Cahokia's Mound 34 and the Moorehead Moment

Summary

Cahokia’s Mound 34 was an essential component of the dramatic reorganization of the eastern portion of Cahokia’s site core at the turn of the 13th century. Since the 1990s the Mound 34 Project has included examination of a copper workshop, the exploration of a complex mound construction history, and extended study of Mound 34’s special role in the production and exchange of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex art. The construction of this mound and a series of other low platforms adjacent to the sunken Ramey Plaza permits the development of a novel ritualized public space in east Cahokia, as the occupants created and recreated an artificially leveled field and the second largest plaza of Cahokia’s history. Our ongoing excavations have recently confirmed the southern margins of a large trench excavated into the mound in the 1950s, along the way confirming additional sub-mound structures connected to the Late Stirling / Early Moorehead (circa AD 1200) pre-mound surface adjacent to the developing Ramey Plaza, and portions of the architecture of a moundtop structure likely built early in the Moorehead phase.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Insights into Mississippian Culture at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15897