Cahokia
Mounds State Historic Site
Collinsville, Illinois
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| Third and Fourth Terraces
Excavations and corings indicate Monks Mound was built in many stages from A.D. 900- 1200. Entirely man-made, the mound is 100 feet high and covers 14 acres at its base, making it the largest prehistoric earthen structure in the new world. Excavations on the fourth terrace revealed \former trench and post locations for a building 104 x 48 feet (32m x 15m), probably the residence of the leader and the religious/political focus of this urban center. A fenced courtyard, with a huge post in the center, enclosed the fourth terrace. In the 1830s Amos Hill built his farm complex on the third terrace
and removed a small mound on the southeast corner. He is buried on the
northwest corner of the fourth terrace. |
| The Birdman Tablet was found in the Monks Mound area and dates to A.D. 1300. The front of the sandstone tablet is of a man with a bird-like mask and winged costume in a dance pose, common bird-man symbolism of Mississippian culture. This striking image has been adopted as the Cahokia Mounds logo. |
Click to view panorama of above image
| The Woodhenge reconstructs a calendar built here by the "Mississippian" 'Indians about 1000 A.D. The original circle was 410 feet in diameter and had 48 cedar posts forty of these have been reconstructed in their original positions. Red ochre, (an iron-clay oxide) found in excavations suggests the posts were painted red. The function of all posts is not known, but three were used to mark the equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices as observed from the center post. |
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