Oh, to travel back several hundred years and observe who and what the land under our feet supported would be a dream come true.
If that seems impossible, the Madison County Historical Museum has arranged the next-best thing in the form of an exhibit exploring the Mississippian people native to the area, their civilization and way of life.
Curated by museum board member and retired archaeologist Joyce Williams, the exhibit highlights many artifacts and documents owned by the Madison County Historical Museum and Archival Library that are related to the Mississippian Period Cahokia Mounds site.
Williams worked for 20 years in the American Bottom area unearthing — for the most part — Mississippian Period sites. Particularly in light of recent excavations connected with the building of the new Mississippi River Bridge linking Mississippian occupations in the area to the archaeological site of Cahokia Mounds, Williams felt the exhibit would be educational and interesting.
"My favorite part of the exhibit is the clues given by the artifacts into the life ways of the people," Williams said. "The importing of Gulf of Mexico shells for beads as decoration indicates trade with faraway people; the engraving of pottery with signs of nature, such as a figure used to illustrate mounds or an eye, indicates their relationship with the world they lived in.
"All the parts of their lives that are discovered culminate in the interpretation of their beliefs and ways they lived and the configuration of their villages and palisades," she said.
The exhibit focuses on many items used to interpret their lives.
"I would like for people to come away from the exhibit with the urge to learn more about these people who lived here before us," Williams said. "I want them to do more research on their computers and read articles and books about these people."
Williams said a wealth of information on the Mississippian interpretation can be found in the books "Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi" by Timothy R. Pauketat, theoretically putting the events of the time period in an interpretation of a political/sociological framework; and "Cahokia Mounds: America’s First City" by William Iseminger, telling the story of the Mississippians at Cahokia Mounds using language and pictures.
"The research was the fun part of the project," Williams said. "I had personal knowledge of what made the archaeologists assign certain artifacts and the type of houses and villages the people lived in to the Mississippian time period of A.D. 700 to 1300, because of my profession."
But since retiring, she knew a lot more information had come to light from the research of archaeologists at the Illinois Historical Survey, University of Illinois, and local experts had expanded the knowledge of what made the people of this time period historically distinctive. She found that discovering the new information was interesting and enlightening.
Another goal of the exhibit was to get young people interested in the mysteries of the past and how they feel about the people who lived before us. To this end, Williams gave information about the statues and Mississippian beliefs to Ashlyn Boelke of Glen Carbon, a young artist and junior at Edwardsville High School.
"She interpreted in her own way what she felt showed the important parts of Mississippian Period life," Williams said. "She illustrated their way of life using three elements in her painting — the sun, corn and mounds. She interpreted the statue Birger Figurine as the ‘corn goddess,’ holding a corn plant in her hand."
Museum librarian Mary Westerhold said it’s a wonderful exhibit that has proven to be of interest to all ages.
The primary part of the historical collection in the exhibit came mostly from John Sutter of Edwardsville, purchased by the county in the 1920s. Sutter was a newspaper man interested in the natural world. His collection consists of not only prehistoric American Indian artifacts, but natural materials such as shells, birds, fossils, etc. Williams said his Mississippian artifacts came from the Ramey family’s farm. At one time, the family owned the large Monks Mound and adjacent fields of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, now operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
One unique item is a small sandstone tablet remnant with engraving on both sides; one side shows two decapitated human heads and the other shows two stylized ivory-billed woodpecker heads. Other items include a limestone animal head and a sandstone smoking pipe in the shape of a sitting frog, as well as pottery vessels displaying animal and human effigies. There also are stone tools and rock axes.
An introductory exhibit in the Madison County Administration Building displays documents and literature about the Cahokia Mounds, titles of literature that can be studied at the Madison County Historical Archival Library, general knowledge of the Mississippian Period and a poster showing Mississippian artifacts.
A panoramic oil painting in the lower hall shows a view of Cahokia Mounds painted in the 1800s.
The main exhibit includes displays of shell items, bone tools and gaming stones, with posters discussing the use of these items and other information about the Mississippian People. Another display features ceramic items, including pots, plates, bowls and decorative pieces with unique animal heads on the rims and things like human hands, feet and heads.
Another case contains examples of the artistry and symbolism associated with the Mississippian people. Two figurines that Williams said were recovered on the Interstate 270 construction project during excavations just west of Collinsville are represented by casts of the statues. These casts are loaned to the Madison County Historical Society specifically for the exhibit by the Illinois State Historical Survey of the University of Illinois. They consist of a red flint clay material carved to resemble female figures — one kneeling with a hoe in her hand, chopping into what could be the earth or a stylized snake-like creature. The other figurine also is kneeling with her hands resting on a box.
Other pieces in the exhibit include a ceramic jar made of gray clay with engraved line drawings called "Ramey Incising," a marker for the Mississippian Period. Two posters display maps that show the Mississippian mounds sites in the American Bottom and their location based on modern interstate highways, and other Mississippian Period phenomena, including post calendars marking the passing of the seasons.
Williams is the current president of the Madison County Historical Society. She is a teacher, archaeologist, historian and author with bachelor’s of science degrees in elementary education and anthropology, and a master’s of science in environmental studies, specializing in archaeology. Her books are mainly site reports on the artifacts that were excavated by archaeologists on the University of Illinois Interstate 270 project.
Born and raised in Glen Carbon, she was instrumental in starting the Glen Carbon Heritage Museum and helped her husband, Bob, renovate the Yanda Log Cabin, which was built along a trail near Edwardsville.
The Madison County Historical Museum and Library is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. It is located at 715 N. Main St. in Edwardsville. Admission is free. For more information, call (618) 656-7562.
Author: Vicki Bennington | Source: The Telegraph [December 30, 2010]