Middle Grant Creek: a rare example of a single component Huber phase site on the Illinois prairie

Summary

Our understanding of the protohistoric Huber phase is limited by our small sample of sites from this complex period. We present preliminary findings from the summer 2016 excavation at the Middle Grant Creek (MGC) site at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, IL. The site is a well-preserved single component Huber phase, warm weather camp that survived historic farmsteads and the construction and abandonment of an Army arsenal. MGC expands the sample of Huber sites and provides needed data on lifeways during the final period before European arrival. We expect data from MGC to help refine our understandings of seasonality, mobility, and site types of Huber communities as well as inform possible down-the-line impacts of the Fur Trade. As one of the few single component sites in the region, data also help us untangle relationships between the multiple late prehistoric communities in the region and refine existing regional typologies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15238