This last spring Mark Wagner and Eraina Nossa of the Center for Archaeological Investigations prepared National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nominations for five prehistoric rock art sites located on state and federal land within Illinois. We are happy to report that all five have been accepted and are now listed on the NRHP. CAI staff are currently working on five additional rock art site nominations, three prehistoric and two historic. The prehistoric sites include the Trestle Hollow … [Read more...] about Illinois National Register of Historic Places Nominations
Current Research
2011 Buffalo Rock (11Js49) Site Conservation
Mark J. Wagner and Mary R. McCorvie The Buffalo Rock site is a historic period pictograph site in southern Illinois that contains the states’ only known bison painting as well as several smaller paintings of a crescent moon, star, and cross (Figures 1 and 2). These paintings are believed to have been created between ca. AD 1700-1800 by Native American peoples traveling along the Golconda-Kaskaskia Trace, which is a dirt trail linking the Ohio and Mississippi River whose origins may extend … [Read more...] about 2011 Buffalo Rock (11Js49) Site Conservation
Possible Historic Period Native American Petroglyph Site Discovered in Central Illinois
In May, 2011, Mark Wagner (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale) and Heather Carey (Shawnee National Forest) traveled to central Illinois to meet Hal Hassen (Illinois Department of Natural Resource) and Dawn Cobb (Illinois Historic Preservation Agency) to inspect a possible rock art site located on state land near, Pekin, Illinois. The site had been reported by several local men who stated that they had seen engraved designs on a glacial boulder located on a steep hillside. Inspection of … [Read more...] about Possible Historic Period Native American Petroglyph Site Discovered in Central Illinois