Cahokia Mounds is a State Historic Site of early indigenous people which settlement peaked between the years of 1050 CE and 1350 CE. Cahokia was the prominent location for for trade in the south central area of the north American continent. Too, it was the largest and most influential of all Mississippian Period cultures.

On my first visit to this site, which was in the fall of 2013, I end up spending much time in the museum in search for answers to the many questions that I have come to have about these ancient native Americans.

In one display, I find confirmation of what I had previously learned elsewhere, that these ancient people crossed the Bearing Sea land bridge, likely during the first migration. The same display indicates that their DNA was from Mesopotamia, calling it the Asian Connection, confirming for me that the land were they originated from would have been the same one that the Bible refers to as where Noah and his sons had migrated from after the flood.

What I have not come to know is when the first migration occurred, and there is no indication from this local source which gives me a definitive and reasonable date for when that first migration began. Therefore, I will rely on what I have learned from the Bible account of Noah and the migration that God commanded them to do after departing from the arc.

Therefore, since the flood of Noah′s day occurred in 2370 BCE, and it was not long after that when his three sons, Japeth, Ham and Shem departed to find their own place to establish their homelands, then it would be reasonable to expect that some of Noah′s descendants would have arrived in North America within the next several hundred years and very likely before 2000 BCE.

If this year is a good supposition, then it would mean that decendants of Noah, probably throught Shem have been living on this continent for over 4000 years and about 3500 years before the Europeans crossed the Atlantic to settle North America.

Some archaeological evidence exists that the occupation of this landscape began earlier than 1200 BCE, which was likely during the end of the Wayfarer Period, some time after crossing the Beringia Land Bridge.

However, many of those who study this settlement have decided that the mound building began with the emergence of the Mississippian culture period about 1000 CE. Prior to this date, however, there were settlements long before in this same location during the Woodland culture period some time before 600 CE.

Further, these dates have been determined by the wise men of our times and they have made these determinations despite the fact that these ancient indigenous people left no written record beyond their art symbols on pottery, shells, copper, wood, stone and other media. Nevertheless, these ancient people did create elaborately planned communities, woodhenge, mounds, burials features which reveal a very complex and sophisticated society.

This next map is one that I have created to show my version of how the south central area of the continent was settled by the Sons of Diklah.

Upon examination of the map sites, many will have names that are associated with the people or places with modern day connections.

There is a display which indicates that the land at Cahokia was settled around 700-800 CE, which would have been some 2700 years after my determination of the land bridge crossing. Nevertheless, whatever the actual date of the arrival here, one thing is certain, they did cross from Asia to North America and they did settle here long before the Europeans.

According to what I read on the information boards, Cahokia, as a settlement continued to grow and which reached a population of over 20,000 inhabitants before beginning to decline sometime after 1200 CE.

The information display states that by the end of the 1300s CE the area was completely abandoned. What caused this large metropolitan area to be abandoned, or where did the people go to, or what tribes had they become by the time the Europeans arrived.

These and others are questions are those that have been left unanswered. (more information can be found at www.cahokiamounds.org)

The complex construction of this city containing many separate earthen mounds required extensive work of digging, excavation and transportation of the material by hand, likely using woven baskets. The construction of these many mounds required well over 50 million cubic feet of earth, and it appears that the entirety of the work was accomplished over a matter of several decades.

The cities highly planned large, smoothed-flat, ceremonial plazas, sited around the mounds, with homes for thousands connected by laid out pathways and courtyards, suggest the location served as a central religious pilgrimage site.

The original name of this city is unknown, but this location was given the name by the historic Illiniwek native people who lived in this area when the first Europeans explorers arrived in the middle 1600s.

The Cahokia Woodhenge was a series of large timber circles located roughly 2,790 feet to the west of Monks Mound. They are thought to have been constructed between 900 and 1100 CE, with each successive timber circle being larger and having 12 more posts than its predecessor. There has been found some five separate timber circles in the vicinity.

The site was discovered during salvage archaeology undertaken in the early 1960s interstate highway construction boom. When the large post were discovered, effort was taken to determine that they formed several arcs of equally spaced holes. A detailed study supports the hypothesis that the placement of these posts were by design, and that the arcs were originally whole circles and would be used as a woodhenge to determine date and seasons.

Once inside the museum, I find out much about this site. First, I find out that this ancient city was huge, spread out over a very expansive area. In fact, this historical park protects 2200 acres of the original site which covered over 4000 acres. This scale model helped me to learn that Monks Mound was near the center of the city and of the eighty original mounds, seventy still remain.

Monks Mound, the largest on the site and the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas is estimated at 22 million cubic feet of dirt. The base covers more than 14 acres and rises to a height of 100 feet. The principle chief would live in a large dwelling on the top of Monks Mound from where he would conduct religious ceremonies and govern the people.

Since I was able to get to sleep early last night, I awake early this morning as the sunglow is just beginning to shine on the eastern horizon. I get up, walk to the out house and then return to the jammer and drive to along the Missouri River. The Katy Trail is an old railroad bed that has had the track removed and then gravel added to make a walk, bike trail. Someone told me that it was called the Katy Railway in it′s day and that it ran from St Louis all the way to Kansas City.

I drive along this trail from the state capital all the way to the where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi River. Part of the highway 94 drive takes me though the French city suburb of St Charles on the north bank of the Missouri River. (St Louis is on the south bank.) In St Charles, I drive down the old Main Street French Quarter, view the Lewis and Clark boat exhibit, and afterwards stop at a riverside park for my daystart. Near the confluence of the two rivers, I cross the Mississippi River into Alton, Illinois, from which I drive south to the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site near East St Louis, Illinois.

My first impression is that for an ancient city site, there is not much to look at, just wide open fields with a few scattered raised areas, which site is so much unlike the great cliff dwelling ruins found in the dryer areas of the continent which had impressive stone stacked fortresses. However, since this is my first visit to a mound ruin site, I will wait until I see more.

After driving into the site, I locate the main building, which I find out houses the museum and has many of the items subsequently excavated from the onsite mounds.

After leaving the museum, I drive to Monks Mound to check it out but, I do not climb to the top of the Mound because there are just too many steps.

Then, I go to the Woodhenge, pace the diameter of the circle and find it to be close to four hundred feet across. Counting the posts, I find there are forty-eight, and six of the post were marked with white paint indicating the sunrise and sunset during the two equinoxes and two solstices. Reading the information boards, I find out that other posts would indicate the beginning of seasons, moon rises and moon sets, as well as could predict eclipses and comets.