In the 4th century B.C. communities began to build monumental architecture in the Lower Mississippi Valley. One of the most remarkable remaining sites from the Late Archaic period is the city of Poverty Point, Louisiana. Traveling up the Mississippi River through the massive 13th-century city of Cahokia, Illinois, to the animal and geometric earthworks from Iowa to Lake Michigan, one sees how diverse communities continued to shape the land over thousands of years. This talk will focus on three of these sites from different periods and geographic locations and consider the importance of monumental architecture to the people who made them. I will also question why these monuments are so rarely referred to within the broader Pre-Columbian literature and why they are not commonly recognized in the vast ancient past of North America.
Followed by a reception with wine and cheese in the Loeb Room
Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
RSVP at info@pcsny.org.
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