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Winter Lecture Series March 11

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“Copper Working in the Eastern Woodlands of North America From the Prehistoric to the Early Contact Period” by Kathleen Ehrhardt, Ph.D.

The final installment of the 2018 Winter Lecture Series will take place March 11, 2 PM in the Interpretive Center Auditorium.  This is a free event.  Space is limited.

Native groups of the Eastern Woodlands of North America have been using copper for nearly 7,000 years.  When Europeans arrived, they eagerly accepted foreign-derived copper and brass.  For many Eastern Woodlands groups, copper was an exotic and valued raw material, serving practical, but primarily social and symbolic purposes.  It figured prominently in long distance trade and exchange, mortuary and ritual ceremonialism, and as personal adornment and status markers.  In this presentation, Ehrhardt focuses on how native copper was used by the Old Copper Complex, Havana and Scioto Hopewell, Mississippian cultures.  She will examine the objects, technologies, and uses of copper, how archaeologists source the copper, and understanding how and in what contexts it was used.  She will also consider its importance as a European trade commodity in the early years of native-European interaction.

Kathy Ehrhardt, earned her MA in anthropology from Montclair State University and her PhD in anthropology from New York University.  She has done significant archaeological field work in the New York City area, the Illinois River Valley, in southwestern France, and the Illiniwek Village in northeast Missouri, which was the basis for her dissertation.  Her work has broadened to include copper use in late prehistory and in the Mississippian and she is now focusing on Mississippian copper working and ritual use.

 

Winter Lecture Series February 18

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The second installment of the series takes place on February 18 at 2:00 pm in the Interpretive Center Auditorium.   In this presentation, Dr. David Dye, Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Memphis, will present, “The Lower Mississippi Valley Dark Ages:  Deities, Rituals, and Trade”.   When the Hernando de Soto expedition crossed the Mississippi River in 1541, they discovered numerous towns and extensive fields scattered along meandering rivers and oxbow lakes.  However, Marquette and Joliet, in their descent of the river in 1673, found an empty land devoid of the once prosperous chiefdoms, with the exception of the recently arrived Quapaw.  The years sandwiched between the Spanish conquistadores and French explorers has been a poorly known “Dark Age” for archaeologists.  On-going analysis of locally crafted ritual ceramics and introduced exotic goods, especially marine shell and symbolic weaponry, is beginning to help unveil the Lower Mississippi Valley’s turbulent history.  In this talk, Dye argues for links with the early fur trade, which transformed Mississippian society, but also contained the seeds for its demise by the mid-seventeenth century.

Winter Lecture Series Kicks off January 28

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The Winter Lecture Series is an annual winter event at Cahokia Mounds.  One lecture is held per month in January, February, and March.   These are generally one hour presentations on topics related to archaeology or Cahokia Mounds, followed by a brief Q&A period.  The lectures are free and are held in the Interpretive Center auditorium at 2 pm.   This series is brought to you by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society.

The first lecture will be held on January 28 when Mark Wagner, PhD presents his lecture titled, “Bound to the Western Waters:  Searching for Lewis and Clark at Ft. Kaskaskia, Illinois.”  Fort Kaskaskia is a 1750s French state historic site in Randolph County, Illinois,  that has long been believed to have been the site of a later American fort of the same name from which Lewis and Clark recruited 12 soldiers for their expedition to explore the American west in 1803.  SIU Carbondale archaeological field school investigations at Ft. Kaskaskia in 2017 revealed that it indeed is a 1750s French fort but found no evidence that it had ever been visited by Lewis and Clark.  Instead, we discovered the remains of the American Ft. Kaskaskia (1802-1807) on a separate hill top 300 m to the north.  In this talk, Wagner discusses the history and archaeology of the two forts and plans for additional field school investigations at both sites in 2018.

Mark Wagner is the Director of the Center for Archaeological Investigations (CAI) and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.   His research interests include late eighteenth to early nineteenth century Native American and colonial period archaeology as well as the prehistoric Native American rock art of Illinois.

In the Shadow of the Moon: Solar Eclipses in the Cahokian Sky

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RicVJQOLlX4

This Sunday, August 13, at 2 pm, we will have Russell Weisman giving a lecture on solar/lunar events that have occurred in the ancient skies above Cahokia Mounds and will consider prehistoric beliefs about solar eclipses and celestial shadows.  Seating is limited and will be on a first come first served basis.

 

Winter Lecture Series March 19, 2 pm

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March 19 will be the final installment of the 2017 Winter Lecture Series.   This presentation will discuss the changes occurring at Angel Mounds, Indiana.  William Monaghan, PhD Indiana Geological Survey, Indiana University-Bloomington and Jeremy J. Wilson, PhD, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) will be presenting “Anthropogenic Transformation and Population Processes at Angel Mounds: The Founding, Flourishment and Final Days of a Mississippian Village”.

Abstract: Since 2005, archaeological investigations at Angel Mounds, a Mississippian village along the Ohio River in southwest Indiana, have tackled a series of questions related to anthropogenic transformation, the timing of fortification construction, and the use-life for various habitation components of the site. Collectively this research aims to understand the intensity and trajectory of population-level processes at the site from its founding in the 11th century through abandonment in the early 15th century. The well-controlled chronology and developmental history for Angel Mounds derived from a decade of excavations and re-analysis of collections shows that the site underwent different developmental phases. The first occurred AD 1070-1250 with the site serving as an unfortified, ceremonial center with intensive earthwork construction, but few permanent residents. The second phase included the development a fortified village and increased residential population after AD 1300. Meanwhile, the abandonment of Angel Mounds in the early 15th century is attributed to increasing socio-political instability triggered by escalating levels of regional warfare and climatic unpredictability associated with the onset of the Little Ice Age.

For more information regarding this event, contact the Information Desk at 618-346-5160.

Winter Lecture Series

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The 2017 Winter Lecture Series begins January 15 at 2 pm.  The first installment is Geophysical Prospection and Excavation of Middle Woodland Mounds in the Lower Illinois Valley.   Jason King, PhD, Director, Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois, will present on geophysical surveys and excavation of Middle Woodland mounds.  This presentation will discuss recent insights gained at several mound sites in the valley and their importance for understanding Illinois Valley prehistory.

The second lecture will take place February 26, at 2 pm.   Tamira K. Brennan, PhD, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, American Bottom Field Station Coordinator will present Insights and Updates on Greater Cahokia from Excavations at the East St. Louis Precinct.   This presentation overviews the results of the past five years of analysis and reporting on ISAS’ research at the East St. Louis Mound Complex.

Abstract:  The Interstate 70 approach to the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge lies over what was once a Native American mound center second only in size to Cahokia:  East St. Louis.  From 2009-2012 the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS) undertook extensive excavations at East St. Louis, revealing a densely occupied village and ceremonial center that spanned the Terminal Late Woodland and Mississippian periods (AD 900-1250).  In total, over 6,000 archaeological pits, structures, monumental posts, and other features were uncovered.  These features and the materials recovered from them tell us about the daily life of the peoples who once inhabited this region, about the social and political structure of their society, and about how East St. Louis, Cahokia, and many other villages large and small together formed one of North America’s first and largest pre-Columbian cities.  This talk overviews the results of the past five years of analysis and reporting on ISAS’ research at the East St. Louis Mound Complex.

On March 19, at 2 pm, G. William Monaghan, PhD Indiana Geological Survey, Indiana University-Bloomington and Jeremy J. Wilson, PhD, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will present Anthropogenic Transformation and Population Processes at Angel Mounds:  The Founding, Flourishment and Final Days of a Mississippian Village. 

Abstract:  Since 2005, archaeological investigations at Angel Mounds, a Mississippian village along the Ohio River in southwest Indiana, have tackled a series of questions related to anthropogenic transformation, the timing of fortification construction, and the use-life for various habitation components of the site.  Collectively this research aims to understand the intensity and trajectory of population-level processes at the site from its founding in the 11th century through abandonment in the early 15th century.  The well-controlled chronology and developmental history for Angel Mounds derived from a decade of excavations and re-analysis of collections shows that the site underwent different developmental phases.  The first occurred AD 1070-1250 with the site serving as an unfortified, ceremonial center with intensive earthwork construction, but few permanent residents.   The second phase included the development of a fortified village and increased residential population after AD 1300.  Meanwhile, the abandonment of Angel Mounds in the early 15th century is attributed to increasing socio-political instability triggered by escalating levels of regional warfare and climatic unpredictability associated with the onset of the Little Ice Age.