Visions of the Alton Piasa – Dr. Mark J. Wagner\, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology\, SIU Carbondale

Visions of the Alton Piasa – Dr. Mark J. Wagner, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, SIU Carbondale Hayner Library at Alton Square Mall Performance Room (Upper Level) Thursday, September 10, 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. The “Alton Piasa,” or “Piasa Bird,” was a very large Native American painting located on the Mississippi River bluffs near Alton, Illinois. First described by Father Jacques Marquette in 1673, the painting fascinated visitors for almost 200 years, until it was quarried away in the mid-nineteenth century. Because of this, we have numerous first-hand descriptions of the Piasa Bird created by early 1800s sightseers, but they vary so widely from each other that it is hard to believe they are all describing the same images. Dr. Wagner believes that people with different visual abilities and beliefs (even Father Marquette!) were seeing what they wanted to see on the rock face rather than what was actually there. Wagner concludes that the Alton Piasa was a prehistoric Mississippian-era (1000-1500 AD) painting based on the presence of similar images dating to that time period carved on stone rock surfaces throughout southern Illinois. Dr. Mark Wagner was the Director of the Center for Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for many years before retiring in 2025. His major research interests include Native American rock art, the Cherokee Trail of Tears, and the historical archaeology of Illinois. From 2017-2024, he directed the SIU Archaeology Field School at the Fort Kaskaskia Historic Site in Randolph County, which discovered the remains of a previously unknown early 1800s U.S. Army fort. He is currently engaged in writing books and articles on the various discoveries he made throughout his career, including the prehistoric rock art of the state. Please call 1-800-613-3163 to register for this program.