Cahokia Mounds

Decided to put the pictures first today.  Mixing things up!!  I drove to Collinsville, Illinois to visit the Cahokia Mounds today.  It is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico!  Who knew??  It was named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1965, and in 1982 was designated a World Heritage Site for its significance in the prehistory of North America.  It is believed that the first settlements at Cahokia were around AD700.  I took a short guided tour around the "Grand Plaza".  Although the guide left a lot to be desired; and the crowd was pretty rough.  Mostly they seemed busy digging snacks out of their backpacks and calling attention to deer in the distance and making jokes - all while our guide tried to talk over them!

The mounds are made of earth that they dug from "borrow pits" and transported in baskets.  Everything was done by hand without any help from beasts of burden.  There was evidence of dogs being popular in the village - even buried close to the individual huts (from which evidence they gathered that they were kept as pets).  The largest mound (the one with all the steps) is call Monks Mound.  It contains an estimated 22 million cubic feet of earth - the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas.  I got several pictures from the top of Monks Mound.

They also uncovered a Woodhenge.  The one in my pictures is a reconstruction (the third one).  This was a circular sun calendar used to determine changing seasons and ceremonial dates.  Certain posts align with the rising sun at the Spring and Fall equinoxes; and the Winter and Summer solstices.  I had the woodhenge to myself - everyone else seemed to be more interested in the mounds.  It was quite peaceful to stand in the circle and listen to the birds and crickets and the wind in the trees.

There's also a picture of a stone carving, called The Bird Man, which was found in one of the sites.  The actual carving was inside the museum.

So it was a nice little jaunt about 15 mins east of St. Louis - and 30 mins from my hotel.  That is, unless you get lost and stuck in traffic because they closed part of the interstate.  Seriously?  Who closes an interstate???!!!  The midwest is just strange, y'all!