Illinois Adventure #1308 Cahokia Mounds
The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archaeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia. Cahokia Mounds has been recognized as a U. S. National Historic Landmark, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) , in 1982, designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site for its importance to our understanding of the prehistory of North America. Cahokia Mounds is managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Cahokia Mounds Collinsville Illinois| National Historic Landmark
Cahokia Mounds as the Largest prehistoric Indian site north of mexico, Cahokia Mounds covered about 4000 acres and included at least 120 mounds. The state of Illinois now protects 2200 acres of the central portion of the site and 70 of the 80 remaining mounds. The site was named as US National Historic Landmark in 1965 and in 1982, the united Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site for its Significance in the prehistory of North America
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois
The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archaeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia.
A World Treasure
In 1982, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site for its importance to our understanding of the prehistory of North America. Cahokia Mounds has also been recognized as a U. S. National Historic Landmark. Cahokia Mounds is managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as a State Historic Site.
A Thriving Ancient Metropolis
According to archaeological finds, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to 1400. At its peak, from A.D. 1050 to 1200, the city covered nearly six square miles and 10,000 to 20,000 people lived here. Over 120 mounds were built over time, and most of the mounds were enlarged several times. Houses were arranged in rows and around open plazas, and vast agricultural fields lay outside the city.
The site is named for the Cahokia subtribe of the Illiniwek (or Illinois tribe, a loose confederacy of related peoples), who moved into the area in the 1600s. They were living nearby when the French arrived about 1699. Sometime in the mid-1800s, local historians suggested the site be called Cahokia to honor these later arrivals.
Archaeological investigations and scientific tests, mostly since the 1920s and especially since the 1960s, have provided what is known of the once-thriving community.
The Mystery of Cahokia
The fate of the prehistoric Cahokians and their city is unknown, but the decline seems to have been gradual, beginning around the 1200s. By A.D. 1400 the site had been abandoned. Exactly where the people went or what tribes they became is yet to be determined.
Depletion of resources probably contributed to the city's decline. Climate change after A.D. 1200 may have affected crop production and the plant and animal resources needed to sustain a large population. War, disease, social unrest, and declining political and economic power may have also taken their toll.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Introductory video for the Cahokia Mounds State Historic and World Heritage Site. The site preserves the largest prehistoric Native American city north of Mexico and the largest prehistoric earthen mound in the Americas. The site is located at 30 Ramey Street, Collinsville, Illinois. For more information call 618/346-5160 or visit
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (UNESCO/NHK)
Cahokia Mounds, some 13 km north-east of St Louis, Missouri, is the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. It was occupied primarily during the Mississippian period (800--1400), when it covered nearly 1,600 ha and included some 120 mounds. It is a striking example of a complex chiefdom society, with many satellite mound centres and numerous outlying hamlets and villages. This agricultural society may have had a population of ...
Source: UNESCO TV / © NHK Nippon Hoso Kyokai
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Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Camera=Cannon 80D
Mic=Rode video mic go
Located in Collinsville, Illinois near the city of St. Louis, this largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico is the pre-eminent example of a cultural, religious, and economic centre of the Mississippian culture (800–1350), which extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and the south-eastern United States. This agricultural society may have had a population of 10,000–20,000 at its peak between 1050 and 1150, which was equivalent to the population of many European cities at that time. It once covered more than 1,600 hectares and included some 120 mounds.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site includes 51 platform, ridgetop, and conical mounds; residential, public, and specialized activity areas; and a section of reconstructed palisade, all of which together defined the limits and internal symmetry of the settlement. Dominating the community was Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthen structure in the New World. Constructed in fourteen stages, it covers six hectares and rises in four terraces to a height of 30 meters. The mounds served variously as construction foundations for public buildings and as funerary tumuli. There was also an astronomical observatory (“Woodhenge”), consisting of a circle of wooden posts. Extensive professional excavations have produced evidence of construction methods and the social activities of which the structures are further testimony.
This place is awesome I’ve watched fireworks here on the Fourth of July it’s pretty cool!!
#1 Cahokia Mounds State Park in Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri
Day 28-1 6-5-17 We stop on our way home to visit Cahokia Mounds State Park in Illinois outside of St. Louis, Missouri.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site - Walking Trails
Walking a trail at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.
Cahokia Mounds
No description.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Located in Collinsville, Illinois, just east of the city of St. Louis, Missouri, the Cahokia Mounds are the largest archeological site in North America north of central Mexico (aka, the largest archeological site in the United States and Canada). Archeologists date Cahokia to as far back as 700 AD, as they have discovered woodland tools and pottery from that time period. By 1000 AD, the Mississippian peoples were building mounds at this site for burial purposes and other rituals.
Illinois: Cahokia Mounds
The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (c. 600–1400 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville.
The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km2), and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. In its heyday, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles (16 km2) and included about 120 manmade earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions.
Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the central and southeastern United States, beginning more than 1000 years before European contact. Today, Cahokia Mounds is considered the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico.
Cahokia Mounds is one of only 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States.
Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period. Mound building at this location began with the emergent Mississippian cultural period, about the 9th century CE. The inhabitants left no written records beyond symbols on pottery, shell, copper, wood and stone, but the elaborately planned community, woodhenge, mounds and burials reveal a complex and sophisticated society. The city's original name is unknown.
The Mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century. As this was centuries after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants, the Cahokia tribe was not necessarily descended from the earlier Mississippian-era people.
The apex of the city occurred during the Medieval Warming Period. This period appears to have fostered an agricultural revolution in upper North America, as the three-fold crops of maize, beans (legumes) and gourds (squash) were developed and adapted or bred to the temperate climates of the north from their origins in Mesoamerica. The decline of the city coincides with the Little Ice Age, although by then the three-fold agriculture remained well-established throughout temperate North America.
Cahokia became the most important center for the people known today as Mississippians. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to the north and the Gulf Coast to the south, trading in such exotic items as copper, Mill Creek chert, and whelk shells.
At the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico and Central America.
The population of Cahokia began to decline during the thirteenth century, and the site was eventually abandoned around 1300.
Monks Mound is the largest structure and central focus of the city: a massive platform mound with four terraces, 10 stories tall, it is the largest man-made earthen mound north of Mexico. Facing south, it is 100 ft (30 m) high, 951 ft (290 m) long, 836 ft (255 m) wide and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha).
Excavation on the top of Monks Mound has revealed evidence of a large building, likely a temple or the residence of the paramount chief, which would have been seen throughout the city. This building was about 105 ft (32 m) long and 48 feet (15 m) wide, and could have been as much as 50 ft (15 m) high. It was about 5,000 sq ft (460 m2).
Secret Stone Chamber in Cahokia Monks Mound?
Secret Stone Chamber in Cahokia's Monks Mound?
Mississippians Cahokia Mounds Mounds Hold the Secrets of the Nephilim? Chamber discovered in Monks Mound?
Source
Cahokia Mounds, Monk's Mound, Collinsville, IL
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Monk's Mound, Collinsville, IL near St. Louis, MO. Gateway Arch in the distance.
Cahokia Mounds once one of the greatest cities in the world
It was once one of the largest cities in the Americas, and remains home to the largest prehistoric manmade earthen construct in the United States. Cahokia Mounds is a state historic site managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and soon could be designated as a National Historical Park.
The archeology of the area has shed light on the lives and accomplishments of the Mississippian people that once inhabited this land, and the Interpretive Center and surviving mounds at Cahokia continue to educate visitors all year round.
For more information and to plan your visit go to cahokiamounds.org.
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Cahokia Mound Artifacts
My visit to cahokia mounds interpretive center. I hadn't been there since childhood and was so excited I snapped a ton of pictures. Thought I would put them to good use in case anyone is interested. Sorry for the quality of some pics all were taken through glass. May be a little fast moving but so many pics and didn't want to bore everyone to tears. Thanks for watching!
Exploring Cahokia Mounds Historic Site
Exploring Cahokia Mounds Historic Site
The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ (11 MS 2)[2] is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed circa 1050–1350 CE[3]) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville.[4] The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km2), and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles (16 km2) and included about 120 manmade earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions.
Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the central and southeastern United States, beginning more than 1,000 years before European contact.[6] Today, Cahokia Mounds is considered the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico.
Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site for state protection. It is also one of the 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States. The largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico,[5] the site is open to the public and administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division and supported by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the Cahokia Mounds were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places[7] by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois) and was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of AIA Illinois's selections for Illinois 25 Must See Places. Summary by Wikipedia
#CahokiaMounds #NativeAmerican #AmericanIndian
#CahokiaIndian #HistoricLandmark #archeology
Cahokia Mounds World Heritage Site
The Cahokia Mounds World Heritage site, in Collinsville, IL. Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture
In Search of History: Cahokia - The Mound Builders 1998 (Full HD)
The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed circa 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km2), and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles (16 km2) and included about 120 man made earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions. In population, it may have briefly exceeded contemporaneous London.
Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the central and southeastern United States, beginning more than 1,000 years before European contact. Today, Cahokia Mounds is considered the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico.
#SacredEyeOfHorus#InSearchOfHistory#Cahokia
#3 Cahokia Mounds State Park, Illinois
Day 28-3 6-5-17 We (meaning Bruce) goes to the top of the mound.