Anthropology students, professor finishing work at Cass settlement site

Indiana University student Ashley Brown looks on as professor of anthropology Jeremy Wilson points out measurements that need to be taken at an archaeological site in Cass County. Indiana University student Ashley Brown looks on as professor of anthropology Jeremy Wilson points out measurements that need to be taken at an archaeological site in Cass County. Photo: Nick Draper | Journal-Courier Photo: Nick Draper | Journal-Courier Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Anthropology students, professor finishing work at Cass settlement site 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

BEARDSTOWN — Along a Cass County backroad, in a nondescript cornfield, lies the site of an archaeological dig that is preserving the history of one of the largest known Mississippian culture settlements in the Illinois River Valley.

Along with a team of students, Indiana University professor of anthropology Jeremy Wilson has worked for six weeks to uncover the remains of a Mississippian culture house that was part of a small village that would become a larger, walled settlement.

“What we were doing last summer out on this rise to the north is called remote sensing and this technology allows us to visualize what’s beneath the ground’s surface without using shovels,” Wilson said. “We were able to see a whole bunch of rectangles and these rectangles could not have been created by natural processes. … We were able to reveal that prior to 1150 there was a much smaller riverine community that then evolved into a fortified community.”

The Lawrenz Gun Club archaeological site was once home to between 300-600 people and covered more than 50 acres. The particular site the group is working on, Wilson explained, was a precursor to the fortified community that would become the entire Lawrenz Gun Club site.

This community would have housed between 100 to 200 people.

The group uncovered the foundation of a structure dating to about A.D. 1100 and, toward the tail end of the dig, distinguishable features within the foundation such as walkways, post molds and storage areas can be seen. Five to seven people would have lived in this 15-by-15-foot house.

About half of the house has been excavated, Wilson said, and the rest will be left for future classes.

Some artifacts have been found during their dig, including ceramics and stone tools.

“They reflect an inter-regional pattern of exchange that was really common just about the time Cahokia got moving and going,” Wilson said. “What we’re seeing here is ceramics that are either traded up or crafted in a very similar fashion to what was being made down near modern day St. Louis at that time. The stone is also non-local … they’re getting a lot of this material from other parts of the lower Midwest.”

The site is on property owned by three different families, including farmland owned by Circuit Judge Bobby Hardwick, all of whom have been great stewards of the location, Wilson said. Since 2010, the group has been uncovering various parts of the fortified village and the site still has a large amount of work to complete if funding permits.

With external funding, Wilson said he intends to come back and study the early Mississippian life in the Illinois River Valley.

“It’s such an underrepresented time period that it merits further investigation here and everywhere in this region,” he said. “We’d also look at village life in the 1200s and the 1300s. So when this site was abandoned and everyone moves into the walls of the village, how was everyday life with the persistent threat, whether real or perceived, of violence and warfare.”

In A.D. 1200, other fortified villages began to appear in the region and Wilson said archaeologists suspect there was inter-chieftain warfare between the communities for prestige and resources. The warfare created necessity for the palisades that would provide defense for the village inside that was constructed mostly of wood.

Mississippians occupied the area until around the 1300s before migrating to the south during a period of extremely cold winters that lasted into the early 1800s. The Lawrenz Gun Club site was not occupied again until the 19th century.

For the Mississippian culture people, the location of the settlement next to the Sangamon River provided food and an easy means of transportation. For archaeologists, the river has proven useful as a preservation tool as sediment laid over the sites has kept things in good condition.

Today, however, because of the state of failing levees along the Sangamon River, a heavy flood could cause serious damage to the site.

“There was some unintentional damage to the levees,” Wilson said. “From my perspective, repair of the levee is equally, if not more, important from an archaeological and historical standpoint because we are standing on the largest village in the valley. The damage to it would be irreplaceable.”

Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.