Composing the Late Cahokian Countryside: A View from the Rhea Site, St. Clair County, Illinois

Summary

The transition between early (AD 1050-1200) and late Mississippian (AD 1200-1350) in the American Bottom is recognized as a significant moment of socio-political and religious change in the historical trajectory of Cahokia. During this time, relationships between persons, places, and things transformed, resulting in different ways of engaging with both Cahokia and the non-human powers that underwrote it and the broader Mississippian world. With a goal of investigating a Moorehead phase occupation in the uplands, the 2017 University of Illinois field school undertook excavations at the Rhea site, uncovering an important site with an unexpectedly complex transitional Mississippian occupation. Specialized architecture suggests a possible "nodal" site, though that which constitutes such a site clearly was changing. Focusing on the material engagements evident at Rhea, preliminary results from ongoing investigations begin to address these changing relationships between Cahokia and its hinterland inhabitants during this pivotal time. Comparing Rhea to known regional patterns provides a basis for focusing on the practices, materials, and architectures that constitute extra-domestic, special-purpose sites after AD 1200.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22509