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Wayside_Wisdom Heard Along the Way
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Today we visited Cahokia Mounds, near East St. Louis, Illinois. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is listed among the UNESCO "World Heritage locations." It is the remains of a large, active city-center of a Mississippian Era civilization, which seems to have flourished between 800 A.D. and 1250 A.D. All that remains of the city, which had an estimated population of 10,000 to 20,000, are mounds of various shapes and sizes. Excavations have discovered that some served as burial mounds – 300 individuals were located in one mound complex! – but other mounds appear to have served as foundations for ceremonial buildings or residences for leaders of the city. Monk’s Mound, named for a later, short-term use by Trappist monks, is the largest earthworks north of Mexico, and can be seen for miles around. It covers fourteen acres and is 100 feet high, containing an estimated 22 million cubic feet of earth. It is uniquely built with four terraces at various elevations, all reached only by hundreds of steps. It is assumed to have been the residence of the chief and is positioned in alignment with Woodhenge, a circular solar calendar (similar to Stonehenge in England). Woodhenge was constructed of huge, straight logs set upright and strategically placed around a center post which was used to mark the seasonal solstices and equinoxes of the year. An introductory video, exhibits in the Visitor’s Center, and a guided tour were very informative. One theory of the decline and fall of this city and its culture is that increasing sophistication of their culture left fewer farmers to produce food for the artisans and leaders. Population growth and climate change may have altered their ability to feed themselves. In other words, they may have become victims of their own social and political successes. An interesting thought for a citizen of 21st century USA! Does history ever repeat itself? But even after more than 800 years and some very detailed archeological exploration, the mounds create more questions than answers. By 1300 A.D. the site appears to have been abandoned, so what happened to the people who had lived there? There seems to be no evidence of epidemic disease or warfare, so where did they go? Were they related to any native peoples of later eras, such as the Cahokia tribe of the Illini nation? Why was a tall stockade fence, two miles in length, laboriously built around the center of town, leaving some smaller houses and mounds outside? What is the meaning of the various shapes of the mounds, conical, ridge-topped, and flat-topped? One burial, apparently of a man of high status, included marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico, copper from the Lake Superior area and mica from the Carolina territory. How could such treasures from far-away places find their way to Cahokia, near the Mississippi River? What were the circumstances that caused several mass burials of young women? And the group burial of four men without heads or hands? From what enemies was the stockade fence meant to protect them? There is no evidence of beasts of burden or any simple technology, so how were they able to build such massive earth works? The earth clearly was moved from its original location to build the mounds – "borrow pits" from which the earth was taken still dot the area – but how was it dug and transported? As we reflected on Cahokia’s mysteries, I began musing about mysteries of my own time. Eight hundred or 1000 years from now, what will archeologists learn about our civilization? What if they excavate into a Mount Rumpke? Or a WalMart? Or discover frozen embryos or a body frozen and preserved after death? What significance will they attach to pet cemeteries? An electric chair? Will they have any idea what electric lines and poles were for? Or airport traffic control centers? Or a "blue tooth," botox injections, or hair transplants? Will they find any evidence of polar bears, whooping cranes or other species already facing extinction? If they discover the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the fragments of the Wailing Wall, Mecca, Hindu temples, statues of Buddha or little brown churches in vales, what will they conclude about our worship and spirituality? Will they understand why we fought wars so often? What will they conclude when they discover our national arsenal of sophisticated weaponry? Most of these things are mysteries to me, too – right now! I hope that sometime during the next century somebody can figure them out! mshr May 9, 2007 |