Piney Creek West Site

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.

Illinois · United States