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Article: The Mounds of Cahokia.
- Article from:
- Appleseeds
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The year was 1150. The chief stepped out of his huge thatched house into the chilly dawn air. His 50-foot-tall house was built atop a terraced, flat-topped mound, 100 feet high. The mound covered 14 acres. The chief looked down upon his city of 20,000 people.
Small thatch-roofed houses were in neat rows near the chief's mound and a large central plaza. Pathways connected neighborhoods. markets, and other, smaller plazas. Grain-storage buildings, sweat lodges, and other ceremonial huts were used by different people. Around the center of the city was a two-mile-long wall. 15 feet high. made of nearly 20,000 log poles, if, very 70 feet. there was a watchtower. ...