Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
A recent discovery in west-central Illinois seems sufficiently interesting and important to warrant this initial descriptive report. Six small pottery figurines were found with a compound burial in Mound 8 of the Knight Mound Group. Five of these human effigies, apparently fashioned to represent the prehistoric people culturally responsible for these mounds, not only display the remarkably smooth, stylistic skill of the culture and artisan producing them, but are modeled and painted to show costumes and styles in personal ornamentation wjth sufficient detail to make an important contribution to our knowledge of the producers’ material culture. The sixth figurine is extremely simple and devoid of detail, and is not painted.
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