Archaeological sites throughout southern Illinois provide a chronicle of the varying ways people have lived in that area during the past 10,000 years. This book focuses on the results of a five-year archaeological investigation in a 143-acre area known as the Carrier Mills Archaeo­logical District. This area, rich in archaeological treasures, offers many keys to the prehistoric people of southern Illinois. Archaeologists in this study have sought to learn the ages of the various prehistoric occupations represented at the sites; to better un­derstand the technology and social organization of these prehistoric people; to collect information about diet, health, and physical characteristics of the prehistoric inhabitants; and to investigate the remains of the 19th-century Lakeview settlement.

Richard W. Jefferies is a professor of anthropology at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Lower Ohio River Valley: From the Falls to the Confluence.

“Jefferies has written a scholarly, well-documented study that both he and the Peabody Coal Company can look to with pride.”—Illinois Issues