available. Field Museum has become the major center 

 of research on the fossils of the Mazon Creek area. 



A second important geologic period in Illinois was the 

 Pleistocene, the Ice Age of the last million years. The 

 advance and retreat of the great glaciers churned up and 

 deposited a variety of rocks and minerals in most of the 

 state. This glacial action also produced the rich farmland 

 coveted later by homesteaders. 



Illinois has hosted a diversity of mammal residents but 

 fossil records of mammals are scarce in the state, largely 

 because rock of the periods which would bear these fossils 

 has been eroded away. With the numerous glacial ad- 

 vances and retreats and the resulting rapid climatic fluctu- 

 ations, many forms of life that had become established in 

 the area died out or migrated elsewhere. Among the ani- 

 mals that did range here were the giant beaver, which 

 measured about eight feet in length, and the mastodon. 

 It was the presence of this ancient elephant-like creature 

 that probably brought the earliest human residents to Il- 

 linois. 



There is evidence in the form of stone spear-points that 

 Paleo-Indians reached the Upper Great Lakes region in 

 pursuit of the mastodon about 10,000 years ago. They 

 were nomadic hunters and even as recently as 100 B.C. 

 there were apparently Indians in the area whose cultures 

 were based exclusively on hunting. 



Most of the later Indian residents of Illinois, however, 

 combined agricultural and hunting activities. Indians of 

 northern Illinois adopted the use of canoes, sleds, snow- 

 shoes, made some pottery and built simple dwellings, but 

 they never attained the high cultural level of those peoples 

 living in the southern part of the state between about 

 100 B.C. and 1600 a.d. Perhaps partly because of the 

 more benign climate, the Indians of southern Illinois es- 

 tablished stable agricultural communities and developed 

 along nuich more complex cultural lines. 



The Hopewellian culture was predominant in Illinois 

 from about 500 B.C. to about 700 .\.u. and may have origi- 

 nated here. These Indians buried their dead in mounds 

 and probably had a strong political or religious base to 

 their mode of living. They evidently indulged in vigorous 

 trade and developed their artistry in ceramics, sculpture 

 and metalwork to the highest level attained by any abo- 

 riginal residents of the state. 



That culture was gradually supplanted by the Missis- 

 sippian, which was dominant in southern Illinois from about 

 500 to 1600 .'^.D. Traces of this culture were reported by 

 French explorers as late as 1700. 



Beginning in Louisiana and moving north, the Missis- 

 sippian culture may have been influenced by the highly 

 developed Mexican Indian civilizations, since the Missis- 

 sippian peoples built terraces and flat-topped pyrainids 

 and temples. The largest of these is the Monk"s Mound of 

 the Cahokia Mound group in Illinois. It measures more 

 than 1.000 by 700 feet and is 100 feet high. The clusters 

 of temple sites indicate a far more elaborate civilization 

 than the Hopewellian. Anthropologists generally believe 



this culture supported large comnuinities and had a very 

 complex political and religious structure. Like the Hope- 

 wellian culture, the Mississippian also developed a high 

 degree of artistic achievement, particularly in ceramics. 



This advanced Indian culture gradually faded and when 

 the first European explorers reached Illinois the predomi- 

 nant Indians in the area were Miami, Sauk, Fox and Il- 

 linois, who followed variations of the simpler Woodland 

 cultures of earlier Indians. They combined agricultural 

 activities and the seasonal pursuit of game, remaining in 

 villages only temporarily. The Indians of Illinois were 

 forced to abandon their traditional way of living in the 

 wake of rapid westward expansion by settlers in the 1800s. 



The homesteaders who came here foimd good farmland, 

 coal deposits, plentiful fish and game and good transpor- 

 tation provided by numerous waterways and relatively flat 

 prairie. It probably never occurred to them that this 

 bountiful land was a gift of millions of years of evolutionary 

 changes, sometimes violent, sometimes subtle, but ultimate- 

 ly resulting in an adaptability to the needs of man that has 

 seldom been equaled. 



The Sesquicentennial Tour takes a leisurely two hours 

 and has been designed so that visitors can see the exhibit 

 areas with a minimum of walking and stair-climbing. Spe- 

 cial brochures for the tour, including specific exhibits stops 

 and information, are available free of charge in Stanley 

 Field Hall. — Story and cover photo by Elizabeth A'. Alanne, 



Field Museum Press 



Hopewell Man {Hall i) is an enlargement of a small Hopewell 

 Indian figurine found in West Central Illinois. The male figure 

 holds a digging stick used in planting corn and displays two dis- 

 tinctive features of Hopewell adornment, large spools in the ears 

 and the hair pulled back in a knot. Art forms of the Hopewellian 

 culture were highly advanced. 



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