Campbell Hollow, IL (11ST144) Project

Summary

The Campbell Hollow site (11ST144) is located in the lower Illinois River valley in Scott Country, Illinois. The site was excavated under the direction of Dr. C. Russell Stafford (Center for American Archaeology) for the Central Illinois Expressway project, with funding from the Illinois Department of Transportation. Late Woodland remains were primarily encountered in the plow zone and two buried Archaic components were excavated in 1980 and 1981. Early and Middle Archaic remains were buried by over 2 m of sediment at the toe of colluvial slope on the east side of the Illinois River valley near the entrance of a small stream (Campbell Hollow Creek) into the main valley. The Archaic encampments are located at the base of the south facing bluffs in Campbell Hollow about 0.2 km east of the Illinois River valley.

Two by two meter units were excavated. Cultural remains in the Middle Archaic component were piece-plotted, and sediments were were dry-screened through 1/4" mesh. The more deeply buried Early Archaic component was screened through 1/4" mesh.Sediments between the two components were screened through 1/2 mesh or not screened until within 10-15 cm of the cultural deposits. Flotation samples with the heavy fraction collected in 1/16" mesh were collected from feature and unit levels. Chemical flotation was done to separate bones from other debris in the heavy fraction.

Mona Colburn (Illinois State Museum) identified the faunal remains using the Illinois State Museum's Comparative Faunal Collections and conducted the analyses. Only the Archaic faunal remains are included in these databases.