Thule 38-41

50 Davide Domenici, Imma Valese
H129, a northward-oriented (2° West of North) rectangular building (5,7 x 7,4
m); its east side was identified and excavated by W. Wittry, while its West side
was excavated by us, thus exposing the whole building. Unfortunately, only a
fragment of a Late Stirling-Early Moorehead Ramey Incised jar was found in
its wall trenches, so that we cannot know if, when in use, it was still within
Compound C or if, alternatively, it was built after the compound
dismantlement. It could have been contemporary with other Late-Stirling-
Early Moorehead structures identified in Tract 15B (see below) and even with
the monumental building F358/1001. Mostly excavated by W. Wittry, its
southwestern corner was identified by J. Kelly in 2008 and named F1001 by
us, confirming that F358/1001 had a 20,97 m. long south wall, so reaching a
total area of approx. 550 m 2 . According to T. Pauketat it was not a multi-room
building as described by Wittry (who would have not recognized the
“unnumbered northern building” so considering its wall trenches as part of
F358), but a huge rectangular building, one of the biggest ever excavated in
Cahokia, most probably with a central roof-supporting post (PAUKETAT T.R.
2013: 100; fig. 4.36); anyway, the presence of inner partitions cannot be
completely ruled out and the association of the central post pit with
F358/1001 is not secure.
A radical shift in space use and organization seems to have occurred during the
Early Moorehead phase (AD 1200-1275). Either contemporary with, or
immediately following the use of F358/1001, the Merrell Tract II-Tract 15B
area was subject to a new, intense domestic occupation that put definitely an
end to its use as a mostly open, public space. Large Moorehead houses have
been detected by both Wittry and us in the Merrell Tract II-Tract 15B area.
They also seem to cluster in at least three groups with central patios or
courtyards. As previously noted, already during the early Moorehead phase a
soil borrowing activity at the northern end of the Merrell Tract II (KELLY J.E.
personal communication 2014), deleted earlier architectural evidences,
including most of the West wall of F358/1001, thus arguably datable between
Late Stirling and the early part of the early Moorehead phase. The borrowed
areas were soon filled with repeated episodes of refuse deposition, including
animal bones (mostly deer) and pottery fragments; worth to be noted is the
abundant presence of fragments of early Moorehead Ramey Jars and quartz
crystals in F1019, superimposing the F358/1001 wall trench. A similar but
apparently slightly later midden, in the form of a large, shallow, sub-circular