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SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI—Students from Saint Louis University discovered three partial house basins and the entire basin of a burned sweat lodge during their field school at the Fingerhut Tract of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site this summer. The sweat lodge measures nine feet in diameter and would have had a domed roof. Charcoal within the sweat lodge will be radiocarbon dated. The students also uncovered many microdrills. “This area of Cahokia Mounds may have been involved in craft specialization for the prehistoric chiefdom,” said principal investigator Mary Vermillion. To read about a recent discovery of a ritual burn at Cahokia, see ARCHAEOLOGY's "Mississippian Burning."
