Ancient Cahokia Future Visions Conference brings goal for Cahokia becoming a National Park to the forefront.

The Illinois State Archaeological Survey offers a GIS-based tool that draws on more than a century of data to predict the probability of encountering an archaeological site in any 2-acre section of Illinois. Land owners, developers, preservationists, and other Illinoisans can use this tool to proactively assess and protect archaeological resources while enabling sustainable development. 

The Illinois Archaeological Predictive Models (IAPM) offers a publicly available resource to predict where archaeological sites may be found.

Archaeologists turned up remnants of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, the fabled White City that drew millions of visitors to Chicago’s Jackson Park, as they scoured the site of the Obama Presidential Center and nearby parkland as part of the federal review of plans for the proposed complex.

Longtime researcher Alleen Betzenhauser has been named the new director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey and Illinois State Archaeologist at the Prairie Research Institute.

Staff from the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS) are looking to new technology to tie Cahokia’s grid to real-world coordinates. This will be the first time researchers and other state agencies will be able to integrate LiDAR with excavation data at Cahokia.

Corn cultivation spread from Mesoamerica to what is now the American Southwest by about 4000 B.C., but how and when the crop made it to other parts of North America is still a subject of debate. In a new study, scientists report that corn was not grown in the ancient metropolis of Cahokia until sometime between A.D. 900 and 1000, a relatively late date that corresponds to the start of the city’s rapid expansion.

Dr. Thomas E. Emerson, director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS) and Illinois’ first State Archaeologist, announced he will be retiring at the end of 2018. Dr. Emerson’s career has spanned over 45 years in cultural resource management and he has been director of ISAS since 1994.

Exchange Avenue figurine survives to tell us about Cahokia

A team of medical experts and researchers will present new findings on the Spurlock Museum mummy at a symposium at the museum on Nov. 2. Sarah Wisseman, the director of the Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials at the Illinois State Archaeological Survey and the author of "The Virtual Mummy," led the effort and will introduce the event.

Illinois News Bureau writer Diana Yates recently participated in an archaeological investigation of an 800-year-old village in central Illinois.

A massive archaeological site in St. Clair County, Illinois, was excavated by ISAS for the Illinois Department of Transportation between 1998 and 2007 to make way for a new bridge over the Mississippi River. ISAS archaeologists excavated some 7,000 discrete “features,” locations of trash-filled storage pits and houses, among other things, near the banks of the Mississippi River.

A recent meeting between Tribal Nations and researchers from the Prairie Research Institute focused on the cultural significance of freshwater mussels, priorities for conservation and preservation, and opportunities for collaboration.

This spring the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign continues the Intersections of Indigenous Knowledge and Archaeology Speaker Series, which aims to center Indigenous voices, increase awareness of the deep Native histories of the Eastern Woodlands, and amplify the experiences,research, and knowledge of Indigenous leaders, scholars, and artisans.

ISAS partners with organizations to collect data from the Mann site.

The Illinois State Archaeological Survey has reprinted two popular out-of-print publications and both are available for purchase on Amazon.

The Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS) will participate in the Pygmalion Festival’s demo event happening Sept. 27 from 5:30-9:30 p.m. at the Krannert Art Museum on the University of Illinois campus.

While digging out the floors this week during the ongoing restoration of the Nancy Kimball House in Elgin, workers uncovered the 1846 house's original cistern. The discovery prompted Liz Marston of the Elgin Area Historical Society and Museum to contact the Illinois State Archaeological Survey's Northern Illinois Field Station in Elgin, which sent three archaeologists to have a look Thursday.

The Illinois Archaeological Survey recently published its 28th and 29th volume in honor of Dr. Thomas E. Emerson. Dr. Emerson’s career has spanned over 45 years in cultural resource management and during that time he has been a passionate advocate for publishing archaeological research.

Michael Aiuvalasit joins ISAS as an environmental archaeologist, leveraging his expertise using archaeological and paleoclimate data to tell a story about how people solved resource management problems in the past.

Recognized for her exceptional contributions, Mera Hertel, a cornerstone of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS), has been honored with the prestigious Prairie Research Institute’s 2024 Distinguished Support Staff Award.

A new documentary about the cities built by Native Americans features research by University of Illinois anthropologists at the ancient city of Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis. An episode of the documentary will be screened Oct. 10 at Spurlock Museum.