Mill Creek chert is a type ofchert found inSouthern Illinois and heavily exploited by members of theMississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE).[1]Artifacts made from this material are found inarchaeological sites throughout theAmerican Midwest and Southeast. It is named for a village and stream near the quarries,Mill Creek, Illinois and Mill Creek, atributary of theCache River.[2] The chert was used extensively for the production of utilitarian tools such as hoes and spades, and for polished ceremonial objects such asbifaces, spatulate celts andmaces.
Chert is asiliceous (silica) stone, a variety ofquartz similar toflint but more brittle. It naturally occurs as large, flat, elliptically shapednodules increek beds, and sometimes as hill-topresiduum. The nodules were formed as part of the Ullin limestone formation during theMississippian geologic period (roughly 359 to 318 million years ago). Mill Creek Chert is a tough, coarse-grained chert, usually brown or gray in color, and occurs as large tabular shaped nodules.[3]
The best archaeological evidence states that maize (corn) first entered the United States from Mexico around 800 CE. It quickly spread throughout the continent and created a full scale lifestyle shift for the prehistoric people of the area. The cultivation and harvest of maize would allow for the creation of permanent villages and cities. To cultivate maize, tools were needed to till, plant and harvest the new crops. The spade was invented to accomplish these agricultural goals. Spades were chipped from large pieces of tabular flint from sources like Mill Creek, Dover, and Kaolin chert. Although no prehistoric hafting exist today, it is likely that the spades were hafted at right angles to the handle and used much like today's garden hoes. The technological leap created by mastering the spade production and the cultivation of maize was one of the single most important events over man's 14,000 year prehistory in America.
At the turn of the 20th century,archaeologists began realizing that in the hilly lands ofSouthern Illinois was the location for thequarrying and production centers—one of the greatest inprehistoric North America for this type of stone.[2] The sites were located near Mill Creek, Illinois, a village inUnion County, located betweenJonesboro andCairo on theAlexander County line.[3] From this collection of sites, known colloquially as the "Indian Diggings",Native Americans quarried, worked into tools andblanks, and exported this stone to the wider Mississippian world. The chert found here was one of the major exported raw materials of the Mississippian culture and its distribution and procurement was one of the largest mining and production efforts organized during the Mississippian period.[2] The raw material was dug up in the quarries and then transported to small hamlets for production in hoes, spades and blanks. Archaeologists believe they were then transported to and traded at regional mound centers such as the Hale Site, apalisaded village with aplatform mound and aburial mound. From these local sites, they were then transported and traded at sites even further afield. These materials were some of the most widely exchanged items during this period,[2] with especially large amounts transported to theAmerican Bottom region. Examples are numerous atCahokia, where it was especially prized for hoes and spades,[1] but finds have been made in locations as distant asSpiro andMoundville.
The most common tools made from Mill Creek chert were digging implements. The physical properties of the stone and its ability to absorb repeated use without breaking as often as other stone, made it especially suitable for these types of tools.[1] The Mississippian culture's heavy dependence onmaize agriculture and their monumental architecture (platform mounds,moats and embankments) made such tools especially valuable. Three main varieties of Mississippian culture hoes have been found, differentiated by their shape, oval, flared and notched. The oval and flared varieties were hafted to L-shaped wooden handles, such as the one wielded by theBirger figurine. The notched version was probably hafted as a spade. Another advantageous property of the Mill Creek chert was the large size of the nodules, which meant that the corresponding tools could be large. Some hoes were up to 60 centimetres (24 in) in length.[4]
The other main use for the chert was large ceremonial bifaces, spatulatecelts and stone maces. These were ritual objects, which often display a high degree of craftmanship. Unlike the hoes and other utilitarian tools, the ritual objects were often ground and polished to a high degree of finish.[4] ManySoutheastern Ceremonial Complex artworks depict figures wielding these ceremonial items, especially the sword shaped ceremonial bifaces and maces. As with the hoes, these artifacts could also be quite large, with some of the swordlike bifaces being up to 50 centimetres (20 in) in length. These ritual objects have been found throughout theAmerican Bottom, the Lilbourn Site inNew Madrid County, Missouri[5] and as far away asSpiro andGahagan Mounds,[6]Caddoan Mississippian culture sites inOklahoma andLouisiana. Although the objects are modeled after actual weapons, such as war clubs, archaeologists believe they were too delicate to function as actual weapons and instead functioned as status symbols.[4]
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37°20′37.75″N89°16′12.36″W / 37.3438194°N 89.2701000°W /37.3438194; -89.2701000
| Middle Mississippian |
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| South Appalachian Mississippian |
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| Fort Walton culture | |||||||||||
| Pensacola culture | |||||||||||
| Plaquemine Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Caddoan Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Upper Mississippian cultures |
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| Culture |
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