Existing comment:
Conical Mounds:
Conical mounds at Cahokia were reserved for the burials of people of high status.
Burial Mounds:
Mississippians buried important people of Cahokia in conical mounds. The families of these people, members of their clan, their friends, and their advisors may have been entombed there as well. In some instances, burials are not in a conical mound, but under it. The mound then serves as a grave marker.
Conical mounds are often paired with platform mounds at Cahokia. People buried in a conical mound may have lived in the nearby platform mound or may have been prepared for burial in a charnel house there. Because few of the conical mounds of Cahokia have been excavated, the exact rules of burial customs are not known.
Conical mounds are generally smaller in size and lower in height than platform mounds. Dimensions vary from 20 to 30 feet up to 100 or more feet in diameter. As more people were buried in them, conical mounds were added to and grew in size.
Many conical mounds have almost disappeared in recent times, as farming equipment has plowed them down. Today, many conical mounds are barely visible, rising just a foot or so above the landscape. Others, left untouched, still rise up to 40 feet above ground level. |