30 Ramey Street
Collinsville, Illinois
Free parking and free admission. Donations encouraged.
http://cahokiamounds.org/
Cahokia Mounds is less than ten miles east of downtown St. Louis. It first became a state park in 1923 and later was designated a state historic site because of the rich and important history of the area. About 800 years ago the area was the home of perhaps as many as 20,000 Mississippian Indians. The Indians had started settling there in A.D. 700. By A.D. 1000 they were becoming highly structured. Two hundred years later their population began to decline and by the mid-1300's they were gone. Despite no apparent written language archaeologists have been able to learn much about these people, but as of yet they have not determined why the Indians deserted the area.
The site became a National Historic Landmark in 1964. Then in 1982 UNESCO designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site, one of only 23 in the United States. Seven years later the the Museum and Interpretive Center was completed.
Upon entering the museum one is presented with a large model of the approximate 4000 acres which made up the settlement of Cahokia and which included at least 120 mounds when occupied by the Indians. Today the state's site includes 2200 of those acres and 70 of the remaining 80 mounds. One of the biggest cities in the Americas around A.D. 1150, Cahokia was the largest city north of the Central Valley of Mexico. In A.D. 1250 Cahokia was larger than London. Not until Philadelphia grew to 30,000 inhabitants was there a city in the United States as large as Cahokia had once been.
In North America today, Cahokia is the largest archaeological site north of the pre-Colombian cities in Mexico. Among the items that have been excavated is this Birdman Tablet found in the Monks Mound, the largest of the mounds. The tablet is believed to be over 700 years old. The image serves as today's logo for Cahokia Mounds.
it is highly recommended that before entering the exhibit area you watch the film in the theater to learn more about the inhabitants of Cahokia. Every 30 minutes the 16-minute film begins. The film is excellent and informative.
As you walk through the exhibits you will have other opportunities to watch films ranging from 8-10 minutes in length.
The large museum consists of a wide variety of displays including models, murals, and many artifacts.
The museum is divided into eight areas. Each area begins with a large display listing what you will discover in that area. Below are two examples of opening displays.
The displays include excellent drawings and/or photos as seen in these examples below.
In addition many displays include artifacts such as these below on tattoos and on pottery.
One of the highlights of the museum are the very large murals that cover complete walls going floor to ceiling, They are dispersed throughout the museum. The theme of the murals is the life of the inhabitants of Cahokia. Most of the murals were too large to photograph in their entirety and thus these are partial pictures.
The museum has several excellent models. Below is a model of Monks Mound.
This is a portion of a model about life during the different seasons.
This is a partial picture of a model of how one man was buried in Mound 72, where their honored dead were buried with ritual and ceremony. When archaeologists excavated this man he was laying on a pattern made by marine shell beads that resembled the form of the bird. The bird's beak is to the left of his head.
This is a life-size model of an outside trash pit which would have contained broken pottery and tools, corn cobs, bones, rock chips, and other items covered with soil.
The Knowing section includes two models of the excavating process used at this site. The first model shows the layers. The second one explains all of the different tools used.
These life-size models are found in the Products area and show gardening and preparing to travel to trade their products.
In the center of the museum is a life-size recreated village. Below a daughter grinds corn while children play.
Here we have a pottery maker and a craftsman.
Although these Mississippian Indians were primarily corn growers they also hunted for meat.
This model includes a sweat lodge, primarily used by men.
This model shows the construction of their homes and the four layers of the walls.
One of the highlights of this museum is definitely the many many artifacts. Some of them were actually excavated on site but others came from regional sites, are cast from originals, or are replicas. This 700-year-old canoe was very, very large.
Below is one of two caches that are included in the museum. These are some of the 70 ungrooved ax heads that were found in a pit in 2001. Their placement leads archaeologists to believe the ax heads were placed in the cache as a ritual.
As this 1989 museum was built before the days of high tech, there are no computer displays, etc. However there are a few displays that are interactive such as the two below.
The last section is named Conclusion and includes information about the early discoveries in the mound area. Below is one of the early drawings.
A large display case allows you to follow the history of the area.
There is a large museum shop that offers lots of jewelry, books, toys, and other gift items.
These beautiful engraved doors greet you as you leave.
A trip to this site is not complete without a hike up Monks Mound which goes to a height of 100 feet. Monks Mound is the largest prehistoric earthen structure in the Americas. The principal chief lived on top. The base covers more than 14 acres and the mound took 300 years to build. We were there on a rainy, stormy day and chose not to do the hike on our own. The site offers one-hour guided tours twice a day but they were cancelled that day due to the weather.
The other outside must-see site is the reconstructed Woodhenge, a circular sun calendar that was built by the Indians five times. It was discovered in the 1960's and was rebuilt in 1985.
We ordered their signature appetizer, Saganazi, which is deep-fried cheese, flamed table-side - a great show and great tasting.
This was followed by a Greek salad and a Greek pick-any-two: I chose spinach pie and pastichio which came with a cucumber sauce. The restaurant was not fancy but the food was all excellent and reasonably priced. Fazzi's appeared to have a dedicated clientele and a strong carry-out business.
Comments;
We thoroughly enjoyed the museum. It was just full of interesting information. The history of the site is very impressive and fascinating.
The displays included many pictures and a large number of artifacts. Where I taught for many years, the third grade classes went to Cahokia on a field trip every year. I can understand with all the artifacts why the young students enjoyed the museum so much. The recreated village was realistically done and thus fun to walk through.
Within each area displays were numbered but we still seemed to have some problems always figuring out which display within the areas was next. Otherwise it was well organized.
The museum offers various options of self-guided tours, none of which we used. As it was we spent over 2.5 hours looking at the displays and decided that we could have spent more time as there were so many interesting items to read. We also spent maybe 20 minutes in the gift shop just looking at the fun/interesting items for sale.
The website offers additional information for visiting.
We decided we would like to return to Cahokia but on a day with better weather!
We also would like to return to Fazzi's for more Greek food!
