Thousands of years ago, someone was likely living close to where you do now. If you are residing in an apartment or on a farm, or if you own a home or mobile home, the earliest inhabitants in Illinois were probably nearby. Perhaps your residence was built in the same spot as one of their dwellings, or the ground around you was their preferred area for hunting.
If your residence is near Kampsville in Calhoun County, Jason King could tell you exactly who those ancient people were, when they were there, what they were eating, and what their homes were like. King is the executive director of the Center for American Archeology (CAA), an Illinois Electric Cooperative member.
Since 1958, the nonprofit has identified hundreds of archaeological sites in the Kampsville area. Some sites have become extensive archaeological digs, where excavations have been underway for years and continue to this day.
Efforts to research and document Native Americans living in the Lower Illinois River Valley around Kampsville originated in 1940, when 8-year-old Stuart Struever found an arrowhead in a neighbor’s yard. The thrill of the accidental find led to a lifelong interest in archaeology.
Years later, as a graduate student studying anthropology at Northwestern University in 1958, Struever learned that a Native American mound in the Lower Illinois River Valley was about to be bulldozed. He convinced the property owner to let him excavate the mound, and Struever eventually concentrated his archaeological efforts around Kampsville, where he also formed a nonprofit to teach students about archaeology.
The successor of his efforts is the CAA, which has been under King’s direction since 2016. “We are carrying on Struever’s idea to make archaeology accessible to students and adults,” King says. “Each summer, the center offers a plethora of courses for college students, adults and students from third through 12th grades.”
The most immersive course is CAA’s six-week University Field School for undergraduate and graduate students, organized by university professors who recruit their students. “Students come from all over the country, [even] internationally,” Jason says. “It is like a summer camp in that they stay in our dorm.”
Many of the college participants go on to careers in archaeology or related fields, such as museum studies. In High School Field School, high school students join a summer crew of archaeologists and participate in actual archaeological research, learning how to do work in the field and the laboratory, as well as how to identify artifacts at an active dig.
A diverse range of day courses for middle school attendees addresses topics such as learning how archaeologists use grids to map archaeological sites, flintknapping and the history of pottery making. “Those students come as school groups from Illinois and Missouri on day trips,” King says. “A total of about 250 students of all ages will participate over this coming summer. Site tours for the general public take place June to mid-August and are offered at no cost.”
Today, courses involving an actual archaeological dig take place at what is known as the German site, where excavation began in 2019 and is expected to continue through 2027. “The site dates to a Late Woodland period (800-1200 C.E.), when people were living in large, permanent villages, often with defensive embankment walls,” King says.
So far, the base of a house, domestic artifacts such as chert tools and pottery, animal bone and botanical remains have been recovered. Remote sensing results indicate that three additional house basins and several storage and refuse pits remain.
“We have documented hundreds of other sites in the Lower Illinois River Valley,” King says. “In some instances, this means simply recording and reporting the presence of a site based on evidence on the surface of the ground, or limited testing to determine site boundaries.”
Two other major digs near Kampsville have taken place at what are known as the Koster and Kamp Mound sites, both of which were added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s.
In the late 1960s, southern Illinois farmers Ted and Mary Koster reported finding arrowheads and bits of pottery, and agreed to let Struever conduct an archaeological excavation on three acres of their property.
Over the next 10 years, dozens of Northwestern students, working 10 weeks each summer under the direction of Struever, unearthed thousands of artifacts in an excavation that reached 30 feet in depth. Included were bones, remnants of prehistoric houses and other items in 25 distinct layers of artifacts from time periods dating back to 8000 B.C.E. to 800 C.E., a timespan covering more than 300 generations.
Artifacts from one of the deepest levels of excavation include some of the oldest evidence in North America of the development of stones fashioned into knives, drills, choppers for grinding food, scrapers, gouges and hammer stones for stone tool production.
Koster also contains one of the earliest cemeteries in eastern North America. Findings suggest that inhabitants had special rituals for burying the dead, including carefully positioning the deceased in prepared oval pits.
At Kamp Mound, a prehistoric Middle Woodland site along the Illinois River north of Kampsville, an archaeological dig took place from 1958 to 1959. It includes seven earthen mounds dating from 100 B.C.E. to 450 C.E. and a village site dating from 450 to 700 C.E.
Archaeologists have concluded that this was a ceremonial and burial location, and a regional trade center with well-developed trade routes. Pottery, ornamental stonework and metalwork uncovered at the site has been found in the Rocky Mountains, and on the south and east coasts of the U.S.
As King prepares to coordinate continued excavation and studies at the German site this summer, he says, “Our objective is not for everyone to be a professional archaeologist. Our primary concern, beyond documenting the past, is to raise awareness of the past, archaeology and engage the public in research experiences.”
LEARN MORE
A list of courses offered by the Center for American Archeology is available at caa-archeology.org.
101 N. Broadway, Kampsville
618-653-4316
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY
