COLLINSVILLE, ILLINOIS—Students from Italy’s University of Bologna and their professor, Davide Domenici, have been traveling to Cahokia for the past three years. The city, known for its mounds, covered an area of six square miles and was home to approximately 20,000 people in 1250 A.D. This year, the researchers uncovered plaster and postholes marking the west wall of a rectangular compound with rounded bastions. “A single post bit seems nothing, but when you put all together on a map you start understanding them,” Domenici said.
Western Wall of a Palisade Compound Found at Cahokia
News May 30, 2013
Recommended Articles
Off the Grid November/December 2026
San Agustín, Colombia
Letter from Cape Canaveral November/December 2026
Dawn of the Space Age
Archaeologists have made surprising discoveries spanning 3,000 years at the birthplace of American space exploration
Features November/December 2026
Kingdom of Fortresses
How diverse and far-flung Iron Age chiefdoms united to challenge the Assyrian Empire
Features November/December 2026
A Tomb of One's Own
Life behind the scenes in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings
-
Features March/April 2013
Pirates of the Original Panama Canal
Searching for the remains of Captain Henry Morgan's raid on Panama City
(Courtesy Captain Morgan Rum Co.) -
Features March/April 2013
A Soldier's Story
The battle that changed European history, told through the lens of a young man’s remains
(Courtesy Dominique Bosquet) -
Letter From Cambodia March/April 2013
The Battle Over Preah Vihear
A territorial dispute involving a 1,100-year-old Khmer temple on the Thai-Cambodian border turns violent
(Masuru Goto) -
Artifacts March/April 2013
Pottery Cooking Balls
Scientific analyses and experimental ARCHAEOLOGY determine that mysterious, 1,000-year-old balls of clay found at Yucatán site were used in cooking
(Courtesy Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project)