Thule 38-41 v2

Toward an understanding of Native American socio-pol complexity: It. Arch. researches at Cahokia 49
The only evidences of inner features all proceed from Compound B/C. A
circular burned area or hearth was identified by W. Wittry inside bastion H86
of Compound C, slightly off center (PAUKETAT T.R. 2013: 91, fig. 4.32).
According to T. Pauketat, a series of four posts, possibly sequential, may have
stood near the southeastern corner of Compound B/C (PAUKETAT T.R. 2013:
95-96). In our excavation area, a hearth (F1029) was excavated within the
southwestern corner bastion of Compound B/C, but its relationship with the
compound in unclear, as the hearth chronology. A circular pit (F1165; diam.
1,40 m), its edge lined with orange fill, was identified near the western walls of
Compounds B and C; unfortunately its fill did not contain any cultural
material that could help in the chronological attribution. H114, an L-shaped
building located approximately in the center of the B/C compound was
partially excavated by W. Wittry, its western wall having been excavated by us.
Its location as well as its special shape – usually interpreted as evidence of
religious or elite-related function (ALT S.E. 2006; PAUKETAT T.R. 2013: 95) –
suggested that it could have been the main structure inside the walled
compound. We must note that this hypothesis is purely speculative: no clear
dating of H114 had been possible and the structure could well be later than
Compound B/C. Unfortunately, no significant cultural material was recovered
during our excavation of the west wall of H114. In the southern unit of our
excavation area, we identified a segment of an orange clay-filled wall trench;
due to time constraints, we were not able to verify if it pertains to a
reconstruction of Compound B/C or to a different structure somehow
connected to it.
Another set of multiple reconstructed rectangular “houses” (F1063: 3,1 x 4,34
m; F1033: 4,11 x 4,28 m; F1037: 4,27 x 4,54 m), with various associated
pits, were identified to the northwest of H114; unfortunately their relationship
with Compound B/C remains unclear. Their multiple reconstructions could
resemble, at first sight, a pattern common in later Moorehead and San Prairie
houses, but their stratigraphic position and orientation (3,48° West of North),
as well as their association with early Mississippian ceramic material, suggest
an earlier date. Furthermore, the recovery of orange clay inside the postholes
pertaining to the northern and western wall trenches of these buildings
suggests some sort of connection between them and Compound B/C, even if
their relationship remains unclear.
Their wall trenches, as well as those of H114, are in fact superimposed by