William Iseminger has worked at Cahokia Mounds for 39 years, and he knows more of the site’s secrets than anyone alive. The rest of us live in the shadow of a World Heritage site that’s almost 1,000 years old—and is the largest archaeological site in North America—and know precious little about it. Except that it’s not in Cahokia, Ill. It’s in Collinsville. You know that, right? We kindly left it off the quiz below, inspired by Iseminger’s new book, Cahokia Mounds: America’s First City (The History Press, 2010).
1) The mounds were built by:
A) the Cahokia Indians
B) the Illiniwek Indians
C) the Mississippian Indians
D) the Mound Builders
2) Which of these were “temple towns,” with multiple mounds?
A) Carondelet
B) St. Louis
C) East St. Louis
D) Mitchell, Ill.
E) Dupo, Ill.
F) Alton, Ill.
3) Monks Mound was named for:
A) the Indians’ ritual practice of celibacy
B) French Trappist monks who lived and prayed there
C) a wealthy Illinois property-owner named Theodore Monk
D) the reverent silence that surrounds you at the top of the mound
4) One of the burials is a male body. It is laid out:
A) on a platform of some 20,000 conch-shell beads
B) on top of another male of similar age and size
C) surrounded by six other individuals, one of whose bones are gathered in a bundle or basket
D) all of the above
5) A sandstone tablet was discovered at the site. On it was inscribed:
A) an archlike formation
B) a birdman in a raptor mask
C) a giant, magical bird
D) a humble cardinal
Answers: 1) C or D; 2) B and D; 3) B; 4) D; 5) B
