The Jersey County, Illinois, Bluff Focus

Abstract
This group is characterized by low, domed shaped mounds located on the higher ridges and bluffs, and by village sites located on the second terraces in the bottoms adjacent to all weather springs and the larger creeks. The outline submitted is based upon mound excavations and surface work in the village sites done on vacations and week-ends over a period of eleven years. No village site excavations have been made because they are all located in fields that are in crops during the time of year that excavation is possible. Thirty-four mounds have been opened and the thirty-fifth is about one-half completed at this time. Fourteen elevations that proved not to be burial mounds have been worked. It is of interest to note that none of these contained any limestone slabs or unworked mussel shells, while all mounds containing burials did contain these two items.