UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
FIELD SCHOOL IN ARCHAEOLOGY

CAHOKIAN OUTLIER PROJECT
MAY 30-JULY 27, 2007
ANTHROPOLOGY 454 AND 455

Prof. T. Pauketat

An eight-week University of Illinois Field School in Archaeology will be held in the uplands east of the ancient American Indian city of Cahokia in southwestern Illinois, in an effort to document how religious-administrative facilities at the “Pfeffer” site were connected to Cahokia and to the nearby rural farming population. We will work at the edge of the quaint, modern-day town of Lebanon, Illinois, live in local housing, and conduct intensive excavations of the Late Woodland and Mississippian period remains of this important ancient town. Students will also make several special field trips to nearby archaeological sites.

PROJECT GOALS

At or about AD 1050, American Indian people constructed a planned city in the American Bottom region in a moment of history that has been called Cahokia’s “Big Bang.” The central earthen pyramids and plazas of Cahokia, the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, were constructed in a series of tightly spaced and massive labor projects around this time, profoundly altering the local cultural landscape and, indirectly, the human history of the entire Mississippi valley. Mississippian civilization was born.

Simultaneously, new “satellite” or subsidiary towns were established, a rural floodplain village population was “replaced” by scattered farmsteads, and immigrants moved into the region, some living in the Illinois uplands. As part of a multi-year project to discover how the locally diverse population of resettled farmers were integrated within a greater Cahokian community, T. Pauketat is continuing excavations of the remains of the Pfeffer site, a substantial upland town site along an ancient transportation corridor 20 miles east of Cahokia.

COURSE STRUCTURE

The field school provides training in standard archaeological techniques and contextual interpretations. Students will be fully engaged in all aspects of excavation and laboratory processing and will work individually and in supervised teams. Students will locate, map, and fully excavate 1000-year-old houses, a possible temple, and subterranean storage pits, learning to function with all of the technical skills necessary to become a professional archaeologist. Students will also have the opportunity to conduct site surface survey and plane surveying.

Fieldwork in Illinois is labor-intensive and performed under hot, humid, and occasionally rainy and muddy conditions. Laboratory processing and analysis will be ongoing throughout the summer field season. Evening lectures by project staff and by visiting archaeologists working in the area will be a regular part of the weekly schedule, with a focus on providing background on how field data are used to answer archaeological research questions. Students will be immersed in Cahokian and “American Bottom” archaeology and there will be several scheduled day trips to Fort de Chartres, Pierre Menard, Mastodon State Park, Ste. Genevieve, and Cahokia, among other places. Special events planned this year include a long-distance trip to the St. Francois Mountains (in the Ozarks) that will entail camping over a weekend. There will be a three-day July 4th break.

COURSE GRADE

Students will be evaluated on the basis of their performance of specific field and laboratory tasks, their participation in group discussions, and on the quality of their excavation notes. The course readings will take the form of PDFs.

ACCOMMODATIONS, COURSE CREDIT, COSTS

Housing will be provided in Lebanon, Illinois, at no additional cost to the student (see below). The field school is open to undergraduates and graduate students of the University of Illinois and others (direct special inquiries to pauketat@uiuc.edu ). Students must register for both ANTH 454 and 455 for a total of 6 hours of credit (questions regarding registration should be directed to the Undergraduate Advisor, Julie Williams @ 244-3497). In addition to which there is a $375 fee. This fee must be paid in advance via personal check (to Donna Fogerson, 109 Davenport), made payable to the “University of Illinois.” While in the field, students will be responsible for paying for their own food, transportation, and living expenses. Carpooling and communal cooking is the norm.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Enrollment is limited and an application form is required, available by clicking on
Apply now. Completed forms should be returned in person to Dr. Pauketat (Davenport Hall, Rm. 123 or lab Rm. 196) before the beginning of Spring break, March 16, 2007 (non-local applicants may fax or email these to Dr. Pauketat, fax# 217-244-3490). Students will be notified of acceptance via email no later than March 30th, 2007. Subsequent to acceptance, there will be two mandatory pre-field meetings for University of Illinois students (t.b.a.).

*FOR PRE-FIELD PREPATORY READINGS:

check out Ancient Cahokia, by T. Pauketat. Cambridge University Press (paperback, 2004, $24 @ Amazon.com).