A millennium ago, Native people constructed over 120 earthen mounds at the site of Cahokia, a World Heritage site in Illinois. Built entirely by hand, the largest of these constructions towered 100 feet over a city that was more densely populated than the contemporary medieval city of London. Over two thousand years before Cahokia’s construction, Native people in Louisiana built Poverty Point, another World Heritage site, and one of the only earthwork complexes that rivals Cahokia’s size and complexity–and they did so without agriculture or permanent settlements. These sites highlight the incredible engineering ability of ancient Americans, and remind us that we don’t need a passport to visit sites of outstanding universal value.

Speaker: Megan C. Kassabaum, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, UPenn