CULTURES AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Man can live virtually anywhere on the earth’s surface where he can obtain food, water and fuel, and do so without any fundamental change in his physical structure. This is largely because he is easily able to modify his customary ways of filling his basic needs under new or changing conditions of his surroundings. For primitive man to “live better” required an increasing knowledge of the resources in his locality and ingenuity in devising effective means and contrivances for exploiting them.
Because of this ability, the Paleo-Indian wanderers (Big Game Hunters) in Illinois around 12,000 to 10,000 B.C., when confronted with rising temperatures and other regional changes, could choose whether they would follow the mammoth and musk ox herds and familiar subglacial conditions elsewhere or adopt new and strange methods of securing food and other requirements.
As Big Game Hunters they probably lived as a number of families attached to a herd and relatively independent of each other except at hunting times. They had no homes, only temporary camps, and were bound to a moving herd, not to any particular region. The [Paleo-Indian] [culture] consisted of methods of trapping and slaying the great beasts and of filling other simple physical needs; a simple code of social behavior which enabled men and wives to live together with their children and, for brief periods, in gatherings of the families in relative peace and contentment; with religious beliefs and rites suitable to their cultural level that they believed assured them of a continuance of their satisfactory existence.
When the climate changed, those families that chose to remain in Illinois had to develop, perhaps slowly and painfully, a new way of life. The habits and haunts of deer, elk, bear and raccoon had to be learned. Other methods of hunting and of making tools and devices to fit new conditions were invented as a result of the new fund of knowledge assembled. Each [family] eventually acquired a more or less definite piece of land or hunting territory in which it selected certain favorable places to build the temporary [hamlet] at suitable seasons. As the man and his family became better adapted to the land and its resources, he hunted more successfully, and the family or local group grew larger in number.
Probably a number of neighboring families, when food was especially abundant, gathered together for social and religious purposes as peoples living today in the same [status] still do. Religious beliefs and other customs had all this time doubtless been shifting gradually in meeting the needs and dangers of changing conditions to a new way of life we call the [Archaic] [culture].
Every way of life is built on an older, often simpler, [culture] from which it has changed more or less rapidly. Due to important inventions, the group may modify its [economy] (ways of securing and processing food, etc.) and produce a substantially improved manner of living which, from archaeological evidence alone, may be difficult to recognize as a development from its earlier [phase].
On occasion, [people] from another region may invade an area, drive out the inhabitants and bring in a differing way of life. Usually this merely extends, to a desirable region less effectively exploited by others, the range of a vigorous cultural group whose territory has become too densely populated.
Sometimes newcomers essay to live peaceably with the natives and a new cultural blend is developed. If fundamental changes are made in the [economy] by internal development or by imitating another [culture], social and religious customs are very likely to change too, though usually at a slower pace.
As time went on, the [Archaic] way of life slowly changed and finally disappeared, but probably not so suddenly as might at first appear; for many Archaic customs, tools, and weapons continued to be made and used in the “new” [culture] by the descendants of rugged earlier [people] or were adopted by newcomers to the region. Other changes were added through new inventions and incoming people from other regions producing a new culture now generally known as [Woodland].
THE INITIAL [WOODLAND] CULTURES[9] (2500-500 B.C.)
After 5000 B.C. the temperatures continued to rise producing a climatic interval known as the [Thermal Maximum] when it was warmer and drier than at the present time. After reaching its high point, the temperature gradually declined and probably ended in southern Illinois about 2100 B.C. or later in a climate much like that of today.
By projecting the rate of deposit from the eight- to the eleven-foot level of the [Modoc Rock Shelter] up to the five-foot level where the [Archaic] remains appear to end, we secure a date for its upper limit of about 2100 B.C. (Deuel 1957, p. 2). The remains between the five- and eight-foot depths are scantier and less varied than in the earlier (lower) layers and may indicate a cultural group in a losing struggle to maintain itself under changing conditions.
Fig. 11. Potsherds from the [Lake Baikal] in southern Siberia resemble those of Initial and [Classic] [Woodland] (Hopewellian) in Illinois. The letters with subscripts refer to Siberian pottery. A-E, reduced to ½ actual size; F-H, reduced to ¹/₁₆ actual size. (Siberian pottery from Richthofen in ANTHROPOS, 1932: 128, 129, 130; Illinois pottery from Illinois State Museum collections.)
In northern Illinois, similar climatic conditions were developing. There, possibly as early as 2500 B.C., a new [culture], the Initial (early) [Woodland], was coming into existence. At any rate, groups living there some time prior to 1000 B.C. made pottery, placed their dead in cemeteries and in low burial mounds in a [flexed] or “doubled-up” position, occasionally with food, personal ornaments and other funeral offerings.
Fig. 12. A [flint] [dagger] or hunting knife from “Red Ochre [subculture]” of Initial [Woodland]. (B.B.)
The pottery of one [Woodland] group (Morton) in the Illinois valley resembled, in shape, surface treatment, design and area decorated, pots made in the [Lake Baikal] region in Asia some 7000 miles distant. The appearance of such striking similarities has long been a puzzle to anthropologists. In the first place the detailed likenesses suggest both were made by one and the same [people]. It seems fairly obvious that the several resemblances did not travel from tribe to tribe from Asia to central North America. The preservation of a pottery tradition during a migration of 7000 miles, probably lasting for several generations, seems equally incredible. Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that two widely separated divisions of a people originating in central Asia with the same cultural background and similar surroundings arrived independently at a remarkably similar but very simple pottery type.
Fig. 13. A copper [gorget], A, (possibly patterned after the double-bitted ax-shaped bannerstone) and shell gorgets, B and C, from “Red Ochre [subculture]” of Initial [Woodland]. All from [Mound] 11, Fulton County, Illinois.
These late migrants probably found groups like the Black Sand (and Red Ochre) peoples in Illinois who were just emerging from the [Archaic] [phase] into Initial [Woodland]. The settlements of all early Woodland peoples were small in extent and poor in cultural remains. The population of these hamlets probably seldom exceeded fifty. No traces of house structures have yet been discerned. Temporary huts, probably built of small poles and brush, may have been conical or hemispherical in shape. The [artifacts] or cultural objects, except for a small amount of [jewelry] (shell and copper beads and pendants) and the few offerings placed in graves, show little evidence of any urge to fine workmanship or much feeling for beauty of line or form. Life was probably too hard and the effort in securing food and other requirements too exacting to leave much leisure for artistic workmanship in durable materials.[10]
THE [FOOD STORERS] (BAUMER AND [CRAB ORCHARD] CULTURES) (1000?-100 B.C.?)
It has been seen that in southern Illinois the [Archaic] way of life may have persisted until 2100 B.C. or perhaps even later. Across the state on the Ohio River a [Woodland] [people] succeeded the earlier Archaic residents. Their [culture] is known as Baumer and their nearest cultural relatives lived south of the Ohio in Kentucky (Round Grave or Upper Valley People). The Baumer [artifacts] do not resemble those of the Archaic [period] very closely, giving one the impression that the Baumer people developed their way of life elsewhere and moved into Illinois, possibly while Archaic groups were still in the region.
The Baumer [culture] differs in several ways from the northern Initial [Woodland]; actually it appears to be more advanced although it has been termed early Woodland by some archaeologists. In the first place, the area of settlement was more extensive which seems to indicate a larger population than do early northern Woodland campsites. Their [artifacts] are numerous and varied, suggesting they were well adapted to their surroundings. Flat forms of polished [stone] (resembling in outline certain [Archaic] bannerstones from which they may have derived) served presumably as breast ornaments or gorgets (as similar pieces did in the Hopewellian [period]). Tear-shaped stone objects (plummets) were made as they had been in Medial and Terminal Archaic. House structures were semi-permanent, large, square, made of poles or logs set in holes in the ground. Huts with circular floors seem to have been in use also. Most important of the cultural habits noted were numerous pits apparently for the storage of food. In these the remains of acorns and hickory nuts were found. These [people], like the acorn gatherers of California and the Eskimo, knew how to preserve food over long periods. Acorns were probably abundant enough for a Baumer [family] to lay up several months’ supply in a short time. This permitted them to live in larger settlements and gave them sufficient leisure to build rather substantial houses and shape symmetrical ornaments from stone. These facts seem to substantiate the hypothesis that they were a sedentary people by virtue of their knowledge of how to store food.
Fig. 14. Housewife storing roasted acorns in a pit near door of her square log cabin dwelling. Characteristic clay vessel (“flower-pot” type) with “mat-impressed exterior.” Baumer [period]. (J.C.)
Fig. 15. A, [stone] pestle; B, reel-shaped stone [gorget]; C, “spud-shaped” stone gorget or pendant; D, grooved plummet. From the Baumer [subculture] and site.
Fig. 16. Pots from the [Crab Orchard] [period] of Baumer [subculture] recovered from the Sugar Camp Hill Site by Moreau Maxwell for Southern Illinois University. Vessel in center is roughly 16″ tall. (Photographs furnished through courtesy of Dr. James B. Griffin, Univ. of Michigan.)
The size of the Baumer settlement, the semi-permanent houses, the presence of chipped spades, [stone] pestles and pottery might lead one to think that these [people] were plant-growers rather than simple food storers. Comparing them with the acorn-gathering tribes of California, who were storers and not food growers, it is seen that these, too, had permanent settlements with well over one hundred inhabitants, rather substantial houses, stone pestles, and some tribes, at least, had pottery vessels. The Californians doubtless had digging tools since the rooms of some houses were dug four feet down into the soil.
Traces of Hopewellian influence, possibly indicating inter-marriage with Hopewellians, have been noted at the Sugar Camp Hill site (date undetermined) in Jackson County, which is presumably later than Baumer. However, the Baumerians like the native Californians were conservative, for four centuries intervened between the oldest Hopewellian village in the north and the earliest known station of that [culture] in southern Illinois.[11]
THE HOPEWELLIAN [CIVILIZATION][12] (500 B.C.-500 A.D.)
Toward the end of the Initial [Woodland] [period] maize or corn, as we call it today, was introduced into northern Illinois, presumably from Mexico and Middle America through the agency of intervening tribes. In an apparently short time, its production seems to have been greatly intensified and exploited. Other food crops and tobacco may have accompanied maize.
About the same time, a [formalized religion] arose, probably concerned with the worship of deities who personified natural forces like the sun, rain and thunder, which were important to a plant-growing [people]. From the evidence of burial places, there seem to have been two or possibly three social classes. Doubtless the first comprised the families who introduced and grew the new food plants and who were inspired to invent the complex [religion]. The burial of the dead, especially those socially important and of the highest class, was accompanied by elaborate and colorful ceremonies closely bound to the religion. This seems to be a continuation in grander form of the earlier Red Ochre funeral and burial. It is unfortunate that we do not have tangible evidence of their other religious and political ceremonies which may have been even more impressive and significant. The official dress and [insignia] of the officials, which we can barely glimpse in the rich and varied remains in the tombs, signify a political system of social control and an established priesthood for the spiritual guidance of the community. Shamans or medicine men probably had only the duty of treating disease. Reverence for and possibly worship of ancestors is suggested by the impressive tomb chambers and mounds and the care obviously bestowed on certain of their socially prominent dead.
Social and political prestige, religious pomp and ceremonial, all seem to have combined to stimulate a demand for rare materials, beautiful jewels and impressive regalia. This initiated the search for pearls at home, the development of skillful and artistic workmanship in [flint], bone, shell, copper and mica, travel abroad and trade in materials obtainable only in distant regions.
Aside from those technologies connected with the growing of plant foods, probably few new crafts appeared in the [culture]; rather those already, existing in the Initial [Woodland] were raised to a high degree of excellence. [Art] in several forms flourished—carving in the round and in relief, the making of fine symmetrical polished, decorated and painted pottery commonly called typical Hopewellian, hammered copper [jewelry], the setting of pearls and highly-colored native stones as eyes in sculptured animals and in bear-tooth pendants and ear ornaments, etching of delicate designs, naturalistic and conventional, on bone and the modeling and firing of exquisite statuettes in clay. We admire and wonder at the excellence of execution in the best of their small sculpture because they are skillfully fashioned and finished and because they so accurately portray the characteristics and habits of animals with which we are familiar. The artist had the crudest of tools to aid him—[rough stone] hammers and an anvil for [pecking] [stone] to the general form; sandstone files or abraders; clay and water to polish pieces; [flint] and tubular drills for boring; and flint knives to cut and engrave pottery and bone—in spite of which the best craftsmen well knew how to bring out the beauty of the piece.
Fig. 17. Artist’s idea of a Hopewellian [chief] or high [priest] in full ceremonial regalia. (J.C.) Evidence for dress (except for [calumet]) has been found in Illinois.
For the first time in [Amerindian] history in Illinois we become aware of an accumulation of wealth, a surplus of handmade goods over and above those needed for survival; many of these were neither well-suited nor intended for immediate physical needs, but rather were aimed at social display or spiritual enhancement. Wealth reflects a relatively constant and abundant supply of food and other necessities and the resulting accompaniment of considerable leisure time for a sizable portion of the community. It may also mark the beginning of craft [specialization].[13]
It is hardly necessary to add that, if such a profusion of grave offerings as indicated by Hopewellian tombs—[feather cloth] robes, pearl necklaces, copper hatchets, and beautifully fashioned [art] objects—were left with the dead, that the high political and religious officers were correspondingly bedecked in gorgeous apparel for civil and religious ceremonies.
Nor should sight be lost of the fact that these creations and materials, so commonplace and inexpensive today, were to the Hopewellians as valuable and highly desirable as gold, silk, and precious stones are to us in Western [civilization]. For a better perspective these tomb offerings should be compared with objects usually found in camp and grave sites of the Initial and Final [Woodland] peoples.
Traders may have gone to distant regions to select and barter for raw materials, to the Lake Superior region for copper, to Ohio for pipestone, to the south Atlantic and Gulf Coasts for the small Marginella and Oliva [shells], for the larger Cassis and Busycon shells, and to the Yellowstone or Mexico for [obsidian] (of which little is found in Illinois graves). Trade, to some degree, removes the limitations imposed by the immediate surroundings. Pearls were secured in quantity from the clams of the native streams. Bone, antler, tortoise and clam shell, bears’ teeth, bear, wildcat and wolverine jaws from their hunting and collecting pursuits were utilized more fully than ever before. Even human jaws, possibly of enemies, were cut, polished and bored for use as pendants.
Though the Hopewellians may not have been the pacifists they are sometimes painted, there must have been long periods of peaceful relationships with distant and nearer neighbors with whom they traded or through whose territories their traders had to pass. Whether or not a condition of peace was maintained within the borders of their [culture] area by the force of arms is an interesting question that cannot now be answered.
Fig. 18. The Hopewellian [assemblage] of [artifacts] that collectively identify the Hopewellian ([Classic] [Woodland]) [period] and, except for shell spoon, turtle shell dish, and some bead types, distinguish it from the other Woodland assemblages. A, drinking cup of marine shell (Cassis madagascarensis); B, C, D, Hopewellian pottery (restored); E, mussel shell spoon with “handle”; F, turtle shell dish; G, sheet mica (mirror?); H, antler headdress; I, J, platform pipes with [effigy] mammal bowls, polished [stone] (Otter and bear’s head, eyes set with copper pellets); K, platform pipe (plain bowl), curved base, polished stone; L, copper earspools or ornaments, pair; M, imitation bear tooth, copper; N, (Below) N₁, Bear jaw, cut in half, ground and drilled to be worn as a double pendant; (Above) N₂, Fragment of a human jaw that has been similarly treated; O, copper [hatchet] that carries imprint of textile on its surface; P, copper adze; Q, R, Hopewellian [spearheads]; S, massive bead of copper; T, bracelet of copper beads; U, necklace of pearls; V, necklace of copper beads; W, necklace of graduated ground shell beads from columella (central column) of marine shell.
In southern Illinois the advance of Hopewellian [culture] was slower. The infiltration of new pottery styles noted at [Crab Orchard] very possibly represents intermarriage with Hopewellian women. Possibly through ties of relationship and the acceptance of the new food plants, the old Baumer way of life was submerged by the Hopewellian customs though here and there former habits still are recognizable. Some customs of Baumer and Crab Orchard were adopted by the northern Hopewellians—the reel-shaped [gorget], the plummet and the chipped [stone] hoe.
In the north of Illinois, Hopewellian lasted until 250 A.D. (Poole site) and in the west and south to about 450 or 500 A.D. Though the [culture] died out in Illinois by 500 A.D., it still flourished in [Mississippi] (Bynum site) around 800 A.D. and at Marksville, Louisiana, as late as 850 A.D.
As was stated earlier, emerging cultures grow out of earlier ones. Although it may not yet be generally recognized, the Hopewellian [civilization] probably exerted tremendous influence on the [Mississippi] cultures and on tribes that followed them in the great central valley of the United States and beyond, down to historic times. It must be borne in mind that in spite of their splendid achievements, the Hopewellians had no domestic animals but the dog, no herds for meat and great wealth, no draft animals to drag the plough and turn the mill. All labor was “by hand,” all transport on the back or in a boat driven by human power.
THE DARK AGE IN ILLINOIS—FINAL [WOODLAND] (200 to 900 A.D.)
The Hopewellian [civilization] apparently disappeared as suddenly as it seems to have arisen. This impression is probably due to the fact that the [people] continued to live in the old villages long after the characteristic colorful Hopewell customs were no longer practiced. Actually the [culture] may have declined for a century or more before it finally broke down completely. Many of the simpler folk traditions probably persisted in the area for some centuries afterward.
Possibly long continued abuses of power and privilege by religious and political officials, especially those from the highest social caste, weakened the confidence of the lower classes in their leaders and the [culture]. Newcomers from Iowa, Missouri and Kentucky may have further disorganized certain settlements and separated areas of the larger community from each other. Generally, however, the writer gets the impression that the decay began within the [civilization] although its final downfall may have been accelerated by external pressures.
With failing confidence and a rising uneasiness, trade would naturally decrease and the incentive to fine workmanship decline. The larger cultural community split apart into a number of small tribes, who were isolationists and individualists. All the separate little tribal units were [Woodland] culturally with some small evidence of their Hopewellian heritage, but each differed in certain respects from its neighbors. Villages dwindled to the mere hamlets, widely separated one from another. The elaborate ceremonial dress, [insignia], and [jewelry], and the artistic creations (at least in durable materials) became a part of the past; the [people] found themselves reduced to the rude cultural level of their early Woodland ancestors. Huts were flimsy and left no discernible remains. Tools, weapons, and ornaments were, in general, carelessly made and poorly finished. Although tobacco was smoked and small patches of maize and beans may have been grown, the [chief] economic dependence undoubtedly was on hunting, fishing and collecting.
Fig. 19. Group of mounds exhibiting bird, mammal, linear and conical mounds as they occur characteristically in [Effigy Mound] [subculture] of Final [Woodland]. (B.B.)
The religious beliefs, too, were probably simplified and mixed with magic and superstition, surviving relics of the [religion] of the past age. In a word, the social and religious customs of the little tribes were broadly similar but in minor details differed from each other much as do their artifactual remains.
A study of the Final [Woodland] and other phases of Illinois history reveals certain relationships among some distinguishable differences of detail:
1. The almost complete lack of evidence of Hopewellian [art], trade and [religion] in the late [Woodland] [period] gives little apparent indication that the [people] were the direct descendants and heirs of that [civilization]. On the other hand, the general resemblance of Final Woodland assemblages to those of the [Initial phase] seems marked. Let us examine further.
Fig. 20. Graves near Quincy, Illinois, [Stone] Vault [period]. (Photographs through courtesy of O. D. Thurber.)
[Stone] [mound] after earth was removed.
Four excavated “vaults”, the third of which shows a “corridor” entrance with [stone] steps.
The tobacco pipe of the late [phase] with the stem projecting beyond the bowl is found in most aspects. Likewise, the vertically elongated pot is common but not the only form. Burials are often in mounds, frequently in a central chamber or grave, with skeletons in the [flexed] and/or [extended] positions, occasionally accompanied by grave offerings. All these are broadly reminiscent of Hopewellian customs and, in the writer’s opinion, indicate a continuing thread of tradition from Initial [Woodland] through Hopewellian into the [Final phase].
2. The relationship to the Middle [Mississippi] seems more evident and has been attributed by some authors to the “impact” of a high [culture] on that of cruder or “under-developed” neighbors. What are the grounds for these conclusions?
New pottery forms were being attempted, the flattened globular pot, the shallow bowl (occasionally found in Hopewellian sites), the cup or beaker and the plate. In southern counties, a new method of making pits is indicated by a tendency of sherds, even grit-tempered ones, to split or laminate (see Maxwell, [Woodland] Cultures of Southern Illinois, Beloit, 1951, p. 204). Secondary features previously lacking begin to appear as “raised points” or knobs on rims, some roughly resembling animal heads with ears and a snout. Triangular [arrowheads] and others reflecting larger spearhead types are all made from curved, not flat flakes as the Mississippian points are. The [stone] discoidal that seems to be the game piece of the historically known chunkey game, which was possibly initiated in late Hopewellian times (see Fowler, The Rutherford [Mound], Springfield, 1957, pp. 31-33) occurs in the Bluff [subculture] and probably in the Tampico also.
Fig. 21. Canton ware pot (Tampico [subculture]) from Clear Lake village site in Tazewell County. Designs are formed with cord impressions. (From Schoenbeck collection in Illinois State Museum. Max. diam. at shoulder 18″.
Fig. 22. “Handled” pipe in form of raven with head projecting from rim, from Jersey Bluff [subculture]. After Titterington. Reduced about ½.
All these bespeak Middle Mississippian tendencies. A common conclusion, as mentioned previously, is that these features were borrowed from non-Woodland groups. The writer, however, gets the impression from his studies that the Middle [Mississippi] [phase] developed through the interplay of invention and adoption of improvements, modification and re-invention, between the Final [Woodland] subcultures in Illinois and adjacent territory. This does not mean that Illinois communities alone were responsible for the emergence of this phase but rather that they played an important dynamic role in its development. The Cahokia [subculture] of western and central Illinois probably constituted the native local tribe or nation.
Final [Woodland] [Archaeology]
Archaeologically these peoples are in the Final [Woodland] [phase] of [culture]. The [Final Phase] yields tobacco pipes and crude [flint] [arrowheads], its [chief] artifactual differences with the Initial phase. The clay of their pottery was generally mixed with grit or sand to prevent firing cracks in the vessel walls. The customary vertically-elongated pot with a conical or pointed bottom was accompanied by new forms—the globular or flattened globular with “round” (spherical) bases, the “coconut shell” cup or larger vessel, and shallow bowls. The flattened globular pots and the bowls were occasionally decorated with two or four knobs or with “raised points” on the rim, sometimes giving a squarish appearance to the mouth. In some instances these decorative projections were crudely modeled ears and snout which give the effect of animals’ heads facing out and foreshadowing the Middle [Mississippi] [effigy] shallow bowls. An important invention, the bow and arrow, appears in Illinois for the first time in this [period]. Judging by the crudity of the chipped flint arrowheads, these [people] were poor archers and preferred the spear and [spearthrower] in hunting and fighting. Pipes, like most [artifacts] except weapon heads, are rare. The “elbow” or L-shaped pipe is generally representative of the culture.
The six recognized Final [Woodland] subcultures with their diagnostic (though not very significant) traits are (1) [Effigy Mound] named for its distinguishing characteristic; (2) Tampico with pottery decorated with designs formed by cord-impressions, in northern Illinois; (3) [Stone] Vault with stone mounds containing walled tomb chambers; (4) Jersey Bluff with its unique “handled” tobacco pipes, in the west; (5) Raymond, best characterized by the generalized Woodland nature of its [artifacts]; and (6) Lewis with incised spiral designs on pottery, in southern Illinois.
A SECOND PLANT-RAISING [CIVILIZATION]—THE MIDDLE MISSISSIPPIANS (1000-1500 A.D.)
The Middle [Mississippi] [culture] seems to have arisen, as previously suggested, in the area where several important highways of aboriginal travel converged—the region surrounding the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from the mouth of the Wabash to the mouth of the Illinois. Whether or not its development was stimulated by the contracts of Muskhogeans and Algonkians or whether it was due to interplay between the cultures of the Final [Woodland] petty tribes is unknown.
Two slightly differing subcultures of the [Middle phase] appeared in the state. One, known archaeologically as the [Cumberland] (Tennessee-Cumberland), may have embraced at one time all the southern Illinois counties between the mouths of the Kaskaskia and the Wabash. [The Angel Site near Evansville, Indiana, may belong to the Cumberland [subculture].] The other subculture, which may be termed Cahokia, flourished in counties bordering on the [Mississippi] from Union County to Wisconsin. As the two periods show few significant cultural differences, they will, except as noted hereafter, be treated as a single unit.
The bow and arrow invented in the Final [Woodland] [phase], was developed early in the Middle [Mississippi] [period] into an effective weapon although spear and perhaps [spearthrower] continued in use. The chunkey game was probably played as a part of a religious ceremony though it may quite possibly have served as a popular pastime as well.
Pottery was slow at first to change from its more obvious [Woodland] characteristics but new shapes foreshadowing most of those of the fully developed (Old Village) cultural [phase] practically replaced the conical-based elongated pot early in the [period]. Cord-roughening and grit-tempering disappeared in the [classic] Cahokia period, and a fine polished blackware and a painted pottery were added to the smooth utilitarian ware. An excellent “dull gray” ware with smooth gray to brown surfaces was of more common occurrence. It appears to differ from the fine ware only in its partially oxidized surfaces probably due to poorly controlled firing methods.[14]
Fig. 23. The chunkey game in foreground. Man hunting with bow and arrow in background. Middle [Mississippi] [period]. (J.C.)
There were probably two or more social classes among the [Middle phase] [people] as there were among Hopewellians, Natchez and Polynesians.[15] The fine polished black and painted wares may have been marks of distinction between the highest and lower classes since it is much less common. In Hopewellian times, it is probable that both the fine ware and the specialized forms (which were usually of the highest quality) were reserved for the highest caste. In the [Mississippi] [period], the shallow bowl, the cup or beaker, and the plate of dull gray ware seem to have been wide-spread in the village and may indicate a general improvement of living conditions among the lower social classes since Hopewellian times.
Fig. 24. Pottery shapes, Middle [Mississippi] [period]. A, “bean pot”; B, angular-shouldered pot or olla; C, common pot or olla; D, shallow bowl; E, water bottle; F, [effigy] bowl; G, plate.
Advances in the [economy] were obviously present in the fully developed [Middle phase]. The Union County [flint] “mines” and workshops were intensively worked. Trade with the Lake Superior, lower Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions was resumed. [Chief] imports of raw materials were copper and marine [shells], Busycon, Marginella, Oliva and Olivella. [Art], while possibly as highly developed as Hopewellian, resulted in a far smaller number of art objects in fewer durable media. Intaglio rock carvings (chiefly in southern Illinois) of geometric designs, human hands, ceremonial paraphernalia, animal outlines, and, in a few instances, painted hollowed-out animal silhouettes can probably be ascribed to this [period] on the basis of the symbols employed. Dwellings or cabins were relatively substantial structures and the extent of village remains indicate a large general population as compared to earlier times in the state. Trade and art suggest leisure and wealth or surplus available for exchange or to support officials and others in non-food productive pursuits. This prosperity was possibly due to newly discovered methods of intensive cultivation of maize and possibly to a greater diversity of crops than ever before.
Fig. 25. Carved [stone] pipe (fragmentary) from Kingston Lake Site (Cahokia [subculture], Middle [Mississippi] [period]). Owned by Donald Wray. Right-hand figure shows the pipe reconstructed.
Territorially the tribe probably consisted of a number of villages and the surrounding country. Each tribe may have had a [chief] village or capital that was also a religious center with tribal (public) buildings and a temple. Archaeological and historical evidence shows that these buildings, presumably temples and the dwellings of tribal chiefs and the high priests, were erected on the flat tops of rectangular earthen mounds or pyramids, which were grouped around a plaza of ceremonial square. Here the tribe gathered for religious and political ceremonies and for important funerals. Intertribal negotiations and chunkey games were probably also staged on or near the plaza.
Pipes, either of [stone] or pottery, were generally of the “equal-armed” type (where stem length is about equal to bowl height). In numerous instances, a short projection resembling the stem in shape but shorter, extends beyond the bowl away from the smoker. Massive [effigy] pipes of stone were widespread but not numerous. Some were excellently carved. From their construction, it is obvious that they were made to be smoked through a reed or hollow wooden stem called in later times the [calumet]. These together probably constituted a form of ceremonial pipe that served as a safe conduct between tribes, as a bond and signature at peace- and treaty-making ceremonies, and to present tobacco smoke as incense to the gods in religious rituals.
Priests and possibly tribal chiefs were interred in the flat tops of mounds (e.g. the Powell [Mound]) near temple or cabin. Generally, however, the dead were buried in cemeteries. In some instances, bodies were laid on the surface above a “full” cemetery and covered with earth brought from outside. Continuing this practice eventually produced a mound (e.g. [Dickson Mound] near Lewistown). Possibly the burial mounds at Cahokia were reserved for the socially prominent while the lower classes were interred in the cemeteries nearby. The dead, especially important personages were attired in their finest apparel, [insignia] and personal ornaments. Beside them in the grave were placed their weapons, favorite chunkey stones, food and water in pottery vessels with shell spoons or a dipper.
Fig. 26. Interior view of [Dickson Mound] (in Dickson Mounds State Park near Lewistown, Illinois), showing pottery and other [artifacts] as originally placed with the dead. Cahokia [subculture], Middle [Mississippi] [phase].
[Chief] villages were large religious centers often protected by an encircling palisade or clay wall reinforced with vertical posts or logs. Remains of defensive walls can still be readily traced by a trained eye at the Kincaid (Massac County) and Lynn (Union County) villages. Exploration of the [Aztalan] village (Wisconsin) yielded remains of a reinforced clay wall surmounted at regular intervals with towers of like construction. The Cahokia village seems to have been without fortifications.
Fig. 27. Reconstruction of Kincaid Village ([Cumberland] [subculture], Middle [Mississippi] [period]) near Metropolis, Illinois. (Diorama by Arthur Sieving.)
Smaller villages occasionally had one or two small flat-topped mounds which doubtless served as bases for the cabins of the Village [Chief] and possibly [War] Chief. Other [Middle phase] villages had no mounds or fortifications.
Cabins were of three or more types. In Illinois, two kinds had rectangular floor outlines and may have developed from the earlier Baumer square dwelling and the Lewis house. One of these types prevalent at Kincaid, as determined from charred remains, had a thatched gable roof supported on four corner posts with their lower ends sunk in the ground. Walls were made of clay daubed on a latticework of cane (with foliage) interlacing vertical wall posts, the interior covered with split cane mats. The rafters, corner and wall posts, and wall plates were of poles or small logs lashed together and held in place by braided ropes. Floors do not appear to have been depressed below surrounding ground level. A larger more substantial structure, presumably a temple, on a Kincaid [mound] (Mxo9) had thick walls of clay mixed with grass, but otherwise resembled the dwelling just described. The clay floor and wall surfaces were smooth. Fire basins of puddled clay within the building may have been the remains of altars.
Cabins in Fulton County (Fout’s Village) and at Cahokia were rectangular in floor plan but wall posts were probably bent over to be joined with corresponding opposite members to form an arched or vaulted roof, the precursor perhaps of the “barrel-shaped” Illini cabins reported by French explorers. Floors were sunk somewhat below the ground level. Remains of cabins with circular floors occur also at Cahokia and in Fulton County.
Fig. 28. Petroglyphs from southern Illinois sites probably made by Middle Mississippian peoples. All figures are hollowed out or intaglio. (Photographs by Irvin Peithmann.)
Back wall of [rock shelter] near Gorham, Illinois.
Figure of buffalo calf painted yellow over entire depressed area. The outlines were chalked in for the purpose of photographing.
Walls and wall posts of the Fulton County cabins appear in some instances to be formed of bundles of small branches or cane set in trenches possibly a foot deep. There is no evidence of the [wattle-and-daub] structure. Walls may have been covered with mats, or with rectangles of bark. Roofs were probably thatched.
Possibly the Cahokia [subculture] peoples constituted a single tribe, a small nation, or a confederation of tribes. At its most powerful [period], the Cahokia settlement was perhaps the capital and religious center. The region south of a line joining the mouths of the Kaskaskia and Wabash rivers at one time probably belonged to another tribe or subtribe whose [chief] village was the [Kincaid community] in Pope and Massac counties and who, linguistically and culturally, were closely related to peoples in Tennessee and Kentucky and at the Angel site in Indiana.
Archaeologically speaking, the Middle [Mississippi] contrasts sharply with the Hopewellian [culture]. Certain [artifacts] are readily distinguishable and easily identified with the craftsman’s cultures. Actually the Mississippians differ from the Hopewellians chiefly in having substantial cabins, athletic games and the bow and arrow.
Remains of Hopewellian dwellings are rare, but the three or four found up to now are characterized by round or oval floor plans outlined with post holes of three to four inches in diameter. These seem to indicate hemispherical wigwams. No further evidence of wall or roof structure has been recovered. The rarity of these dwellings certainly suggests a less permanent dwelling than the [Mississippi] cabin. However, it will be remembered that some peoples [pattern] their tombs upon their dwellings. The upper caste Hopewellians built rectangular burial chambers which were walled up with logs laid one on another and roofed over with half-logs or bark. Similar log house surface structures would seldom leave discernible remains on decay. It is possible, though by no means certain, that the Hopewellians of highest caste, and perhaps of the other castes, built log cabins for dwellings.
The evidence for playing of athletic games in Hopewellian is very late and scanty. The only tangible indication are the rings, “pulleys” and a [stone] discoidal found with a skeleton in the Rutherford [Mound]. (See M. L. Fowler, The Rutherford Mound, Scientific Papers Series, Vol. VII, No. 1, Springfield, Ill. 1957, pp. 31-33). The rings of pottery and of cannel coal (or jet) seem too fragile for actual playing pieces and may rather be trophies or prizes, replicas of similar pieces made of wood. Such wooden pieces may have been used in games throughout middle and late Hopewellian times.
Fig. 29. (Photographs by Irvin Peithmann.)
View of a stream-side [flint] mine and workshop (in field alongside) near Cobden, Illinois.
Close-up showing spherical or “ball-flint” nodules from stream banks similar to those worked up by Middle Mississippians and others in adjacent workshop.
The bow and arrow, at least, seems to be a decided improvement over the spear. It constituted a repeating weapon. Ammunition could be carried in the belt or on the back in a quiver without unduly hampering the bowman. On the other hand, it was useless in hand-to-hand fighting and a spear or [dagger] was needed to supplement it. Moreover, the spear with a thrower was a more accurate weapon than the bow, unless the arrows were carefully made and balanced. The bow never seems to have wholly replaced the spear which continued to be a favorite weapon down into the European contact [period].
The improvements that distinguish the Mississippians above the Hopewellians may be more apparent than real in the first two instances and, in the third, may represent a significant rather than a fundamental advance. Looking at the two periods from the broader cultural viewpoint, they appear to have many cultural features in common. The Middle Mississippians probably added new food and fibre plants to those of earlier periods, and perhaps increased production by improved, more intensive methods of cultivation. Their staple crops like those of the Hopewellians were corn, beans and tobacco.
The technologies or methods of making the necessary tools in the two cultures varied but little. [Art] was revived or rather re-developed in the Mississippian [period] but fewer media are employed. In artistic skill, imagination and productiveness perhaps the Hopewellians had an edge on the later [people].
Trade and travel, though resumed to distant sections of the continent, does not appear so widespread or general as in the Hopewellian [period]. A [formalized religion] with colorful ceremonies seems to have revitalized the life of the [people] but possibly no more effectively than in the earlier period.
There was no significant improvement in labor, power or transportation; all were still accomplished wholly by human effort without the aid of draft animals. Traveling by boat was known and probably used by both cultures.
Comparing the two peoples with other plant growers having no domestic food-draft animals, it seems apparent that each had an effective [political organization], a formalized vital [religion] with true priests (not “self-appointed” shamans) and a system of moral values and tenets that “church” and “state” were organized to maintain. All in all, from the broader cultural standpoint, they were amazingly alike.