THE MACOUPIN CREEK FIGURE PIPE AND ITS ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT: EVIDENCE FOR LATE WOODLAND-MISSISSIPPIAN INTERACTION BEYOND THE NORTHERN BORDER OF CAHOKIAN SETTLEMENT

Information is assembled to show that the "Piasa Creek" Figure Pipe, a Mississippian human effigy pipe found in west-central Illinois in the late nineteenth century, was actually recovered from a stone-box grave at the Starr Village site in the upper Macoupin Valley. Surveys and small-scale excavations at Starr have produced abundant post-A.D. 800 Late Woodland (Jersey Bluff phase) artifacts. In addition, a restricted range of higher quality Middle Mississippian artifacts have been found near a possible small temple mound at the site. These and other data raise the possibility that Jersey Bluff settlement continued in the southern lower Illinois Valley drainage well after the Mississippian emergence in the American Bottom 50 km to the south. Apparently, Jersey Bluff residents of Starr Village imported American Bottom Mississippian artifacts to support ritual activities as late as A.D. 1200—1300.