Champaign (Statewide Survey Division)

Figure 1. The Orica site (11GR267).

Orica Site (11Gr267)
The Orica site (11Gr267) was identified on a high terrace of the Illinois River in association with a new road alignment and approach to a bridge crossing Armstrong Run in Grundy County. Shovel testing in an agricultural field with no surface visibility revealed a dense mixture of both historic and prehistoric artifacts adjacent to the creek. Further investigation included machine excavated test trenches located in the proposed Right-of-Way and four hand-dug test units within and adjacent to the proposed alignment (Figure 1). Our investigations revealed the presence of a shallow (ca. 30 cms) midden and remnant cultural features beneath the plowzone. Several features were excavated, including a large deep bi-lobed pit, a late nineteenth century cistern, and several small shallow basins. Aside from the Woodland age diagnostics, several projectile points were recovered from midden, pit, and plowzone contexts that seem to represent a specific point type probably dating to the Middle or Late Archaic period (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Selected projectile points – Orica site (11GR267).

Return to top

Egan Site (11ST331)
Archaeological investigations were conducted by ITARP at the Egan site (11ST331). The site is located in Scott County on a north bluff top overlooking Brushy Fork creek that drains into the Illinois River several miles to the west. Initial surface collections had indicated the presence of a possible Middle Woodland and/or Late Woodland occupation. The proposed Right-of-Way area was machine excavated (550 m²) revealing 65 pits and 8 posts. These features were excavated over a two week period. Excavations were directed by Dr. Andrew Fortier and Douglas Jackson of ITARP. Immediately after excavation, all soil samples and cultural materials were processed and then stored for future analysis.

Analysis of the Egan site was initiated in 2004 by Dr. Fortier, assisted by Alexi Zelin. Feature and ceramic analysis was completed in the Fall of 2004 and Spring of 2005, respectively. Other aspects of analysis, including fauna, lithics and archaeobotany are ongoing. Ceramic analysis has revealed three distinctive assemblages, including: 1) Massey Cordmarked and Fabric Impressed, 2) Hopewell, and 3) early Late Woodland, referred to as Egan and most probably contemporary with White Hall and Weaver, but distinctive from those assemblages (Figure 3). Contextually Massey and Hopewell ceramics co-occur while Egan ceramics are separate. The Egan ceramics include Egan Cordmarked, Egan Plain, and Egan Zoned. Egan Zoned is characterized as having exterior lip cordwrapped stick impressions, typically placed above horizontal bosses, which sometimes have triangular punctuates beneath the bosses, followed by a free zone, followed by cordmarking down to the vessel base. Tempers include grit, sand, and grog.

Based solely on the examination of ceramic materials, two distinct occupations appear to be represented at Egan, a Middle Woodland component consisting of 27 pit features, and an early Late Woodland component consisting of 16 pit features. In addition, there are 22 unaffiliated pits. Hopefully, when all other material analyses have been completed some of the unaffiliated features may be reassigned to a more specific component.

Figure 3. Selected ceramic rims – Egan site (11ST331).

Return to top

Figure 1. The Hoxie Farm site.

Hoxie Farm site (11CK4)
The Hoxie Farm site (11CK4), an extensive, intensively occupied, Upper Mississippian site located in the south suburban Chicago area, represents one of the largest archaeological site complexes in the Chicago area (Figure 1). Professional investigations at the site were first undertaken in 1953 by Elaine Bluhm when a portion of the site was found to be within the construction corridor of the I-80 Tollway. Additional excavations were conducted over the following decades by Forest Preserve District of Cook County personnel and also by Northwestern University. Unfortunately, the site, which is managed by the Cook County Forest Preserve, has also been the target of rampant looting and extensive areas of the site have been destroyed.

Our investigations, led by Douglas Jackson, were conducted at the Hoxie Farm site (11CK4) between 2000-2003 following proposals by IDOT and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) to widen and modify the I-80/294 corridor. Initial testing identified the existence of a well-preserved midden overlying numerous subsurface features (Figure 2). This project provided the opportunity to conduct the first modern controlled excavations at this complex site resulting in the collection of a vast amount of material, subsistence, and community evidence. The project area can be conceived of as a “western zone” and an “eastern zone.” The site investigations resulted in the excavation of over 2400 pits, postmolds, hearths, structures and fortification features. In the western zone the investigations encountered an artifact rich midden and dense concentrations of superimposed pit features. In addition to excavating the subsurface features, over 450 two-by-two meter hand excavation units were completed within the extensive midden. Significantly, portions of three longhouse structures were also uncovered.

Figure 2. Field excavations at the Hoxie Farm site.

The eastern zone is spatially separated from the western zone by a featureless space and consists of a densely occupied fortified village. Approximately 80 small, basin structures and hundreds of pit and hearth features were excavated. Based on evidence along the community’s west edge, the village was surrounded by 4 fortification ditches that ranged in width from 2 to 4 m. Their depth varied from 30 cm to nearly 1 m. On the village side of the ditch complex was a palisade comprised of a single line of posts. This village is estimated to have covered approximately 4 ha (10 acres) based on excavations, and geophysical and soil probe investigations. The geophysical investigations were conducted by Dr.Michael Hargrave of the United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. Hundreds of contemporary structures would have been present within this village. Debris totals are low from the village and it is thought to have been of a relatively short duration. This fortified village appears to be the basis for early historic accounts of a “fort” or “French fort” in the vicinity of the Village of Thornton.

Material remains from both the western and eastern zones of the project are easily assignable to the Upper Mississippian period. Madeline Evans and her staff have processed tens of thousands of lithic items with triangular projectile points, endscrapers, and an array of other bifacial and unifacial tools present (Figure 3). A variety of pipe styles were found, including the disc pipe form. Etched designs were found on a number of the pipes as well as on smoothed surface stones and pebbles. Copper, mainly decorative body and clothing items, was consistently found during the excavations. Tom Emerson and the ceramic analysts have noted that shell-tempered vessels with cordmarked surfaces and medium to wide trailing dominate (Figure 4), but plain surfaced examples, some with narrow trailing, are also present. Terrance Martin (ISM) is analyzing the faunal remains that were abundant from most of the western zone but less well preserved within the fortified village. Katie Egan-Bruhy (CCRG) observes that archaeobotanical remains seem to be fairly uniform across the site, but maize was observed more frequently within the village. A noteworthy find was numerous uncarbonized squash seeds and other botanical materials from water-saturated deposits at the base of one of the fortification ditches. Lee Newsom (Penn. State) is examining them as part of a broader study.

Figure 3. Examples of some of the artifacts from the Hoxie Farm site.

Many of the excavated remains can be associated with the late Fisher phase and there are likely occupations that may provide important information on the proposed transition of late Fisher to early Huber phase. The fortified village area appears to be early in the sequence while the western zone appears to consist of multiple re-occupations that span the late Fisher to early Huber phase time frame. A small number of radiocarbon dates have been obtained and the acceptable dates extend from the early 14th century to the mid 15th century. Additional radiocarbon samples will be submitted for dating in the future. Analysis on the various assemblages recovered from the site investigations at this important site is currently ongoing by multiple researchers.

Return to top

Vermilion County Danville Beltline Project

Survey was undertaken in the 2001-2003 field seasons for the Danville Beltline project which is a proposed four lane road on the east side of Danville in Vermilion County. Pedestrian survey of the approximately 2870 acres of the proposed corridor resulted in the identification of 159 archaeological sites and an additional 91 finds. Find spots were defined, for the purpose of this survey, as archaeological locations with six or fewer artifacts and no temporally diagnostic materials.

There are several ways of measuring prehistoric activity in a locality from survey results; the two we have chosen here are relative number of individual components identified for the entire survey and the relative number of projectile points recovered for each time period. We believe that by using both indices we can achieve a rough estimate of relative human activity through time for this locality. Based on site distribution, it is evident that prehistoric people were utilizing the higher, rolling land between the Stony Creek and Lick Creek drainages on the Newtown Moraine more consistently than the more flat uplands located north and southeast of these drainages. Although nearly all components are represented by the sites identified during this survey, there is a remarkably higher frequency of Early Archaic and Late Prehistoric components (Figure 4). Analysis of the temporally diagnostic points of these two periods indicates a shift in chert utilization through time. Exotic chert, such as Burlington from western Illinois was utilized at a higher frequency during the Early Archaic period. In contrast, the locally available glacial till chert was the primary chert type during the Late Prehistoric period. Non-local Indiana chert types were utilized at about the same frequency during both periods. The shift in using exotic chert acquired from distant sources during the Early Archaic to utilizing more locally available glacial till chert during the Late Prehistoric is indicative of a difference in home range or trade networks.

Archaeological materials have been analyzed and a draft report by Leighann Calentine, Dale McElrath, and Jamey Zehr was completed in January 2004. Additional invaluable information about this area is being obtained from analysis of the John Henry collection that was recently donated to the University of Illinois. John Henry is a former Danville resident who published an article with Al Nichols on Paleoindian from Vermilion County. He has a long history of articulating with professional archaeologists. Some of the sites collected by John Henry overlap this project area and analysis of these materials will be incorporated into the final Danville Beltine report.

Figure 4. Triangular Cluster of Projectile Points- Danville Bypass.

Return to top

Testing at 11V894

Large amounts of FCR and some collared rim ceramics were recovered from shovel tests during testing for a proposed borrow pit at this site in Vermillion County. Subsequent investigations entailed machine excavation of three trenches. Additional hand excavation was completed of three 2 x 2m test units within one of the trenches as well as a number of possible features represented by FCR concentrations. In total, 33 lithic tools were recovered, representing Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods. Of those tools, at least seven projectile points are diagnostic to the following types: 1 Karnak Unstemmed, 2 Merom Expanding Stem, 1 Mo-pac, 1 Triangular Side-Notched, and 2 triangular points. The majority of ceramics recovered are grit-tempered, cord-marked body sherds. Some decoration in the form of lip notching occurs on some of the collared rims. In addition to those prehistoric artifacts, many beads were recovered from a single flotation sample (Figure 5). In light of the archaeological material recovered from this project area, a new borrow pit location was selected.

Figure 5. Historic beads from 11V894.

Return to top