Projectile Points and the Illinois Landscape: People, Time, and Place

This 300-page hardback volume printed by the Illinois State Archaeological Survey includes thousands of full-color photos which show—in glorious detail—artifacts from all over Illinois. More than 80 projectile-point, knife, and cache-blade types are profiled—offering physical descriptions and distinguishing characteristics, distributions, ages, and, whenever possible, cultural affiliations. Multiple examples of each point- and blade-type are rendered in true color and shown against backdrops of relevant natural areas of Illinois. Using the landscape as a base, each spread in this volume draws together the settings of daily life and the natural resources used by the people who made these artifacts. Short essays on topics as diverse as bison hunting, early horticulture, bone pins, and bird symbolism accompany nearly half of the point-type presentations, providing a richer context from which to appreciate the diverse lifeways of Illinois’ earliest residents.