A Concealed Landscape: Historic Processes of Landscape Change at Cahokia Mounds, IL

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ongoing geoarchaeological research studying the relationship between urbanism and environmental change at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cahokia Mounds has begun to unravel a pre-contact landscape concealed by historic land-use practices. Archaeological excavations and sediment coring conducted to understand the environmental conditions during the construction and utilization of the North Plaza, a wetland mound and plaza group within the central precinct of Cahokia Mounds, has ubiquitously uncovered 60 – 100 cm of historic sediment from Cahokia Creek flooding events. These historic flood events have altered both the size and shape of the five Mississippian mounds located within the historic creek floodplain. Using elevations of the original Mississippian ground surface obtained through excavations and sediment cores, we have interpolated a new elevation model of the Mississippian landscape in the North Plaza. This elevation model is not only significant in providing a more complete understanding of the Cahokian landscape, but also has implications for archaeological preservation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Geoarchaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25819