The Hopewellian civilization apparently disappeared as suddenly as it
seems to have arisen. This impression is probably due to the fact that
the people continued to live in the old villages long after the
characteristic colorful Hopewell customs were no longer practiced.
Actually the culture may have declined for a century or more before it
finally broke down completely. Many of the simpler folk traditions
probably persisted in the area for some centuries afterward.
Possibly long continued abuses of power and privilege by religious and
political officials, especially those from the highest social caste,
weakened the confidence of the lower classes in their leaders and the
culture. Newcomers from Iowa, Missouri and Kentucky may have further
disorganized certain settlements and separated areas of the larger
community from each other. Generally, however, the writer gets the
impression that the decay began within the civilization although its
final downfall may have been accelerated by external pressures.
With failing confidence and a rising uneasiness, trade would naturally
decrease and the incentive to fine workmanship decline. The larger
cultural community split apart into a number of small tribes, who were
isolationists and individualists. All the separate little tribal units
were Woodland culturally with some small evidence of their Hopewellian
heritage, but each differed in certain respects from its neighbors.
Villages dwindled to the mere hamlets, widely separated one from
another. The elaborate ceremonial dress, insignia, and jewelry, and the
artistic creations (at least in durable materials) became a part of the
past; the people found themselves reduced to the rude cultural level of
their early Woodland ancestors. Huts were flimsy and left no discernible
remains. Tools, weapons, and ornaments were, in general, carelessly made
and poorly finished. Although tobacco was smoked and small patches of
maize and beans may have been grown, the chief economic dependence
undoubtedly was on hunting, fishing and collecting.
[Illustration: Fig. 19. Group of mounds exhibiting bird, mammal,
linear and conical mounds as they occur characteristically in Effigy
Mound subculture of Final Woodland. (B.B.)]
The religious beliefs, too, were probably simplified and mixed with
magic and superstition, surviving relics of the religion of the past
age. In a word, the social and religious customs of the little tribes
were broadly similar but in minor details differed from each other much
as do their artifactual remains.
A study of the Final Woodland and other phases of Illinois history
reveals certain relationships among some distinguishable differences of
detail:
1. The almost complete lack of evidence of Hopewellian art, trade and
religion in the late Woodland period gives little apparent indication
that the people were the direct descendants and heirs of that
civilization. On the other hand, the general resemblance of Final
Woodland assemblages to those of the Initial phase seems marked. Let us
examine further.
[Illustration: Fig. 20. Graves near Quincy, Illinois, Stone Vault
period. (Photographs through courtesy of O. D. Thurber.)]
[Illustration: Stone mound after earth was removed.]
[Illustration: Four excavated “vaults”, the third of which shows a
“corridor” entrance with stone steps.]
The tobacco pipe of the late phase with the stem projecting beyond the
bowl is found in most aspects. Likewise, the vertically elongated pot is
common but not the only form. Burials are often in mounds, frequently in
a central chamber or grave, with skeletons in the flexed and/or extended
positions, occasionally accompanied by grave offerings. All these are
broadly reminiscent of Hopewellian customs and, in the writer’s opinion,
indicate a continuing thread of tradition from Initial Woodland through
Hopewellian into the Final phase.
2. The relationship to the Middle Mississippi seems more evident and has
been attributed by some authors to the “impact” of a high culture on
that of cruder or “under-developed” neighbors. What are the grounds for
these conclusions?
New pottery forms were being attempted, the flattened globular pot, the
shallow bowl (occasionally found in Hopewellian sites), the cup or
beaker and the plate. In southern counties, a new method of making pits
is indicated by a tendency of sherds, even grit-tempered ones, to split
or laminate (see Maxwell, _Woodland Cultures of Southern Illinois_,
Beloit, 1951, p. 204). Secondary features previously lacking begin to
appear as “raised points” or knobs on rims, some roughly resembling
animal heads with ears and a snout. Triangular arrowheads and others
reflecting larger spearhead types are all made from curved, not flat
flakes as the Mississippian points are. The stone discoidal that seems
to be the game piece of the historically known chunkey game, which was
possibly initiated in late Hopewellian times (see Fowler, _The
Rutherford Mound_, Springfield, 1957, pp. 31-33) occurs in the Bluff
subculture and probably in the Tampico also.
[Illustration: Fig. 21. Canton ware pot (Tampico subculture) from
Clear Lake village site in Tazewell County. Designs are formed with
cord impressions. (From Schoenbeck collection in Illinois State
Museum. Max. diam. at shoulder 18″.]
[Illustration: Fig. 22. “Handled” pipe in form of raven with head
projecting from rim, from Jersey Bluff subculture. After
Titterington. Reduced about ½.]
All these bespeak Middle Mississippian tendencies. A common conclusion,
as mentioned previously, is that these features were borrowed from
non-Woodland groups. The writer, however, gets the impression from his
studies that the Middle Mississippi phase developed through the
interplay of invention and adoption of improvements, modification and
re-invention, between the Final Woodland subcultures in Illinois and
adjacent territory. This does not mean that Illinois communities alone
were responsible for the emergence of this phase but rather that they
played an important dynamic role in its development. The Cahokia
subculture of western and central Illinois probably constituted the
native local tribe or nation.