- May 23, 2018, 4:00 pm US/Central
- Tamira Brennan, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
- Pushpa Bhat
- Video
Approximately one-thousand years ago, the fertile Mississippi River floodplain adjacent to modern day St. Louis was home to the largest pre-Columbian civilization in Eastern North America: Cahokia. This vibrant and multi-ethnic city was composed of a vast network of archaeological sites that centered on the three large mound precincts of St. Louis, East St. Louis, and the Cahokia site itself. Although modern developments have erased most vestiges of prehistoric life from the surface, evidence of expansive Native American settlements continue to be discovered beneath the surface. Analysis and interpretation of the most spectacular of these recent finds have changed our understanding of Cahokia, a wildly successful city that rose and fell in less than 500 years’ time.