Cultural Setting

Understanding life at Morton Village requires a temporally, culturally, and regionally expansive perspective on Midwestern prehistory. At about AD 400, people in this area lived in small, dispersed communities and practiced limited horticulture to supplement a predominately hunting and gathering lifestyle. Archaeologists refer to this cultural tradition as Late Woodland.

A major cultural transition occurred around AD 1050 in the American Bottom, the large floodplain at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near what is now St. Louis. These changes eventually resulted in the development of the Mississippian cultural tradition. People started living in larger settlements and arranging their homes around open plazas. Mound building already had a long history in the region, but Mississippian people began to build specialized platform mounds upon which houses were constructed and political ritual took place. Although hunting and gathering remained important, maize agriculture flourished and corn became an important dietary staple.  Late Woodland people mixed crushed rock, sand, and grit into the clay they used to temper their pottery, but Mississippians preferred to use crushed up mussel shell. Complex political relationships developed between settlements, and social ranking between individuals within communities is evident in the archaeological record. A set of common religious symbols and iconography were recognized and celebrated throughout the Mississippian world.

The Mississippian lifestyle spread throughout the midcontinent, including to the Central Illinois River Valley near what is now Dickson Mounds Museum. However, not everyone became Mississippian. In certain places, people continued to practice a traditional Late Woodland culture until the time of European contact. In other places like Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Northern Illinois, some Late Woodland people diversified their exploitation of hunted and gathered foods, which they supplemented with a somewhat increased focus on maize horticulture. These groups, referred to by archaeologists as the Oneota, also used shell-tempering to improve their pottery, but they decorated it differently than Mississippian people did. Unlike the Mississippians, the Oneota did not establish political hierarchies between villages, nor did they recognize strict social inequalities within communities.  However, this does not mean that the Oneota were “less developed” or socially inferior to Mississippians. Like the Mississippians, the Oneota had a unique and rich political, social, and religious culture that helped them navigate their world and relate to one another.

By AD 1300, Mississippian communities were well established in the Central Illinois River Valley. Around this time, however, a group (or several groups) of people archaeologists recognize as belonging to the Oneota tradition began to move into the region.  Five Central Illinois village sites show evidence of Oneota people having settled here. Some of these villages have mostly Oneota artifacts, some have mostly Mississippian artifacts, and some (like Morton Village) have a unique mixture of both. Furthermore, investigations of a large Oneota cemetery near Morton suggest that these new settlers engaged in episodic, small-scale warfare or took part in otherwise violent interactions. Analysis of Mississippian cemeteries in the region also yield evidence of warfare and violence. Within only a few centuries of the initial arrival of Mississippians and subsequent arrival of the Oneota, the Central Illinois River Valley was abandoned.

The fact that we know this basic story line speaks to the hard work of archaeologists who have spent their careers working in this region. But many questions remain unanswered. For example, why did some Oneota groups decide to move into the Central Illinois Valley in the first place? How did local Mississippian people respond? To what extent did Mississippians and Oneota interact with or live with one another? Who was fighting and what were they fighting about? Why did both groups leave so suddenly? What was the social context for the conflict we witness in the cemetery? These are just a few of the questions being addressed through an examination of community life at Morton Village.

Previous work at Morton Village

Federal law requires that areas impacted by certain construction and development activities be surveyed by archaeologists to determine whether sites are present and, in some cases, to excavate those sites. In the 1980s, the Illinois State Museum was called upon to assess cultural resources at Morton Village and its vicinity. One of the primary goals of the project was the salvage excavation of a cemetery where 264 men, women, and children had been interred. These individuals are thought to be ethnically Oneota, as the majority of the associated ceramic grave goods were decorated with traditional Oneota motifs. However, many examples of Mississippian-style pottery and symbols were also found in the graves, suggesting a complicated relationship between these Oneota migrants and their Mississippian neighbors. Further complicating the cultural scenario was skeletal evidence of traumatic injury, which may indicate that warfare was occurring. But who were the Oneota fighting with and why? Were they fighting with Mississippian people and, if so, why did they still choose to use Mississippian goods in their mortuary ritual? Were they fighting with other Oneota people in the region or beyond? Or were these violent interactions taking place between different multi-ethnic communities in the area? Why did the Oneota want to migrate to and settle in such a perilous social environment?

An examination of community life at Morton Village might help archaeologists address some of the questions raised by the mortuary and skeletal evidence. Village excavations from the 1980s salvage work were limited, but sufficient data was collected to demonstrate that both Oneota and Mississippian people occupied the site. Houses were distinguished based on construction techniques, with Mississippians digging long, linear trenches in which to place their wall posts, while the Oneota preferred to dig series of circular holes for individual placement of each post. Both of these types of houses are found at Morton Village. Furthermore, both Oneota and Mississippian ceramics were found in village contexts. The initial impression was that Morton Village was originally a Mississippian settlement that was abandoned and subsequently reoccupied by Oneota migrants into the region. But evidence from new excavations is calling this view into question. For example, after five seasons of new excavations, there is no evidence of typical Mississippian village arrangements (such as a plaza, platform mound, and palisade) as would be expected if a purely Mississippian village once existed. Instead, we see non-overlapping Oneota and Mississippian houses, features, and facilities that seem to be oriented according to a common site plan. Does this mean that there temporal overlap between Mississippian and Oneota occupations of the site? And if so, what does that mean as far as community and ethnic identity at this time and place? If Morton Villagers were engaged in warfare with others in the region, how did the perception or threat of violence affect other aspects of their lives? Explore the links and posts on this website to learn about how Michigan State University and Dickson Mounds Museum researchers are addressing these questions.

Current Research Questions

• How large is the Morton Village site? How is it organized? Are Mississippian and Oneota houses/features clustered together? Or are both Mississippian and Oneota houses/features distributed evenly throughout the site?
• What was the temporal relationship between Mississippian and Oneota people at Morton Village? Did Mississippian people settle here first and then abandon the site, which was subsequently occupied by Oneota people? Or did Mississippian and Oneota people live here at the same time?
•  How was diet at Morton Village similar or different from contemporary Mississippian sites in the region? How was diet at Morton Village similar or different from Oneota groups in other regions?
• Why did the Oneota decide to settle here, and how did that effect established social dynamics in the region?