Cahokian ritual and the Ramey field: New insights from old collections

An inventory of artifacts collected from Cahokia by four amateur archaeologists between 1950 and 1970 provides a contextual foundation for evaluating the material symbolism of domestic practices and ritual events at that Mississippian center. Based on these artifacts, Cahokia's East Plaza appears to date largely to the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD. Proportions of ornaments, hand-held symbols, and possible ritual paraphernalia may approximate their prevalence and contexts of use in large-scale public gatherings and mound-top ritual at Cahokia.