Rolling Icons: Engraved Cahokia-style Chunkey Stones

Since the publication of Warren DeBoer's 1993 study on chunkey stones, it has been generally accepted that the chunkey game in Late Woodland and Mississippian societies was more than a recreational activity. Yet today researchers are still working to unearth the specific meanings of this community event. In this article, we document a second whole example of an engraved Cahokia-style discoidal and compare it to the only other whole example of an engraved Cahokia-style discoidal from the American Bottom region. Inferences about the specific meaning that the chunkey game had to Mississippians in the region are then made based on recent research, the engraved iconography on chunkey stones, and the sources of the lithic raw materials from which chunkey stones were manufactured.