Monday, May 20, 2013

May 20 – St. Louis, MO - Cahokia Mounds


Cahokia, the City of the Sun, was the largest Mississippian Indian center north of Mexico City.  It’s population reached 20,000 in 1200.  It was an agrarian society with surpluses of corn that supported craftsmen and trade.  Their trading networks extended from the Rockies to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.



A distinctive feature of the society was large man-made mounds upon which temples and houses were built.  Rank was reflected by the height and size of your mound. The dirt for the mounds was excavated and hauled in baskets by laborers. 


Woodhenge was a solar calendar marking the solstices and equinox using a circle of wooden pillars, reminiscent of Stonehenge.




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