TC travels, 2014 TR, Pg 904, 2015 TR pg 964

silversand wrote:
...there is a MASSIVE prehistoric city being excavated, called the East St Louis Mounds; this site is, "...the largest prehistoric dig in North America. It’s one of the biggest contiguous sites of a Mississippian city ever excavated."

I think virtually all the mound sites in the US were once connected...

Thank you, this will definately be on our bucket list.

I had always assumed that the mounds were burial grounds, religious sites, or high ground when neighboring tribes were raiding.

But after seeing many of them it occurs to me that there might be a more basic reason: To be able to take refuge from flooding rivers.

Water is important for drinking, cooking, irrigation, fishing, hunting, and transportation... when you have thousands of people you need to be close to a lot of water... big rivers.

But... there is always the risk of floods... the Mississiooi River Valley is too wide to to find high ground to survive until the flood waters recede. All of the reasons that I mentioned above might have played a part but... survival was probably the motivation to carry a million baskets of dirt to build one mound.

Cahokia Mounds east of St Lewis

Most of the mounds we have visited have been close to major river flood plains. One noteable exception is high above the Mississippi River: Effigy Mounds, in Iowa The effigy mounds are very large earth works shaped like birds and animals... some so large that they are hard to see from the ground.

We were there while on our 6 1/2 moth North American loop in 2007.

Now, for an excuse to come back through St Louis again... this year maybe.... thanks Silver.