Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
I had originally planned to have Part Three of the semicircular canal series up by now, but have run into a few delays and won't have it up for a couple of days. By way of apology I am posting some of my Cahokia pictures.
Dates for Cahokia range from around 600-800 AD to the 1700's. At it's peak it was estimated to have a population of around 25,000 people and was one of the largest, if not the largest, town outside of Mexico.
In 1960 and 1961 a number of long oval shaped pits were discovered by Warren Wittry and his team. It was discovered that these pits could be arranged in four circles - with diameters ranging from 240-480 feet. The largest had posts at the cardinal points and 48 other posts evenly spaced around the circumference. They were probably used as sun calendars and for observation of the solstices and equinoxes. Below are two pictures of the woodhenge. In the first picture you can see Monk's Mound in the background.
This next picture is of one of the smaller mounds at Cahokia
In order to get the dirt for a mound, the builders would dig it up leaving a large depression in the ground. Some archaeologist have speculated that the pits would then be used to hold water and fish. A picture of one such pit is below.
Cahokia was surrounded by a large palisade. At the time I visited only part of it's course had been located. The picture below is what the palisade would have looked like.
Another of the smaller mounds - the car and truck to the left give some scale.
Another mound.
This next one is of Monk's Mound. It is so large I could not fit it all into one picture.
This next one is standing at the base of Monk's Mound looking up. There is some foreshortening but the people on the stairway should give you some idea of how high it is.
When I got to the top I noticed I could see the Arch and tried taking a picture, but the Arch is not visible in the picture.
One of the contributions to Recreating Hopewell dealt with what can be seen in the landscape and how this affected Hopewell notions of space and their place in the landscape. Although Cahokia is a Mississippian town I think such concepts would still apply. This last picture is also from the top of Monk's Mound. You can see a mound in the distance.
Comments
All those years living in St. Louis and I never managed to visit this site! I may be going there this Easter. Maybe I can arrange a day trip.
Posted by: pablo | February 12, 2007 7:10 AM
If you're going to Chahokia,
Be sure to wear a Middle-Woodland Period Pottery Shard in your hair...
(Sung to the tune of If you're going to San Francisco).
Yeah, you might be right. Too many Native American spirit-drugs in my undergrad days when the song was popular.
Posted by: J-Dog | February 12, 2007 9:18 AM
I hope you don't mind me adding this the the 9th Four Stone Hearth :) They were cool photos.
Posted by: cfeagans | February 15, 2007 9:40 AM