Courtesy of Hannah Boettcher

Art history students head toward the Cahokia Mounds during a class trip. Archeology professor John Kelly will be teaching a class at the Mounds about site excavation and mapping.

University students will be able to learn about the Mounds’ historical significance firsthand at an excavation of the site led Washington University archaeology professor John Kelly.

The state park and historic landmark is about five square miles in area, and is recognized as the largest earthen mound in North America at a height of around 100 feet. At the peak of its use, it was home to an estimated 14,000 people—making it the largest city north of Mexico at the time. Only one percent of the site has been excavated so far.

Starting May 31, anyone interested will have the opportunity to dig at the site in a volunteer excavation program.

Kelly will be teaching two courses through University College that will bring students to the excavation site.

Up to ten students in each of the two courses will learn to map the site in order to better understand how it is organized. They will also learn excavation techniques.

These courses, like the volunteer program, aim to offer valuable hands-on experience to those interested in future archaeological work.

“It’s more than just getting out there and getting dirty. It’s trying to learn how to think about what you’re doing,” Kelly said.

According to Kelly, much of the work that archaeologists and volunteers conduct on the Mounds is done in order to preserve the site, from which they hope to learn more about the lifestyle of its historic population.

Through summer coursework and volunteer work, Kelly hopes that students will be able to contribute to a better understanding of the site and its ancient inhabitants.

“We want to be able to tell a story,” Kelly said. “The idea is that we focus on certain topics that we can look at archaeologically and begin to understand in terms of their world view.”

The peoples who settled on the site around 700 A.D. made significant contributions to astronomy, agriculture and economics. Through his work on the site, Kelly has been able to learn a great deal about the organization of the small city and the cosmology of its inhabitants.

Kelly said that discoveries made in recent years at the Cahokia Mounds site have provided an important and relevant anthropological perspective.

“It’s neat to see the connection between today’s people and the people of the past,” Kelly said. “Even though things have changed, the basic principles that underlie their religion are still intact today and have been intact for a long time.”