Some of the first real villages in what is now northern Illinois developed in the middle to late Woodland period, from before the time of Christ through the 1200’s.  This early civilization, called the Hopewell society, was a peaceful one.  Its villages had domed houses, surrounded by fields of corn which the women and older men tended, while the young men hunted small game or deer.      Nearby Albany is believed to have been a major trading center, possibly as large as Prophetstown is today.  Copper and river-pearl jewelry, stone carved pipes, decorated clay bowls, and copper musical instruments have been excavated there.  Pottery and fire-cracked rocks from the Woodland period have recently been excavated at a site just south of our area, near Normandy.

Burial customs were very important to the early Indians and leave the some of the best evidence of life in that period.   Three types of mounds have been found in the Midwest: cone shaped burial mounds;  effigy mounds shaped like animals- bear, wolf, buffalo, turtle, fish, and even men; and linear mounds.

     Over 100 round, cone-shaped mounds are found in the Albany area.  There are several mounds west of Prophetstown near Portland, at the base of Thunderbolt Hill.  Two burial mounds, west of Lyndon, are gently sloped and about 6-8 feet in diameter.  Several others have been found in the Como and Sterling area, and there are eight large burial mounds south of Tampico near the junction of Rt 40 and Rt 92.  Many more may have been destroyed by erosion or farming over the past few hundred years.
 

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