Later a second mound was built over the original flat-topped
structure, but first the mound builders made two unique burial plots on
the surface of the basal mound. The first of these burials plots was
destroyed by steam shovel: The second was hand trowelled by a member of
the University staff and adequate notes were taken. The long bones and
skulls of several secondary interments had been placed between
alternating sheaths of cedar bark with a blanket or shell covering the
bones. A thin cornhusk or grass mattinghad covered the whole burial
plot, approximately 18-20 feet in diameter. Two wooden spools covered
with sheet copper, interpreted as ear pendants, fell from the burial
level during excavation.... Other burials found on the slopes of the
mound were without burial furniture. No material of cultural
significance was found in the upper 20 feet of the Powell Mound.
[Kelly 1933: 101]
The materials excavated by Thorne Deuel are stored at the Illinois State
Museum. Kelly briefly noted these materials:
Excavations made in February 1931, provided information as to the
structure of the seven feet of mound material left at the base of the
large mound destroyed by steam shovel. Beneath the mound were extensive
village site remains, pot sherds, stone and bone artifacts, and kitchen
refuse. The pottery in the underlying camp site was of the same or
related type as that accidentally included in the earth used in the
mound construction. [Kelly 1933: 101]
An analysis of the materials from Thorne Deuel's excavations at the
Powell Mound, including sherds, artifacts, and Deuel's notes, was made
by Steven Ahler and Peter DePuydt 1986. Ahler and DePuydt compiled an
excavation profile of the north wall of the east-west trench excavated
by Deuel. The mound section showed three units of cultural activity.
There was a premound occupation of the area with ceramics predominately
related to the Fairmount phase. A small mound or mound core appeared in
the profile; and a later mound fill seems to have been added over the
entire mound. The small mound or mound core appears to have been close
to 20 feet (6.1 meters) in height. Ahler and Depuydt's analysis of the
sherds from the mound fill suggests a Stirling phase association for
these activities. Considerable stone chipping debris was found in the
premound deposits.
Titterington talked to some who were present when razing of the
mound commenced, before A. R. Kelly started his work, and he gives a
much more detailed description of the findings, stratigraphy, and
construction of the mound. Instead of quoting extensively from this
description, I refer the reader to Titterington's 1938 publication,
pages 14 and 15.
In the early 1960s the remaining portion of the Powell Mound was
threatened by construction of a large discount store. The University of
Illinois Archaeological Field School, under the direction of Charles
Bareis, excavated into the base of the decimated Powell Mound, in the
remnants of smaller mounds, and nearby areas.
The razing of the Powell Mound in the 1930s and construction of the
Gem Store in the 1960s nearly completed Powell Mound's destruction.
Charles Bareis (personal communication) states:
The area of the Powell Mound (No.86) is not totally destroyed.
Two or three feet of the mound base remains north of the Venture Store
and the parking lot behind the store. In some areas the mound was
stripped so low by work for the original Gem International, Inc. Store
and parking lot area that the original pre-mound surface has been
exposed.... Perhaps the northern one third or . . . one half of the
bottom two feet of the mound is still there.
