Native American Upper Mississippian sites are quite numerous in the Chicago area. This period roughly dates from 1300 A. D. through European contact. Some of these sites were large villages, and in many cases these larger sites have smaller satellite villages in the immediate vicinity. As early as 1929 a large village site named Huber was excavated by the University of Chicago. Many of these sites have been previously dug by professional and amateur archaeologists as well as pothunters. Some excavations were conducted as salvage archaeology because of new housing developments, parks and road expansions. A number of these sites were destroyed, and others are in various states of destruction. In the process of these explorations, archaeological material has been published and much information about the Upper Mississippian cultures that once inhabited the Chicago region has been learned. A few of the Chicago area sites have been revisited and further excavated in recent years applying the latest archaeological techniques. With new methods such as flotation, lithic wear pattern analysis, lithic identification and procurement sources, to name a few, much new knowledge can be applied toward the proper interpretation of these sites. From all this new data and what was previously learned, new theories and some conclusions can now be made about pre-contact and the very early historic contact with these Upper Mississippian cultures in the Chicago region, although there is still much to be learned.
The Upper Mississippian groups in the Chicago area generally had their villages along small streams and rivers located on sandy terraces but occasionally on high, dark loam and clay banks. Diagnostic artifacts from this period are triangular chipped stone arrowheads, drills, engraving tools, scrapers, knives, hammerstones, abraders, ground stone celts, pipes, artifacts of copper, bone, shell and shell-tempered pottery. This localized Mississippian culture existed on hunting, fishing, food gathering and an agricultural subsistence economy, since the area was rich in plants, animals and many other natural resources. Deer, elk and bison scapula hoes are abundantly found on these sites along with occasional charred corn kernels, which clearly indicate that agricultural activities were pursued. Their cemeteries are generally located within the village as graves and not burial mounds. In some instances, these burials are grouped in specified areas within the village proper and others appear to be at random. The Fisher village site and mound group along the Des Plaines River near Channahan, Illinois in Will County is an exception. The Fisher Upper Mississippian group has some traits that are different from the Chicago south-southwest suburban sites including their pottery and having distinct burial mounds.
The writer will record and describe some significant artifacts that have been recovered from four of these Upper Mississippian sites from the Chicago area in Cook County, Illinois. A number of these archaeological specimens have never been documented. The Hoxie Farm and Anker sites are in the south Chicago suburbs, while Huber and Oak Forest sites are in the southwest suburbs. Hoxie Farm is located approximately one mile directly south of Anker, and both may have been occupied at the same time.
This would explain the evidence of weeping eye motif artifacts at both sites. Hoxie appears to be the largest and longest occupied of the four village sites. In fact, Hoxie Farm may be the largest Upper Mississippian site in the Chicago region. Figure 5 illustrates these sites with significant artifact distribution. Since there were many individuals and groups who excavated these sites that are unknown by the author, it is very probable that there are some other significant artifact discoveries that will be missed and go unrecorded. Data on previously unreported artifacts will follow along with corrections in regard to errors made in past archaeological publications. The errors were made as to artifact dimensions and the material utilized. Additional information will also be included that was previously omitted.
An undocumented large copper snake ornament found with a burial from the Hoxie Farm site measures approximately nine inches long. That would make this Hoxie Farm copper snake The largest recorded specimen from the Chicago area. Two additional copper snake ornaments and one damaged copper snake that were not previously reported came from the Anker site. These were salvaged from burials by John Ravesloot when the surface was being bulldozed by heavy machinery. A copper or brass bracelet was found on the surface in a plowed garden plot at the Huber site. This well-fashioned artifact may be brass because of the uniform thickness of the metal that has been folded over in four layers and hammered into a C-shape that is flat rather than rounded. The thickness of the four folds is 1/8 inch and the flat portion varies between 3/16 to 1/4 of an inch in width. The inside opening width of the bracelet is 2 3/8 inches and outside width is 2 7/8 inches. The Huber site has also produced definite brass tube beads and brass sheet metal fragments. In addition, a small thin copper or brass disc 7/8 inch in diameter was recovered from Huber. One slightly bent rounded copper awl approximately 2 5/16 inches long was also found at Huber that has not been reported. An unrecorded, well-made squared copper awl that measures slightly less than four inches in length was discovered at the Hoxie Farm site. Recently, a small copper awl was found during a salvage archaeological project at Hoxie Farm. An unrecorded copper pendant from Hoxie Farm with a tiny drilled suspension hole measures 7/8 of an inch in length. This small pendant is widest at the bottom and is illustrated in Figure 2 along with the Huber bracelet, the small Huber disc and the 4-inch Hoxie Farm awl.
A total of three weeping eye shell gorget masks were recovered from burials at Anker when the site was being destroyed with a new housing development in 1957. The first shell mask was found by David Pedric and is pictured in many archaeological publications and other books and is identified as coming from burial 7-B-9. In at least two publications the dimensions are in error. The correct size is 3 1/8 inches long by 2 3/16 inches in width at the widest point. (Figure 1) The second gorget was found by John Ravesloot and is the smallest of the three. The dimensions are 1 and 13/16 inches long and 1 5/16 inches at the widest point. The third was not previously reported and was found by Al Harms with a salvage burial. The length is 2 3/25 inches and the widest point is 1 3/16 inches. This specimen has some overall deterioration of the shell. A previously reported unfinished shell mask found by Al Harms with Burial A from Anker does not have a weeping eye motif as reported. In fact, it appears that this mask was never completed or was damaged during the manufacturing process and was being scavenged by cutting off pieces for possible use as beads and/or pendants. Although there is one eye that is completely drilled, there is no evidence of the second eye ever having been started.
A small pebble found at the Hoxie Farm site has an incised weeping eye decoration on both surfaces and has been previously reported in the Central States Archaeological Journal (CSAJ). This etched pebble is pictured in a report written by Ted Koelikamp entitled “The Hoxie Farm Site” in the April 1973 issue. A fragment of a winged, red, banded slate bannerstone etched on both sides was recovered from Hoxie Farm and has not been formally reported. This banner fragment is 1 1/2 inches wide and 1 7/8 inches high. The engraving appears to be a bird of prey such as an eagle, hawk or falcon with a weeping eye motif. Similar etchings are incised on both surfaces of the banner fragment. This Archaic banner may have been larger or even intact when found by the later Upper Mississippian culture at Hoxie. It is possible that this piece was damaged sometime after the engraving was completed. A drawing of the weeping eye motif bird incising is illustrated in Figure 4 along with a reconstruction of the bannerstone form. A similar style bird engraving on a catlinite tablet was reported from the Utz Oneota site located in Saline County in central Missouri. For a com- parison see CSAJ January 1983 on page 15. A small vase-shaped sandstone pipe with a weeping eye etched on each side of the bowl was found on an Upper Mississippian site near the previously reported Zorica site in an article written by Ted Koelikamp in the CSAJ, July, 1974. The Zorica site is located near the Indiana state line in Will County, Illinois. Even though this site is not included in the four sites listed in the Cook County, Illinois, comparison table, the writer felt that this artifact and a grooved maul from the Zorica site should also be documented. There is a total of six artifacts with weeping eye motifs that are now documented as coming from the Chicago area Upper Mississippian sites. Five are from Cook County, Illinois, and one from Will County, Illinois.
An unrecorded bone harpoon was found by David Pedric at the Anker site. It is not known whether or not this artifact was found with a burial or found in the general village midden. There has also been a bone harpoon reported from the Oak Forest site.
An Anker site burial excavated by Al Harms designated as Burial B contained a bone gouge, not a stone gouge as reported and illustrated in “Chicago Area Archaeology.” This is the only gouge-type tool that the author is aware of that has been documented from a Chicago area Upper Mississippian site.
A possible catlinite disc pipe fragment reported in “Chicago Area Archaeology” as a piece of catlinite was found by Al Harms with Burial B at the Anker site. There was no mention about engraving on the surface of this artifact. On one side of this catlinite fragment there is evidence of a partial etching that appears to be the bottom portion of a thunderbird. The curvature and size of this pipe fragment indicate that it was possibly from a large medicine bundle disc pipe. Two catlinite pipes were found by John Ravesloot that were not previously reported. The first is a small, modified disc pipe that was found with a burial from the Anker site. The second is a small, plain rectangular pipe that measures 1 1/8 inch- es high by 1/2 of an inch wide and is from the Hoxie Farm site. It is not known whether this pipe was found with a burial or was a random find. A small elbow catlinite pipe from a possibly disturbed (previously dug) burial was found at the Hoxie Farm site and has been illustrated and reported. Two fragments of catlinite pipes were recovered from the general village midden area at Hoxie Farm. They are both too fragmentary to determine pipe forms.
A fossil coral vasiform-style pipe found with burial 7-B-l from the Anker site by David Pedric has been recorded in “Chicago Area Archaeology” as a pipe with no other description and was not p photographed. This fossil coral may be Petoskey stone. The length from the top of the bowl to the base is 3 1/8 inches (Figure 3) A previously reported and illustrated disc pipe recovered from the Anker site is also made of fossil coral. In June of 1968 while surface hunting on the former Maywood Tree Nursery grounds located in Palos Heights in Cook County, Illinois, the author found what appears to be a damaged sandstone penis effigy pipe. The bowl is broken out but the entire effigy is intact and is most likely an artifact from the Upper Mississippian culture. There is a trace of red ochre on one area of the pipe. The length of this pipe is 3 1/4 inches (Figure 3) This type of sandstone was commonly used for pipes at Anker, Hoxie Farm and Huber. The only other artifact from the Upper Mississippian period recovered from the Maywood Tree Nursery site is a damaged triangular arrowhead. Most of the artifacts from this site are typical Archaic side-notched projectile points. The Maywood Tree Nursery site is located approximately 0.7 mile northwest of the Huber site and is close to the Calumet Sag channel on a low-lying old beach terrace.
There have been three ground-stone, full grooved club heads found at three different Upper Mississippian sites in the south Chicago suburbs. Two are from early contact sites, Huber and Oak Forest, and are listed on the site table (Figure 5) included in this report. The first ground-stone artifact was previously reported from Huber and is a bi-pointed, full-grooved club head made of a gray quartzite material. The second is an unreported small, full-grooved maul type club made of a chalky limestone material and was found at the Oak Forest site. An additional small, full grooved, maul-shaped club made of white quartzite was also found at the Zorica site. From the sizes and appearances, these could be early-contact-period war club heads, particularly the bi-pointed club.
The two sites that have small amounts of trade material present may not have had direct contact with Europeans. The Chicago area early-contact sites may have received trade goods through other Indian groups that were bartering directly with white traders since there is so littletrade material found on these sites. There has also been one early small, white glass trade bead found at the Oak Forest site that was found in direct association with Indian features. In addition to the glass trade bead, there were two brass tube beads and brass sheet metal fragments found from salvage archaeological excavations that were conducted at the Oak Forest site. These brass items from both Huber and Oak Forest sites are significant in that they represent an early trade component that came from the Europeans either directly or indirectly. One interesting observation made about the two early contact sites is that both Huber and Oak Forest sites have yielded brass items, and each site also produced a grooved-stone club head.
The last artifact of interest is a small triangular arrowhead made of a red translucent agate that was found at Hoxie Farm. It would certainly be interesting to know where the inhabitants from the Hoxie Farm village obtained this agate material. There is quite an array of exotic (non-local) lithic materials present on all four of these Chicago area Upper Mississippian sites. Attica chert, Burlington chert, Dongola flint, Hixton quartzite, Moline chert and Starved Rock chert are just a few of the non-local materials that have been observed. Local creek pebble cherts are still the most common materials encountered for the chipped-stone artifacts at these sites. In closing I would like to set the records straight regarding an article written by Ted Koelikamp entitled “The Hoxie Farm Site”reported in CSA J, April, 1973. Somehow, I was given credit as the author; and although there was a retraction made in a subsequent journal, the error was perpetuated in later archaeological publications by listing me as the author. I feel especially bad about this error because Ted is a good friend and he certainly deserves the credit for such a fine article. I would like to personally thank Ted for researching bits of information for me to use in this rep