The Kamp Mound Site, not far from Kampsville, Illinois, is no ordinary spot. The real treasure lies beneath the untouched heaps of earth. The three largest mounds, towering at seventy feet high, the largest in Illinois, and up to 30 feet high, are dated back to 100 BC. They mark a fifteen-hundred-year-old graveyard for the prehistoric Hopewell culture. It's still a mystery what drew the Hopewell traders to this riverbank, forsaking their original lands near the Great Lakes.
The traders' mounds, hatched from the riverbank soil like colossal eggs, were brimming with shells and bones, a valuable commodity for the Mississippi valley. Two more mounds were added to the site centuries later, each one likely holding another story of the traders' lives. Today, it stands as a testament to the forgotten families who once lived here, trading obsidian for corn, and buried with riches elsewhere in the valley.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Leroy
Discuss this with the author and others
No comments yet. Be the first to start the conversation.