeological features have been investigated in and around the old National Stockyards. Significant Euro-American and late prehistoric Mississippian period discoveries are reviewed.

2:15 to 2:30 p.m. Spatial and Temporal Analysis of the Myer-Dickson Community

Michael D. Conner (ISM—Dickson Mounds)

The Myer-Dickson site is a large bluff top habitation area adjacent to the Dickson Mounds mortuary complex. Thirteen structure locations (two with multiple rebuildings) were found within a 2 ha area north of the mounds, including six around a plaza; six other structures were found in discontinuous areas elsewhere on the bluff top. The main area contains evidence of early and late Larson phase domestic activities. The spatial distribution of material and features suggests that Myer-Dickson was not occupied continuously over this period, and that the plaza structures were built and utilized over a relatively short period of time.

2:30 to 2:45 p.m. Jeremy Wilson

2:45 to 3:00 p.m. Cultural Change and Demographic Variation in the Life of a Prehistoric Cemetery: The 1960s Excavations at Dickson Mounds.

Alan Harn (ISM—Dickson Mounds)

Prior to the construction of the new museum at Dickson Mounds, archaeological investigations were conducted in 10 burial mounds, sections of the central charnel house pyramidal mound, and the premound cemetery. The resulting 806 burials demonstrated that three resident Late Woodland groups, Mossville, Maples Mills, and Sepo, were exchanging ideas, material goods, probably intermarrying, and burying their dead together at Dickson when the first Mississippians arrived around A.D. 1100. Striking examples of artifact hybridization soon emerged, along with a mortuary program that disproportionately encompassed all four populations and initially featured exotic burial practices and the widespread inclusion of costuming with the dead. However, mortuary emphases shifted over the next 150 years as the strong early Mississippian influence became diluted by local expressions, and more mundane grave offerings and less elaborate costuming began to appear with the dead. By A.D. 1200, social and material intercultural blending was complete at Dickson, and data indicate that the post A.D. 1200 Spoon River represented a physical melange of Mississippian remnants swamped by acculturated Sepo phase Late Woodland descendents--the only indigenous group to Mississippianize all recognizable aspects of its social and material culture.

3:00 to 3:15 p.m. The Late Middle Mississippian Frontier in the Illinois Valley

Larry Conrad (Western Illinois University and Upper Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Foundation)

Excavations at the Ten Mile Creek or Hildemeyer site across the river from Peoria between 2000 and 2004 yielded a trove of material ranging from the Stirling horizon to probably the late 13th or early 14th century. The earlier materials were quite similar, if not identical, to those of the contemporary Spoon River Culture, but the later materials represented a heretofore unknown manifestation in which 100% of the jars were cordmarked, but deep-rimmed plates were apparently absent. Langford and sherds were present in small numbers. The non-ceramic assemblage included an abundance of "hump-back knives", antler points and "counters", and fish bone imitation Pine Island and Younge style gorget ear ornaments reminiscent of Upper Mississippian assemblages. Wall trench structures were the norm.

3:15 to 3:30 p.m. Oneota and Mississippian Occupations at the Morton Village Site.

Michael D. Conner (ISM—Dickson Mounds) and Jodie O’Gorman, (Michigan State University)

The Morton Village site, adjacent to the Norris Farms #36 Oneota cemetery, is a large Oneota and Mississippian village occupied in the A.D. 1300s. Remote sensing identified 73 likely and possible structures within 2.2 ha, though the limits of the site have not been identified. Eight likely structures have been verified through excavation; no structure was found where a possible structure was identified. Four of 21 structure locations at least partially excavated have both single-post (Oneota) and wall-trench (Mississippian) rebuilding episodes. Although the sequence of wall style is not known, these results could be evidence of contemporary use of the site by both groups. A unique Oneota public structure has also been found at the site.

3:30 to 3:45 p.m. Break

3:45 to 5:00 p.m. Open Forum: Preservation of the East St. Louis Mound Center.