“Cahokia in Chesterfield: The Sun, Moon and Milky Way”

“Cahokia in Chesterfield: The Sun, Moon and Milky Way” is the title of the free presentation by Mark Leach, September 15, at 6 pm, at the Collinsville Memorial Library, at the monthly meeting of the Cahokia Archaeological Society. The public is invited to attend.

Nearly 1000 years ago, a vibrant community, related to the great prehistoric city of Cahokia, filled the entire Chesterfield Valley west of St. Louis. This planned civic, ceremonial, and market center was constructed to reflect important celestial alignments of the sun, moon, and Milky Way. Excavations and other research in a portion of the valley have revealed over 100,000 artifacts, including some made from exotic material from the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes, as well as three temples and two earthen pyramids that formed a solar calendar that stretched over 3.5 miles across the valley. Leach will discuss these findings and others from over 70 years of archaeological research, which still is ongoing. Leach, a local author, has published several archaeological books, including one with the same title as his presentation, and Chesterfield’s Ancient Past, and The Great Pyramids of St. Louis: An Ancient Metropolis.