The most common diagnostic Mississippian period (700 A.D. to 1300 A.D.) artifact that I have found is the Madison Point. With the exception of the prairie potholes on the Shelbyville Moraine I have found these points virtually everywhere, although I know of no  major village or mound sites. I did, however, find one site south of Vandalia in Fayette County, IL, that was deeply plowed several years ago on which I found a significant amount of Mississippian material. This site had been in alfalfa for a number of years when the farmer decided to plow it, and plow it deep. In doing so he exposed a number of features, mostly trash pits, but also a house feature and an area where pottery was being made. The trash pits contained large amounts of deer bones (this is the only site I ever found which had well preserved bone) and numerous pot sherds of Sand Prairie Focus pottery. According to Paula Cross, who at that time worked for the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency and visited the site with me, this pottery dates to the terminal phase of Cahokia Mounds. Evidently there was either some kind of relationship to Cahokia or else these people moved there after the abandonment of Cahokia. In addition to the pottery I found a couple of side-notched Cahokia points, a stone adze, and a round sandstone pendant in which the hole had just been started. This sandstone disc was found away from the main habitation site with what I believe was a burial that had been plowed out. The bone was so badly deteriorated that it was little more than powder.  Ironically, the "nicest artifact" I found on this site was a full groove archaic axe found within the house area along with the adze. It may have been plowed out from a deeper layer or perhaps had been found by the Mississipians and utilized.
|
