"Dem Bones": An aboriginal winter hunting camp from Mercer County, Illinois

Excavations undertaken in 1989 at 11MC122 near New Boston, Illinois, documented an ephemerally expressed in situ cultural deposit consisting of a living surface buried beneath historic alluvium on a natural levee on the shoreline of the Mississippi River. Based largely upon the occurrence of an unusual mammalian faunal assemblage and the high frequency of triangular arrow points, but an absence of directly associated European trade goods, the site appears to date to the protohistoric/early historic Indian period. Further, the abundance of fur-bearing mammal bone, dearth of fish elements, low protected landscape setting, and presence of a simple surface hearth suggests this river edge site represents the remains of a short-term winter hunting/processing camp. This article presents summary information about the site and attempts to place the buried remains into a cultural-historical context.