Evidences of Early Woodland Culture at Chalk Bluff Rock Shelter

Extract

Chalk Bluff Rock Shelter is located on the southern end of Chalk Bluff in Section 2, Township 10 South, Range 3 West, nine miles southwest of Murphysboro, Jackson County, Illinois. The bluff in which the shelter is located is an unbroken sandstone escarpment nearly one mile long and having an almost uniform height of 250 feet. This escarpment, lying in a north-south direction and paralleling the Mississippi flood-plain, has a westerly exposure. Here, where the shelter is located, is a conspicuous overhanging cliff offering the shelter ideal protection from the elements. The shelter itself is about sixty feet long and about forty feet wide. This rock shelter is situated about thirty feet above the flood plain. At no time during our work was there any evidence found of stratification suggesting water deposit in the dirt fill. This would substantiate the idea that the shelter was above highwater at all times.