About 1,000 years ago, however, prehistoric Indians built their own monuments testifying to the importance of the region. Although much that they left behind has been destroyed by two centuries of urban development and agricultural expansion, many of the great earthen mounds they built remain visible today. The centerpiece of their occupation is what archaeologists have called the Cahokia site, now partially preserved in the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site across the Mississippi from St. Louis near Collinsville, Illinois. At Cahokia lived the elite rulers and religious leaders who governed thousands of farmers, hunters, traders, and artisans who populated the vast Mississippi floodplain around the site and who provided the labor to build the monumental earthworks. All were supported by the rich natural resources of the Mississippi River Valley and by the crops they grew, especially corn (maize). The area flourished between about A.D. 1000 and 1400, but like all cultures, the Cahokians eventually succumbed to the forces of history and change, leaving behind their mounds and other remains as evidence of their presence, and leaving it to nineteenth- and twentieth-century archaeologists to write their history and tell their story.
The first version of this atlas was submitted to the Illinois Department of Conservation (IDOC) in 1979. The manuscript contained only the materials that are now Chapters 1 through 8. These are purely description portions. In 1989, Chapters 9, 10, 11, and Appendix 1 were added.
A number of changes have been made in this revised version of The Cahokia Atlas. These include much needed editorial revisions to correct inadvertent errors. Other changes are the result of continuing research. Mound #96 was re-surveyed with close interval mapping, and this new map replaces the older one. A more detailed description of the Jondro Mound (78) was made, and copies of the profile and plan maps published by Moorehead are included. Further comments by reviewers are also included, as is an updated 1990-1995 research appendix. The revised edition also contains an index.
