HISTORY · ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
Piney Creek West Site
History
Piney Creek West Site, in Piney Creek Ravine State Natural Area in southern Illinois, is a prehistoric Indigenous rock art site focused on a rock shelter north of Piney Creek. Its art is thought to date to the Late Woodland period, roughly 450 to 900 A.D. Four petroglyphs survive inside the shelter, and a deteriorated pictograph of a human left hand remains outside. Two interior images retain ochre pigment, the only intact example in Illinois of this painting technique. A serpentine figure has been interpreted as evidence of spiritual significance, and the site's age and rare surviving painted designs make it an important example of Indigenous rock art in Illinois.
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Rockwood, Illinois
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