Virtual Lecture- Exploring Cahokia: Native America’s First City

Tales From the Field- EJF Lecture Series

In his 1814 Views of Louisiana, a description of the vast new territory along the Mississippi River that President Thomas Jefferson had recently purchased from Napoleon, Henry Marie Brackenridge gives us the earliest published description of Cahokia, and indeed, one of the earliest references to any site that we would now identify as Mississippian. On recalling his first impression of Monks Mound, standing some 30 m high, he exclaims, “What a stupendous pile of earth!” Cahokia–located near modern-day Collinsville, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis–still inspires fascination more than two centuries after Brackenridge first laid eyes on the massive monument at its heart. With more than 120 earthen mounds spread over some 15 km², Cahokia is orders of magnitude larger than any other archaeological site north of the Rio Grande. In 1964 the site was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in 1982 it became the tenth UNESCO World Heritage site in the United States. Since then, the Cahokia Museum and Interpretive Center has hosted nearly 12 million visitors.  My talk will offer an overview of archaeology at Cahokia and provide a preview of my new project set to begin there next year.

Robin Beck is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Curator of Eastern North American Archaeology at the University of Michigan.  His research interests include the archaeology and ethnohistory of complex societies in eastern North America and the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, early colonial encounters in what is now the southern United States, and the broader issues related to social change.  Born and raised in Marion, North Carolina, Rob has directed or participated in fieldwork across much of the Eastern United States, as well as in Bolivia, Peru, and western China.  He has co-directed research at the Berry site for more than 20 years and is launching a new project at Cahokia, Illinois, beginning in 2023. 

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