Giant City Stone Fort Site

The Giant City Stone Fort Site is the site of a prehistoric stone enclosure located within Giant City State Park in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. The Stone Fort dates to the Late Woodland period and was constructed and used in the period from c. AD 600–900; it is one of ten such sites known in Southern Illinois. All ten were constructed atop either promontories or hilltops; the Giant City site is in the former group, as it sits atop a sloped ridge. The purpose of these enclosures is unclear; while archaeologists originally theorized that they were military fortifications, the present archaeological consensus suggests that the sites were used as meeting places or ceremonial locations of some nature.