Archaeology Lab
In 2010, the College received a gift from an anonymous donor of thousands of prehistoric Native American artifacts, including spear points, pottery sherds, ax heads and arrowheads.
The collection represents human activity in western Illinois for the last 12,000 years.
The Archaeology Research Laboratory houses the fifth largest collection of western Illinois artifacts. It is the only collection to represent both an entire area of Illinois — 1,000 square miles — and all phases of human occupation.
A collection of this size cannot be replicated in the future, so students use this lab to study, record and preserve the artifacts for future generations, with traditional archaeological methods, but also with new technologies such as drones and virtual reality.
5th
largest collection of western Illinois artifacts
10
Average number of students
in the archeology lab
12,000
years of western Illinois human activity represented
