The Starr Village and Mound Group ( 11MP3), is a

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern United States, Midwestern, Eastern United States, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from appr ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located on a bluff overlooking

Macoupin Creek Macoupin Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Illinois River, which it joins near the village of Hardin, Illinois. The word ''macoup ...

southwest of

Carlinville Carlinville is a city and the county seat of Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. It is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and the former home of Prairie Farms Dairy. As of the 202 ...

Macoupin County Macoupin County is located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, it had a population of 47,765. The county seat is Carlinville, Illinois, Carlinville. The primary industry is agriculture, consis ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Artifacts

The "Macoupin Creek figurine" (formerly the "Piasa Creek Figure pipe") is a Mississippian stone statue found at the site in a

stone box grave Stone box graves were a method of burial used by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture in the Midwestern United States and the Southeastern United States. Their construction was especially common in the Cumberland River Basin, in settleme ...

sometime late in the nineteenth century. It measures in height and depicts a shaman kneeling with a gourd rattle in one hand and a snake or snakeskin wrapped around his neck. The figure also has conch shell and bead ear ornaments and a raccoon skin headdress. Because of the age of the burial (Early Sand Prairie Phase 1250 CE) and the time of the statue's believed manufacture ( Stirling Phase 1050 to 1200 CE), it is posited that the figure was a curated heirloom, buried long after its manufacture. It is now in the collection of the

Gilcrease Museum Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

References

Geography of Macoupin County, Illinois Middle Mississippian culture Mounds in Illinois {{MacoupinCountyIL-NRHP-stub

Artifacts

See also

References