Mark Wagner of the Center for Archaeological Investigations (CAI) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has been awarded an $8,150 National Geographic Society/Waitt Foundation grant for the portable X-ray fluorescent (PXRF) analysis of prehistoric and historic period rock art paintings in southern Illinois. Project participants include Dr. Jan Simek of the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) and Mary McCorvie and Heather Carey of the USDA Forest Service. All four of the main … [Read more...] about National Geographic Society Rock Art Grant
News
Shawnee National Forest National Register Nominations
The Center for Archaeological Investigations (CAI) is preparing National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination forms for five rock art sites located on the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois as part of an agreement between the USDA Forest Service and the CAI. The six sites for which forms are being prepared include the ca-A.D. 1700-1800 Buffalo Rock site (11Js49); three Mississippian period (A.D. 1000-1500) sites in the form of the Korando (11J334), Whetstone (11J17), and Bay … [Read more...] about Shawnee National Forest National Register Nominations
British Archaeologists Tour Southern Illinois Rock Art Sites
On June 21, 2012, as part of their tour of prehistoric earthen mound sites in eastern North America, over 20 members of the Prehistoric Society of Great Britain visited two prehistoric rock art sites—Piney Creek Ravine and Millstone Bluff—in southern Illinois. The tour was organized and led by Pete Topping of English Heritage. ESRARA members Mark Wagner (Southern Illinois University) gave them a tour of the Piney Creek site, the largest rock art site in Illinois in terms of the number of images, … [Read more...] about British Archaeologists Tour Southern Illinois Rock Art Sites
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