The Illinois State Archaeological Survey holds extensive archaeological research collections that include lithic, ceramic, metal, zooarchaeological, and paleoethnobotanical artifacts from more than 3,000 Illinois sites.
The ISAS collections are valuable research assets that are used not just by ISAS staff but also by other archaeologists and students. Assemblages from single sites are used for comparative research with other sites, single items are used to add data to studies of specific artifact types, and the documents (photos, maps, and more) are used in publications and presentations.
Many of these artifacts are associated with the survey’s transportation archaeology projects, but ISAS also holds early Cahokia Mounds World Heritage site collections from the excavations of A.R. Kelly and W.K. Moorehead in the 1930s and of long-time University of Illinois Professor C.J. Bareis, along with the associated photographic, map, and documentary records.
ISAS also holds artifacts that have been donated by private individuals and amateur archaeologists. These collections are sometimes the only records of shallowly buried sites that have been damaged or destroyed by decades of erosion, development, and agriculture. By donating their collections to ISAS, these individuals ensure that these artifacts are preserved and made available for research. For more information about donating artifacts to ISAS, see LINK.
Link to Cahokia Archaeological Artifacts Database? Link to Cahokia Artifacts Image Database? For more information about the ISAS research collections, contact head of curation Dr. Tamira Brennan.
Along with the rest of the University of Illinois community, ISAS is committed to repatriation of certain human remains, funerary and sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. For information about the University’s NAGPRA processes and progress, or to explore a NAGPRA claim, visit nagpra.illinois.edu.