Speaker: Amy Clark
Senior Research Assistant
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Saint Louis Art Museum

Hi, I’m Amy Clark, senior research assistant in the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Although this Mississippian figurine is only 3½ inches tall, its rediscovery was monumental. Archaeologists excavated it from the East St. Louis Mound Center in June 2009. The multiyear salvage archaeology project was prompted by the construction of the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge that spans the Mississippi River. During the second half of the 19th century, the development of East St. Louis heavily impacted the ancient Mississippian site. Nearly all of the mounds were destroyed and areas were filled to raise the city above flood levels. This capping of the area, however, remarkably preserved prehistoric features under the city’s now vacant industrial district.

The figurine was found on the floor of a burned structure, likely a temple, that had been framed in red cedar. Tucked into a shallow depression in one corner of the building, the figurine survived the intense fire that ravaged the site during the 12th century. The construction of the St. Louis National Stockyards in the late 1800s introduced underground water and sewer lines, one of which was placed less than an inch from the figurine. Ancient Mississippian flint clay objects are rare, and the recovery of this figurine in a controlled scientific context is even more important.