Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1994
Report of Investigations Number
104
Abstract
In late 1993, Midwest Archaeological Research Services {MARS) conducted limited test excavations at a series of sites recorded earlier during Phase I reconnaissance survey of a 200 acre parcel for the New Lenox Park District in Will County, Illinois. The study area (located in the NE 1/4 of Section 15; the NW 1/4, NW 1/4 of section 14; and the sw 1/4, SE 1/4, sw 1/4, SE 1/4 of Section 10, New Lenox Township (T35N, R11E), for the most part, lies south and on the inside of a sweeping bend in the course of Hickory creek, a tributary of the Des Plaines River, and includes both stream floodplain and low kame terrace and knoll topography within project limits. The Government Land Office survey fieldnotes and plats further reveal that the project area formerly occupied the forest/prairie transition. A transition zone or ecotone is an especially favorable setting for human occupation, typically characterized by a diverse and often dense mix of plant and animal resources of both adjoining communities (Lurie and Bird 1993).