Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Tour Guide to the Prehistory and Native Cultures of Southwestern Illinois and the Greater St. Louis
Certain members of these high-ranking families probably held the political offices which traditionally were a part of the com munity but which increasingly gave the official a great deal of political power. These officials or chiefs probably were focal points in the community's yearly production of food, managing the problems of who got what from that year's cr0p.
During the earliest two centuries of this period, what archaeologists now call the Emergent Mississippian Period (a.d. 800 there is evidence from sites in the Mississippi River ?ood plain of an astonishing degree of village development. Much of this evidence comes from the Range site (see mini-tour C). It is clear from the Range site excavations that during the Emergent Mississippian Period, courtyards became a central feature of villages and hamlets. The circular gaming stones (shown here) of a native-american sport called mm are found near these courtyards, as are pipes which were probably used for smoking tobacco during important community or ritual settings. An array of broken pots from all over Southwestern Illinois are found in the garbage of villages, indicating that a considerable amount of people, food and ideas was moving between families within the region.
By ad. 800, most communities were fully sedentary, staying in one place for the duration of the year. More and more people were drawn into the ?ood plain opposite the modem-day city of St. Louis. More and more land was cleared to grow crops. More and more wild animals, particularly deer, were hunted for the chiefs and their families by others. In short, the economy of prehistoric Southwestern Illinois was expanding while the numbers of people and the political power of officials in the region also grew and grew.
These Emergent Mississippian developments reached a climax around ad. 1000, at which point a dramatic political change occurred, a change which resulted in what archaeologists call fully-developed Mississippian culture. It was at about ad. 1000 that one or more chiefs at the site of Cahokia seem to have gained control over most of the ?ood plain between Alton in the north to Dupo in the south. In the decades that followed ad.
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