CAHOKIA POINTS
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON/ST. CLAIR COUNTIES ILLINOIS

MOUND 72 POINTS

    The picture below shows a large number of some of the best examples of Cahokia points ever found on the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Most of the points in this picture were excavated from Mound 72 in 1967 through 1971. Approximately two thirds of this mound was excavated and at least 1200 arrow points were discovered. Most of them were Cahokia points of various types. But a large number of them were styles originating from other areas outside the immediate Cahokia complex. Approximately 115 were made of translucent red, orange and yellow Kaolin chert. Most of the classic Cahokia point types found there were made of white Burlington chert. Many of the points were very stylized versions of standard Cahokia types and similar examples have not been found outside of this excavation.
    The excavation of mound 72 was one of the most extraordinary excavations in this part of the country. The mound itself was complicated. Originally it was a single mound. Then two that were incorporated into one large mound. Originally the site was an alignment point where a large post three feet in diameter had once stood. The site became an important burial mound where bizarre interments had taken place. Approximately 300 burials were eventually found, many of which were sacrificial victims. Some had heads and hands cut off. There were four mass burials of females. One had 53 victims with estimated ages of 15 to 25 years. One group of individuals were laid out in a row then another group of individuals who were placed on cedar stretchers were laid on top of the first row.
    The two rare bone points in this picture were not found in the mound. One of them is an effigy of a sharks tooth. A few of the other points in this group were surfaced collected finds in farm fields at Cahokia long before the land was incorporated into the state park it is today. Greg Perino found one of the points in this picture.

CLICK ON THIS PICTURE FOR A VERY LARGE IMAGE (98 sec.)

THE MAJORITY OF THESE POINTS WERE EXCAVATED FROM MOUND 72 ON THE CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE

CAHOKIA POINTS
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Southern Illinois
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This is one of the best collections of documented Cahokia points in a private collection. Almost all of these points are pictured in various publications going all the way back to Mooreheads "The Cahokia Mounds" in 1929. There are only about 100 very well made and complete Cahokia points that are known to local collectors in the area around Cahokia. These are the ones that have been tracked through time since before much of the Cahokia Mounds state park of today was purchased by the state of Illinois and early surface collectors like Joe Walta surface collected in the fields around the mounds.----The point in the center is made of bone.

CAHOKIA POINTS MADE TO LOOK LIKE SHARKS TEETH

SHARKS TEETH EFFIGIES

    These four Cahokia points were found on or near the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. To take this picture these points were borrowed from four different collections. The white point to the left is in the Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville museum's collection. The other three are in private collections. The two examples on the right are made of bone. Bone arrow points from this site are very rare. There are probably only two or three dozen examples known to exist.

"CLAY BALL CACHE" CAHOKIA POINTS

"THE CLAY BALL CACHE"

    This cache of double and triple notched Cahokia points were discovered sometime in the fifties or sixties. They were found by a Mr. Hampton who dug a hole for a septic tank in a subdivision on the Cahokia Mounds Site. These houses have since been torn down and the subdivision land is now part of the state park. In a shovel of clay he found a cache of 33 Cahokia points. According to Bill Fecht who purchased the unbroken points there were only about a dozen or so that were not broken. Bill said that some of the damage was caused by the neighborhood kids playing with them. Most of the points in this cache were thin and of the finest workmanship.
   All the points in the cache were made of white Burlington chert. At least three of them were made of heat treated Burlington chert. There was no mention of a burial but since these points do not at all compare with normal utilitarian arrow points they must have been meant for some type of ceremonial purpose like similar examples that were found with the burials in mound 72.

TYPICAL CAHOKIA POINTS

THE AVERAGE CAHOKIA POINT

    This group of 96 Cahokia points were picked up over the years by Ed Rouch on his farm before it became part of the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. They represent typical examples of Cahokia points from this area. Large numbers of these more crudely made points were picked up before one of the so called "Gempoints" were found. The best Cahokia point Ed found is located on the bottom row and eighth from the left. It's made of a beautiful red Kaolin chert from southern Illinois.

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