Illinois Valley Archaeological Society Lecture

Illinois Valley Archaeological Society Lecture

• Location: ISM Dickson Mounds Museum, Lewistown
• Date: Tuesday, February 07, 2017, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

"From Mammoths to Maize: Plants and Native American Cultural Evolution in the Midwest"

The Illinois Valley Archaeological Society (IVAS) will meet Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at the Dickson Mounds Museum beginning at 7:00 p.m.  Featured speaker will be Dr. Michael Conner, Associate Curator of Anthropology, Dickson Mounds Museum–Illinois State Museum, who will present a talk titled “From Mammoths to Maize: Plants and Native American Cultural Evolution in the Midwest.”  This event is free and the public is invited to attend.  Refreshments will be available afterwards.  All IVAS Board members are asked to arrive ½ hr. early for a short board meeting.  If you ordered an IVAS T-Shirt they will be available for pick up at the meeting.

The development of agriculture had a profound effect on human societies throughout the world.  Small, nomadic bands of hunter-gathers gradually became settled farmers with more control over their food. Different crops fueled population expansion and social complexity in a variety of regions across Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Corn, first domesticated in Mexico, was the principal crop among Native Americans when Europeans entered North America.  However, archaeological research in the last 50 years has shown that for at least a thousand years before corn became important in the Midwest Native Americans relied on several indigenous crop plants.  This talk will review the social change wrought by this early agriculture and discuss how the subsequent adoption of maize about A.D. 800 fueled the development of the largest, most complex Native American culture north of Mexico at the Cahokia site near Collinsville, Illinois. 

The Illinois State Museum—Dickson Mounds is located between Lewistown and Havana off Illinois Routes 78 and 97. The museum is open free to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day. Tours and special programs are available for groups with reservations. For more information call 309.547.3721 or TTY 217.782.9175 or visit the museum's web site at www.ExperienceEmiquon.com.  Also check out weekly updates on Facebook at “Illinois State Museum – Dickson Mounds”.