Star Bridge: A Late Mississippian Village in the Central Illinois River Valley

Abstract

The late pre-Columbian period in the central Illinois River valley (CIRV) is demarcated by the development of large, often-fortified Mississippian towns, farming hamlets, extensive trade networks, and shifting political alliances between AD 1050 and 1450. The fission and fusion of local polities ceased with abrupt abandonment of the CIRV by AD 1450 as part of the larger Vacant Quarter phenomenon. Located on a hypothesized boundary between Mississippian and Oneota zones of socio-political influence during the 14th century, Star Bridge (11Br17) was a Mississippian village previously believed to have been incinerated during an assault. Through the analysis of an avocational surface collection, a 1992 excavation assemblage, and recent geophysical investigations, my research re-examines Star Bridge and assesses the site’s integrity after decades of agricultural modification. Geophysical data and the material culture from excavations suggest Star Bridge never burned but was abandoned after one or two generations of occupation shortly before the exodus of Mississippian and Oneota groups from the CIRV. Meanwhile, my analyses also revealed a dearth of Oneota-derived or influenced material culture, indicating a dearth of interaction between Star Bridge’s inhabitants and their neighbors upstream. Instead, the material culture suggests Star Bridge was part of a string of late 13th and 14th century villages known as the La Moine River polity.