Cahokia was the center of Mississippian culture (~600-1400 AD), a civilization that stretched from Wisconsin to Florida, Kansas to Virginia — different peoples, different customs, one culture. The first united states.

Mound 72 is a ridgetop mound. Instead of a rounded or flat top, it rises like a peaked roof. In the mound, two men were buried, one atop the other. The man on the bottom was covered by a two-inch layer of 20,000 shell beads, a blanket, cloak or cape in the shape of a thunderbird or falcon six feet long. The man buried on top was face up and the body on the bottom was face down and turned at a 180 degree angle from the first body.

The mound also contained about 200 more bodies, some with heads and hands removed.

Many Midwest and Plains tribes’ folklore includes the story of two brothers, one a great leader and the other either a rival or a helper. Were these two men the origin of these myths?

January 2018 photos of petroglyphs

In Washington State Park, in Missouri’s Ozarks