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Cahokia Mounds, the Late Woodland Culture continue… September 28, 2008

Posted by dodo in : America, Central America, Destination, Hotels, Map, Memorial, North America, Sightseeing, Tour, USA , trackback

Mound 72 is most interesting, even though today it seems a fairly insignificant ridge of earth. Excavations revealed that at the precise point where the meridional line passes through the end of the mound, a huge pole — about three feet (1m) in diameter — had been erected. Radiocarbon dating of material in the eight-foot (2.4m) deep pole (the pole had clearly been very tall) gave a date of AD 950 for the time when the pole was placed in the ground. The excavations also showed that the mound had been constructed from a series of earlier submounds that were then reshaped and covered over to give the long ridge form. Beneath these smaller mounds were a series of burials — well over 250 skeletons were found all told. Most were of young women, seemingly sacrificial victims to accompany burials of important individuals. The main burial appears to have been that of a 45-year-old man. He was laid on a bed of 20,000 marine shell beads and accompanied by rich grave goods, including uncut mica sheets, a roll of unworked copper sheeting and several hundred finely wrought arrowheads. The skeletons of four men with missing heads and hands were also uncovered. Fowler comments that the inclusion of these burials in the mound ‘does not mean that the interpretation of this mound form as community marker mounds is incorrect. It is probable that the burials included were also dedicated to the significant point in the community being marked.’ As astronomer E. C. Krupp put it: ‘Everything about them [the burials] marks their location as a special place. That spot, in turn, was part of the cosmically oriented plan for the entire site. Even without knowing the beliefs of the ancient Cahokians, we can detect their concern for celestial order in the burials of Mound 72.

Although most of the mounds at Cahokia are approximately oriented to the cardinal points, half of the ridge-top mounds are aligned northwest—southwest or southwest—northeast. Mound 72 has its axial orientation 30 degrees from an east—west axis. Archaeoastronomer Ray A. Williamson sees this as part of the overall significance of the mound:

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At sunrise on the winter solstice the shadow of the post would fall right along the axis of the mound. As the sun rose and moved south, the shadow would move north of the ridge. On the summer solstice, the setting sun would cause the post to cast its shadow along the axis of the ridge in the opposite direction. Although the present ridgetop shape of mound 72 was not reached until about a hundred years after its construction began, the orientation of the mound seems to merit further examination by archaeologists. The number of high-status burials found there, from several phases of construction, suggests that the mound was known as a sacred, special place for many years. Its orientation along the solstice directions may indicate a conceptual link between burial and the winter solstice direction.6

Ridge-top mound 2, at the eastern extremity of the Cahokia site, and the now-destroyed ridge mound 86 at the western limit formed the east— west axis, which crossed the meridian at Monks Mound. Some hundreds of yards westwards from Monks Mound, close to this axis, is the so- called Woodhenge’, a feature that was possibly instrumental in the laying out of the geomantic orientation of Cahokia. In 1961, while conducting rescue archaeology in advance of road building, Warren Wittry and team uncovered a series of stains in the ground, indicating post holes. On excavating some of these, fragments of cedar were found and evidence of earthen ramps within the holes, which would have facilitated the raising of tall poles. Further investigation has revealed that there had been five circles at the site, and radiocarbon dates suggested that they had been created separately over a period bracketing AD 1000. The western end of the site had been destroyed by road building operations. Studying ‘Circle 2′ (now known to be the third in the sequence, in fact), Wittry concluded that it had been a Sun Circle (and the others may have had astronomical significance, too). It had been about 410 feet (125m) across, and contained possibly 48 posts. Three of the post positions on the eastern arc of the circle could have marked the equinoctial and solstitial sunrises (spring and autumn equinox sunrises, of course, share the same horizon position). The viewing point could not have been the geometric centre of the circle, however, and would have had to have been slightly off-set. Sure enough, in exactly that position, Wittry found a post hole. In 1978, Wittry set up utility poles to mark the central pole and the three sunrise marker poles, and in 1985, after separate explorations by Wittry and William Iseminger had accurately located 39 post holes, the site was reconstructed using red cedar and black locust logs which had been debarked, trimmed with stone celts and stained with red ochre.

The sight-lines at the site were found to work well at the appropiate times of the year. Most of Monks Mound is visible from the Sun Circle, and to a viewer at the central observation post it would seem as if the equinoctial sun was rising out of the mound itself. Doubtless, this was a ceremonial augmentation of the status of the leader or priest-king who occupied Monks Mound. There is little ethnographic information regarding sun watching in this region, but a Menomini legend collected many miles north of Cahokia does refer to observing the sun when it `stands on the treetops’.

The function of much of the circle’s posts would seem to have been simply to enclose a sacred space. We must always be aware that to the ancient mind specialized functions, astronomical or geomantic, were not divorced from religious significance, as was noted at mound 72. Also, early travellers in America referred to rings of wooden posts being used by Indians for ritual purposes. This possible ceremonial aspect of Woodhenge seems to be borne out by Wittry’s discovery of a piece of pottery close to the midwinter sunrise marker post. It was the fragment of a beaker, probably ritually broken, which had a design on it that Wittry interpreted as representing the Earth and the Four Directions (the encircled crosses in the centre) and the sun (radiating lines) defining a circular path (the sun’s passage) opening to the winter solstice sunrise — the channel in the lower right (see illustration above). The closed channel in the lower left of the design may indicate midwinter sunset.

That the ‘Sun King’ on Monks Mound may have had a shamanic-priestly role is suggested by a fascinating find on the eastern side of the mound. In 1971 investigators unearthed a small, engraved sandstone tablet. On one side it depicts a winged man, apparently wearing a bird-mask and costume. This echoes a design engraved on a 13-inch-long (33cm) marine shell found at Spiro Mound, Oklahoma, within the immense Mississippian sphere of influence, which shows a man in bird-costume. On the back of the tablet is a criss-cross pattern which, it has been suggested, could represent a rattlesnake’s skin. This would fit in well with Joseph Campbell’s observations that the ‘fundamental legend’ of the Feathered Serpent, which had appeared in Central America by at least the first millenium BC, seems to have been represented in Mississippian art by the winged rattlesnake.’ The winged man is a well-known image of the shaman, referring to his ’spirit flight’ to the Otherworlds. Elsewhere in the USA there are ancient Indian effigy mounds showing winged humans. Campbell remarks generally with regard to bird masks that they are ‘characteristic . . . of the lore of shamanism to this day throughout Siberia and North America.’

Finally, there are tenuous, tantalizing hints — no more — of a possible usage, or awareness, by the Cahokians of natural energies. It was found that seven of the original posts in the southwest sector of Circle 2 had been replaced. The reason for this is not clear, but Williamson notes: ‘If the modern experience at Cahokia is any guide to the past, lightning damage appears to have been a particular problem. . . . In 1980, the [reconstructed] observer’s post was struck by lightning and shattered. The winter solstice post shows some signs of lightning damage as well.’ If the posts of Woodhenge were prone to lightning strikes, how much more so must the great pole on top of Monks Mound have been! And what more dramatic way could the link between heaven and earth be demonstrated to the populace than by a bolt from the sky linking with the sacred omphalos? (Not to mention the enhancement of the ‘Sun King’s aura of power — he would seem literally to have a hot-line to heaven!) Also, the Cahokia mounds happen to be adjacent to faulting connected with the New Madrid seismic zone, which saw one of the greatest known earthquakes in 1811. A map plotting 488 quake epicentres monitored between 1811 and 1974 shows a modest cluster in the East St Louis — Cahokia mounds region. Such areas tend to have notably varied magnetic and gravity anomalies.

The present State Historic Site containing the core of the mounds area is hemmed in all around by gravel pits, small workshops and sundry other modern features, and a highway cuts through the site immediately .at the southern foot of Monks Mound. Nevertheless, within the now protected area, the local authorities have done a remarkable preservation job making the site most accessible.

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Cahokia Mounds, the Late Woodland Culture continue…

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