monday, september 11, 2023

Hybrid Format / In person or via Zoom
Lunch buffet served at 12:00pm / Talk at 12:30pm
Please email Liz Bayer at bayere@wustl.edu for physical location and/or Zoom link.

summary:

Southern Illinois has been occupied by American Indian cultural traditions since 9500 BC and this program reviews these traditions, their lifestyles, artifacts, beliefs and customs as revealed by archaeological excavations and analyses. Culture change is represented from the earliest Paleo-Indian nomads who hunted mammoths and mastodons, then the Archaic period with its introduction of horticulture and mound building, to the Woodland period that introduced pottery, the bow and arrow and corn agriculture, through the Mississippian period with its expanded agriculture, massive mounds and large permanent settlements, with a focus on the large urban complex of Cahokia Mounds and its primary site features.

speaker details:

William Iseminger
Archeologist & Retired Site Manager
Cahokia Mounds Historic Site

William Iseminger is an archaeologist who recently retired as Assistant Site Manager at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois. He earned his BA in Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma and his MA at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His archaeological experience includes projects in South Dakota and several regions in Illinois. He worked at Cahokia Mounds since 1971 and for several years led public field schools in excavations on the Stockade, Woodhenge, and Mound 50. He was in charge of exhibits, interpretation, public relations, and the intern program. He has written extensively about Cahokia Mounds and archaeology, including his books Cahokia Mounds: America’s First City and Understanding Artifacts of Illinois and Neighboring States, and contributed chapters in several books.