What is new in “Cahokia”?
Most of the chapters aren’t new individually, but what has happened in the last five to 10 years is that much of the pieces have come together so we can tell a coherent story. The public sense of archaeology is that we find cool things and we make up a story to explain the things. But if you get enough of those cool things, you can see what people did where, and the impact of those things. That’s where we are with Cahokia, which is beyond most other places. Q: What do you mean beyond other places? A: Beyond other early civilizations. We know more about Cahokian civilization than those other places. A lot of archaeologists have been to China, Mesopotamia, South America, but I think it’s fair to say that we know more about Cahokian civilization — in detail — than most of them do. Q: When you visit Cahokia Mounds you see a lot of grass, sticks and a big mound. And then you go in the museum, and it’s a whole different world. A lot of visitors must wonder whether the dioramas in the interpr
