Names: _________________________________________________________________

Cahokia Intepretive Worksheet

1. You will be examining the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Park website at http://cahokiamounds.org/.

2. Circle the interpretation you decide you would like to examine:

• Cahokia was a small center where rituals occurred and few inhabitants lived for brief periods of time in temporary housing.
• Cahokia was a planned city which became the powerful center of a large civilization.
• Cahokia's residents experienced social and political inequality, as well as witnessed pre-meditated violence and human sacrifice carried out by powerful leaders.
• Cahokia experienced a "big bang" around 1050 when leaders designed and built a new city directly over the spaces, houses, and traditions of the old village and then established governmental, ritual, and spiritual controls over people throughout the Mississippi River Valley.

3. Spend 20 minutes browsing the website and searching for evidence to support the interpretation you selected.

4. Write down at least two pieces of evidence that support your interpretation.

5. Find one artifact on the website that archaeologists found at Cahokia. Based upon this artifact and what you have learned about Cahokia, write a paragraph describing your interpretation of how ordinary Cahokians may have lived.

5. In your large group, provide one interpretation of how and why you think Cahokia was created.