The People of Hoxie—Bringing the Past and Present Together

In 1953, Elaine Bluhm organized a volunteer crew of archaeologists and avocational archaeologists to salvage parts of the Hoxie Farm site prior to the construction of the first interstate (I-80) in Illinois. In addition to numerous habitation features, they excavated 11 burial features. Additional burials salvaged by local avocational archaeologists after the 1953 excavations were described to Elaine and, in several instances, the remains were donated to the University of Illinois. More recently, ISAS excavations from 2000 to 2003 encountered 30 burials and multiple habitation features with isolated remains. Combining the available information from all the Hoxie Farm burials gained from the reanalysis of earlier collections and ISAS excavations, this paper presents an updated overview of the mortuary patterns for this important Upper Mississippian population.