Macoupin County Historical Society meeting on Aug. 1

The monthly meeting of the Macoupin County Historical Society will be Monday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m. in the Ruyle Building on the historical grounds in Carlinville.

The speaker for this month is Bill Iseminger who will be sharing about "Prehistoric Indians of Southern Illinois." Southern Illinois has been occupied by American Indian cultural traditions since 9500 BC and this program reviews these traditions, their lifestyles, artifacts, beliefs and customs as revealed by archaeological excavations and analyses. Culture change is represented from the earliest Paleo-Indian nomads who hunted mammoths and mastodons, then the Archaic period with its introduction of horticulture and mound building, to the Woodland period that introduces pottery, the bow and arrow and corn agriculture, through the Mississippian period with its expanded agriculture, massive mounds and large permanent settlements. The meeting is open to the public to attend.