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| Volunteers Tim Meyer an anthropology student at UMSL and Elizabeth Blaufuss an Anthropology Student at Miami University screen dirt as they look for items during a dig. Volunteers and a group from the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy are currently working on a dig west of Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds [Credit: Derik Holtmann] |
"They're focusing on an enclosure first located in the 1960s," assistant site manager Bill Iseminger said. "It had bastions along it, a series of round and rectangular enclosures."
As to what the structure's purpose might have been? "Your guess is as good as mine," Iseminger said.
For the ancient people who once built a great city that was the center of Mississippian culture for the entire metro-east and beyond, it could have been a marketplace, a house for visiting dignitaries or anything at all.
"The bastions suggest a defensive feature to it," Iseminger said.
The Italian team is not the only dig going on this summer at the mounds. Washington University will send a team to work on Mound 34, which is located several hundred feet east of the massive Monks Mound.
Mound 34 once held a structure, but it is not yet known what it could have been. Iseminger said there was an old, amateur excavation in the 1950s, and Washington University has spent the past few summers reopening that excavation and using modern technology to find out more.
"The area adjacent to (the mound) was a copper workshop; they can tell that from the remnants in the soil," Iseminger said. Even stains in the dirt can tell them details of the mysterious people who left only the mounds behind when they vanished, long before the settlers came, he said.
"They can look at colors in the soil and see where roof supports and walls were, sometimes finding char from fires," Iseminger said.
They know the Mississippians traveled and had connections far away, Iseminger said: They've found exotic materials like seashells, Oklahoman arrow points and shark's teeth not likely to be native to Illinois.
But exactly what building stood atop Mound 34? They're still just guessing.
"If it was on a mound, it could be a temple or other building of religious significance," Iseminger said. "The elite, more important people sometimes lived on the mound; priests or someone of high status."
The in-house crew also will continue its examination of the palisade wall, a wooden fence constructed late in Cahokia's history that encircled the entire city and was rebuilt at least once. Its exact purpose is still unknown, Iseminger said.
While the archaeological digs continue, the visitors center, tours and special events are also gearing up for the summer. Later this summer, there will be a raptor awareness show, children's flintknapping class, celebration of the summer solstice, an interpretive bike ride, American Indian art show and the annual Archaeology Day in August, giving demonstrations and hands-on activities about the Mississippians and the techniques archaeologists use to learn about them.
Cahokia Mounds is open seven days a week 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are accepted.
Author: Elizabeth Donald | Source: BND [June 03, 2012]