Indiana Jones: Myth, Reality And 21st Century Archaeology

Before Europeans arrived on the North American continent, the central Mississippi River Valley formed the core of an extensive prehistoric urban network. Villages and cities flourished in the Midwest and Southeast U.S., extending north to Canada and south to the Gulf of Mexico. The Native Americans built extensive ceremonial and burial mounds that rivaled the cities of the Incas and Aztecs. Their culture, known as the Mississippian, thrived in urban complexes where archaeological research has unearthed the evidence of a complex agrarian society with unique funerary practices and a sophisticated socio-economic structure. Monks Mound rises 70 ft. above the Mississippi River floodplain in East St. Louis, Illinois and stands as a testament to those whose civilization remains as enigmatic as it is monumental. In this episode, we explore the foundations of the Mississippian culture, its rise, florescence and eventual demise in the wake of the Euroamerican conquest of the Americas.