SHAWNEE: PETROGLYPHS IN FOREST DATE TO 1000 OR 1500

HARRISBURG, Ill. -- They are small figures and symbols carved long ago into the sedimentary bluffs that shoulder the 266,000 acres of Shawnee National Forest. The few remaining petroglyphs, found in "shelters" where rock overhangs have protected them from the weather, are the calling cards of the Mississipian culture that thrived in the region from about 1000 to 1500 A.D.

Naturally enough, the rocky West is much more abundant with petroglyphs. But both Southern Illinois and Southern Missouri harbor a few examples, though most are on private land.

Petroglyph literally means "rock carving." They are akin to the ancient painted pictures called pictographs, though most of the latter have been erased by time.

Many of the figures and symbols are endemic within the Mississipian culture, which ranged across what is now the Southeastern U.S. north to even one spot in Wisconsin and west to Oklahoma.

The figures commonly include animals mostly deer and birds. In some places there are faces with cupped-out mouths. The face resembles the famous Edvard Munch painting, "The Scream."

Hands, thought by archaeologists to be a death symbol, are often found. One of the most common symbols is a cross within a circle (sometimes a double circle).

Mark Wagner, a doctoral student in archaeology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, says the symbols probably were carved during religious ceremonies.

"They weren't just artists," Wagner said. "Carving the physical symbol into the wall is part of the ceremony."

Most of the symbols appear to have religious significance, Wagner says. "The cross within the circle is the concept of a holy fire symbolic of the sun."

Many Indians always placed their campfire logs in the configuration of the cross, Wagner said, and some of these same symbols were still being used by Indians in the 1600s and 1700s.

Wagner, who is lecturing to a graduate seminar in historic preservation at Southeast Missouri State University this semester, has surveyed the petroglyphs in Shawnee National Forest for his employer, American Resources Group. The company does cultural resource management work for land-management agencies.

Wagner said Mississipians were farmers who moved and traded freely up and down the river. They were socially sophisticated, building towns or centers composed of dozens of homes.

The nearby prime example of the culture, Cahokia, had more than 100 homes and was fortified.

The Mississipians culture began about 900-1000 A.D. and was characterized by the introduction of corn and bean as crops and a narrowing of animal food sources primarily to turkey and deer, Wagner said.

The symbols that are found in the petroglyphs first appeared as these changes were adopted by the previous culture, he said. But whether they reflect new religious attitudes is not understood.

The petroglyphs that remain may only be a hint of the original carvings, Wagner said. "We are getting the faintest remainder of the religious and artistic tradition."

The whereabouts of most of the petroglyphs at Shawnee National Forest are known to relatively few people, primarily archaeologists who zealously guard the locations. For good reason.

Invariably, the petroglyphs that are most accessible to the public wind up vandalized. An infamous example is the deer carving someone plugged with a shotgun on private land near the national forest.

Near the deer, the Greek symbols of a fraternity have been carved into the rock face.

Vandalism and looting are the greatest threats to the petroglyphs, Wagner said. Spray-painters are ubiquitous, and looters know there are people who will pay for the carvings.

"People will cut out sections of the petroglyph," Wagner said. "They have a lot of trouble with that out West.

"We've got to keep the locations of these things quiet."

At Millstone Bluff in Johnson County, the petroglyphs were so well-known and accessible that the U.S. Forest Service decided to open them to the public and to provide interpretive trails.

"In some cases, (curbing vandalism) may be enhanced by making them more accessible," says Daniel Hahs, forest archaeologist at Shawnee National Forest.

The experiment continues. But a while back, the site's well-known pictograph of a buffalo was vandalized with spray paint.

Actually, Wagner says the buffalo must have been repainted at some point because it appears larger in 19th century photographs.

Hahs said the petroglyphs also have been damaged by people applying chalk to enhance their photographs and by constant rubbing.

(The petroglyphs in the photograph accompanying this story were chalked by some previous visitor.)

He said there has always been a problem with looting at the site, which is the location of an old cemetery.

Petroglyphs are among the artifacts guarded by 1979's federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act, which provides for penalties of up to five years in prison for looting or defacement.