help! info needed!

[outlaw319]

I know there's some smart people with alot of knowledge of this state!How would you know if you're in an area where an indian village/camp would have been? What would been some things to look for? I live in a rural area in central Illinois(christian county) and my yard is covered with worked pieces of stone that I myself and my kids been finding for years! In my garden alone which is roughly 25' x 60' I found 2 complete arrowheads and many fragments of knapped pieces of partial points and scrapers, which I mostly found while checking on my melon patch after a hard rain back in the summer. My yard is mainly hard clay type soil, but after finding those it just about makes me want to break out the tiller and start tilling up sections outback to see what else I can find! Description of my place is as follows: where the house sits is on flat high ground right on the edge of the timber surrounded by hayfields on the front and left side, on the right side is timber as well as my back yard kinda like being in a cultisac(cove). My back yard is flat then drops down to a V shaped valley that goes between two bluffs that ends up a lowland area with a small creek running through it. To me it seems like a good place for a village since they could have a good location to move back and forth between the winter and summer months. I know there's alot of knowledgeable people on here that might be able to give me some info on clues or ideas what to look for. Well thanks in advance!
Dave

 

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[Lowbatts]

Got an aerial view of your home?

Sounds like you may be sitting on a midden. When many of the worked pieces are not complete it may be because they were discarded at the edge of the camp or site. These often were found on steep hillsides where the villagers tossed all there trash. Sift your garden for beads and do not throw anything away that you may find with a detector that rings up in the high coin or copper range of settings. Get some hardware cloth and build a frame from a couple pieces of lumber maybe two feet square, then sift your garden meticulously to at least two feet deep.

If you have any yard space that was not excavated and refilled during construction then go ahead and work a square yard of it. But meticulously work it about 3 or 4 inches at a time. Take the time to record what is found at what level. If you come across a good array of stone tools, maybe you can get some professional archaeological help in there to do a solid and well done dig.

Be sure to check the gulley and the water in it carefully also, if you have access to it. Good luck!

 

[outlaw319]

well i got some pics of the back yard where it drops down to the creek.

It's kinda hard to see in the pick, but here is the small valley heading down to the creek in the far background.