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Envisioning Cahokia: A Landscape Perspective. By Rinita A. Dalan, George R. Holley, William I. Woods, Harold W. Watters Jr., and John A. Koepke (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003. Pp. x, 241. Illus., appendix, bibliography, index. Cloth, $48.00, Paper, $29.50).
Ancient Cahokia in Illinois, the largest group of man-made earthen mounds in North America, has long fascinated and amazed visitors to the site. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, many of these travelers recorded their observations about the site and their astonishment at its size and scope as well as speculations about its origins. Surprisingly, despite considerable interest over the last two centuries, Cahokia and its origins have remained obscure. Further, academic and scholarly writing on the site has "failed to precipitate a long-standing familiarity with and knowledge of this paramount mound center." (11) The authors of Envisioning Cnhokia attempt to remedy this situation by entering into a dialogue with those who have gone before them. Drawing on more than fifty collective years of research at the site and integrating insights from their respective disciplines (anthropology, archaeology, geography, and landscape architecture), the authors approach their study of Cahokia from a new "landscape" perspective. They present Envisioning Cahokia as a "volume-length, holistic consideration" of the "cultural dynamics at Cahokia" (13) that portrays "the way the Cahokians...