Much Still To Be Learned About Cahokia Mounds

Examiner ^ | 4-6-2008 | Elizabeth Donald

[blam]

GGG Ping

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Interesting. Ping.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I grew up around there and still visit whenever I get to St. Louis. It’s well worth the time for anyone who is interested in archaelogy and history, or who just wants to walk the quiet grounds. It’s come a long way from the days when it had only a small museum and the grounds were used mainly for picnics.

[colorcountry]

Zelph?

[Snake65]

I've been there, great site and museum and well worth the trip if you're in the St. Louis area (the other must-see, if you have kids, is the City Museum).

[Riverine]

Thanks, Blam- It has a great museum and interpretive area.

[gardengirl]

Thanks, blam! Great find, as always.

Grew up near Serpent Mound in Ohio. It’s really neat, too.

[Grammy]

I also spent many years doing field trips to the mounds in Ohio. I spent so much time looking at them that I recognize a mound in a nearby field here in TN. I don't think it has ever been excavated, but it is definitely a mound.

[STONEWALLS]

...I love this stuff and spend a great Saturday a couple weeks ago walking two sites in South Carolina....I’m strictly a surface hunter but every time I pick up a projectile point I feel like Indiana Jones....

[gardengirl]

I often thought that the Indians that remained here when the settlers came were the remnants of a much bigger civ. They had to be—if the descriptions of Kentucky as a dark and bloody ground were accurate, and we have no reason to think they weren’t, where did all the people that fought the battle come from? Where did they go? What happened to all the bodies? Nobody goes to all the trouble to build mounds like that for no reason. They would have been much to busy just surviving to play in the dirt, and some of the mounds are exquisite. And, the full effect is only seen from the air. HMMMM.... Each question snowballs into more questions. Love it!

[SunkenCiv]

Birdman Tablet Discovered during Excavations
at the East Lobe of Monks Mound [1971]
Cahokia Mounds Museum Society | subsequent to 1971
Posted on 03/16/2006 9:46:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1597546/posts

Swansea woman donates birdman tablet to Mounds[Illinois]
News-Democrat | 03 April 2007 | TERI MADDOX
Posted on 04/07/2007 8:00:18 AM PDT by Dacb
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1813601/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[sevenbak]

I agree. I came across this most amazing reference from the Governor of New York, given in 1812, about the ancient civilizations that were formerly in the North Eastern US.

“Previous to the occupancy of this region by the progenitors of the present race of Indians, it was inhabited by a race of men much more populous and more advanced in civilization. Who they were, whence they came and whither they went, have been themes of speculation by learned antiquarians, who have failed to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. ...Why have we no history of such a nation as must have inhabited this part of the world? Probably if a knowledge of these ancient people is ever obtained, it will be derived from inscriptions on stone or metals, which have withstood the rust of time.” 1812, Governor De Witt Clinton

[sevenbak]

One more that I thought was good. It's from an early American historian named Orsamus Turner. The book is called “Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York”

Here's a small snippet, the whole chapter is great, the same way. The link follows.

“We are surrounded by evidence that a race preceded the present Indians, farther advanced in civilizations and the arts, and far more numerous. Here and there upon the brow of hills, at the head of ravines, are their fortifications, their location selected with skill and adapted to refuge, subsistence and defense. Uprooted trees of the forest that are the growth of many centuries, expose their molding remains, the uncovered mounds with masses of their skeletons promiscuously heaped one on top of the other, as if they were the gathered and hurriedly entombed dead of well contested battlefields. In our villages, upon our hillsides, the plow and the spade discover their rude implements adapted to war, the chase and domestic use. All these unintelligible witnesses, bring but unsatisfactory knowledge of races that have preceded us.

Although not confined to this region, there is perhaps no portion of the United States where ancient relics are more numerous. Commencing near Oswego River, they extended westwardly over all the western counties of the state. We clear away our forests and speak familiarly of subduing the “Virgin soil,” and yet the plow up turns the skulls of those whose history is lost. Then as now the western portion of New York state had attractions and inducements to make it a favorite residence, for this ancient people, assailed from the north and east, made this their refuge in a war of extermination, fortified the commanding eminences, met the shock of a final issue, were subject to its adverse results. The forest invited the chase, the rivers and lakes local commerce and fishing, and the fertile soil for agriculture. The evidence that this was one, at least of their final battlefields, predominate. They are the fortifications, entrenchments and warlike instruments of an extinct race. That here was a war of extermination, we may well conclude, from masses of human skeletons we find indiscriminately thrown together, indicating a common and simultaneous sepulcher from which age, infancy, sex and no condition, was exempt.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=qLb7KoAuyo4C&dq=%22pioneer+history+of+the+holland+purchase%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=RWn_inE5Fx&sig=3JbQ0YZ8qVoWM86Lt1cRVgwLw38#PPR13,M1

This kind of stuff really fascinates me.

[CholeraJoe]

There's a mound site right outside of my city that has been under excavation for years. (Well, when it's not raining, that is.)

Angel Mounds Historical Site

[doodad]

I have been to Cahokia as a kid and love all kinds of pre-history North American lore and facts.

I am very lucky to live an easy drive away from three major mound sites. Etowah, Ocmulgee and the one down by Columbus whose name escapes me. Many smaller mounds here and there as well. Rock Eagle is a whole ‘nother thing and is fantastic.

[TheDon]

http://www.cahokiamounds.com/

[Question_Assumptions]

This was during the Medieval Climate Optimum and ended around the time that the Little Ice Age started up.

[stayathomemom]

My husband is from Alton. I saw the mound for the first time in 1979 when we visited his folks while on our honeymoon. It was a very rinky-dink set up then. I was amazed when we returned with our daughters years later. They have a very nice visitors’ center there. We've returned a few times since then.