The Archaeology of Carrier Mills: 10,000 Years in the Saline Valley of Illinois

3. Hunters and Gatherers: 8000-1000 B.C.

Hunters and Gatherers: 8ooo-rooo B.C. Most Illinoisans share a common interest in learning about the Indian societies that lived in this region before European settlement. People want to know when the first Indians came to their area, who they were, and what their culture was like. The life-style of these early residents and the thousands of years that have passed since they first came to Illinois, unfortunately, prevent modern archaeologists from providing detailed answers to these questions. By studying the archaeological record, though, we can get some idea of the way prehistoric Indians lived thousands of years ago. The earliest Indians to live in southern Illinois arrived during the Paleoindian period, sometime before 8ooo B.C. Although no radiocarbon dates exist for Paleoindian sites in southern Illinois, dates from sites in other parts of the eastern United States indicate that they first came to this area much earlier, perhaps 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. These early people lived in small groups and obtained much of their food by hunting. Because they had to stay near the animals they hunted, they never remained in one place for very long. Their possessions were probably few in number and had to be portable. Obviously, this kind of life-style did not favor the formation of substantial archaeological sites. These early hunters left behind only a few isolated projectile points and chert flakes. Also, many small Paleoindian sites were reoccupied by later prehistoric people or were disturbed by a variety of natural processes, like soil erosion, making their identification difficult for archaeologists . It is likely that Paleoindian groups visited and hunted in the vicinity of Carrier Mills, but the earliest traces of prehistoric people date somewhat later, to the Archaic period (8o.oo-1ooo B.C.). By the beginning of the Archaic, the environment of the Carrier Mills area was similar to that encountered by the first European settlers. Oak-hickory forests had replaced the spruce-and-pine-dominated forests that covered much of the region dur-§ 8ooo-6ooo B.C.: The Early Archaic Period 31 Carrier Mills ing the late glacial period. Rainfall and temperature were roughly equivalent to that of today. Carrier Mills archaeologists found several distinctive kinds of Early Archaic projectile points that resemble those found in contemporary sites in other parts of southern Illinois and in adjacent parts of the Midwest and Southeast. Archaeologists identify them by their unique shapes and call them by a variety of names. Early Archaic points found at Carrier Mills include examples of the Dalton, Thebes Notched, Cache DiagonalNotched , Kirk, LeCroy, and Hardin Barbed types (Plates J-I and 3-2). The most common Early Archaic projectile point was the Thebes point. Most of these points are large and thick. The body, or blade, of the point is triangular-shaped, and the bottom, or base, is characterized by deep, wide notches that converge toward the middle ofthe point. These notches were used to attach the point to the wooden shaft of a spear or lance or to the handle of a knife. The edges of the body are often steeply beveled, indicating that the point had been resharpened. These points were used by Early Archaic hunters for hunting and butchering. Undoubtedly some of the other nondiagnostic artifacts recovered during fieldwork at Carrier Mills were made by the Early Archaic inhabitants. But because the Early Archaic materials were found in deposits that contained artifacts of later periods, these objects could not be distinguished from one another with any certainty. I 0 PLATE 3-1. Early Archaic projectile points. Row r, Dalton; Row 2, LeCroy; Row 3, Number r, Hardin Barbed; Numbers 2 and 3, Kirk Stemmed; Row 4, Hidden Valley. I I I I I 0 I 1 3 A PLATE 3-2. Early Archaic projectile points. Row r, Thebes Notched; Row 2, Cache Diagonal-Notched. The number of Early Archaic projectile points found at Carrier Mills is quite small when compared to points attributable to later prehistoric occupations. Of the 1,970 projectile points that could be assigned to a specific cultural period, only 23, orr percent, were Early Archaic. The low number and percentage of Early Archaic points suggest that the Carrier Mills Archaeological District was not occupied by large groups of people for extended periods during the Early Archaic. We can obtain information about the Early Archaic way of life by studying the types of raw...