The Mitchell Archaeological Site is a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

archaeological site located at the western end of University Drive in Mitchell,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The site includes a

platform mound A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal. In Eastern North America The indigenous peoples of North America built substru ...

and the remains of a village; while it once included several other mounds, they have been destroyed by modern activity. Mississippian peoples inhabited the site c. 1150–1200. The site is affiliated with the

Cahokia Cahokia Mounds ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis. The state archaeology park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. L ...

settlement system and was the largest site in the system except for Cahokia itself. However, the majority of the site was destroyed by the construction of Interstate 270; known information about the site mainly comes from salvage excavations conducted before the highway was built.Bodner, Connie. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Mitchell Archeological Site''.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

, 1976-08. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on February 7, 1978.

References

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Illinois Mississippian culture Mounds in Illinois {{MadisonCountyIL-NRHP-stub