page_title: Monks Mound
section_title: Archaeology
hierarchical_section_title: Monks Mound / Archaeology
caption_attribution_description: English: I took this picture on the very top of en:Monk's Mound, which is 100 ft tall.. [1] You can see other small mounds in the distance.
context_page_description: Monks Mound is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas and the largest pyramid north of Mesoamerica. The beginning of its construction dates from 900–955 CE. Located at the Cahokia Mounds UNESCO World Heritage Site near Collinsville, Illinois, the mound size was calculated in 1988 as about 100 feet high, 955 feet long including the access ramp at the southern end, and 775 feet wide. This makes Monks Mound roughly the same size at its base as the Great Pyramid of Giza. The perimeter of its base is larger than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. As a platform mound, the earthwork supported a wooden structure on the summit.
  Unlike Egyptian pyramids which were built of stone, the platform mound was constructed almost entirely of layers of basket-transported soil and clay. Because of this construction and its flattened top, over the years, it has retained rainwater within the structure. This has caused slumping, the avalanche-like sliding of large sections of the sides at the highest part of the mound.
context_section_description: Thomas I. Ramey, who bought the site in 1864, began an era of more responsible ownership, and encouraged archaeological investigation.  Many artifacts were found at or near the surface. Ramey had a tunnel made nearly 30 m (98 ft) into the north face of the mound, but it revealed nothing of historic interest.  By this time, people were beginning to consider the mound more within its context.  A survey made for local dentist Dr. John R. Patrick in the 1880s marked the beginning of modern understanding of the Cahokia site as a whole, and its relationship to other sites in the area.
  Many archaeological investigations of the mound have taken place since then. One of the biggest began in the 1960s, when Nelson Reed, a local businessman and historian of native cultures, obtained permission to conduct excavations.  He was trying to locate the high-status building (temple or palace) presumed to have stood at the peak of Monks Mound.  By drilling cores at various points on the mound, his team revealed the various stages of its construction from the 10th to 12th centuries CE.  Remains of a fairly recent house (presumably Hill's) were found, but no temple.
  In 1970 Reed returned to work at the mound, and adopted a new strategy: scraping away the topsoil from several 5 m² (54 sq ft) patches with a backhoe, to a depth of around 60 cm (24 in).  This quickly revealed various features, including what appeared to be the outline of the temple.  Further backhoe work in 1971 confirmed the shape of the presumed temple at over 30 m (98 ft) long, the largest building found at Cahokia.  This technique was opposed by professional archaeologists because it destroyed several hundred years of stratification over most of the mound's summit, which was the evidence by which they could place and evaluate artifacts and construction.  Reed's backhoe excavations revealed other significant features, such as a hole which seemed to have been the socket for a post about three feet (one metre) in diameter.  The dramatic finds encouraged the Governor of Illinois to budget for an expansion of the Cahokia Mounds State Park.
caption: Looking over the Cahokia Mounds site from the top of Monks Mound
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