Excerpt from The Great Knob: Interpretations of Monks Mound In southern Madison County, Illinois, amid a group of more than one hundred prehistoric earthen mounds in and around the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, stands the largest such earthwork in the New World, known since the early nineteenth century as Cahokia Mound, or, increasingly over the decades, as Monks Mound, after a small band of Trappists who settled brie y in its shadow. Before that, when it was called anything, it was simply the Great Knob. ...
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Excerpt from The Great Knob: Interpretations of Monks Mound In southern Madison County, Illinois, amid a group of more than one hundred prehistoric earthen mounds in and around the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, stands the largest such earthwork in the New World, known since the early nineteenth century as Cahokia Mound, or, increasingly over the decades, as Monks Mound, after a small band of Trappists who settled brie y in its shadow. Before that, when it was called anything, it was simply the Great Knob. Descriptions of this pile of earth have varied considerably over the two centuries for which we have records. Ifthere is a common thread that runs through them all, it is this: Monks Mound bears explana tion. Although its human origin has long been settled, this was not always so. Even recent descriptions and interpretations have suffered from the in uence of preconceived notions of its function in prehistoric times. Surprisingly, despite the importance of the physical appearance of Monks Mound in the attempt to understand its function, no rigorous study has been made of its changing characteristics since European contact, with the possible exception of the work of Warren K. Moorehead in the 19208 and 3os. Moorehead compiled a great deal of data concerning the history of the mound, but stopped short of a careful analysis of its reliability. The question remains: has Monks Mound deteriorated to its present configuration from some pristine geometric perfection, or did it always look more or less as it does to day? Indeed, what precisely is its present shape? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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