Cahokia Mounds. This is the place to see one of the largest settlements of the Mississippian culture. The site is dotted with earthen mounds and buried artifacts that provide evidence of a population numbering perhaps as many as 20,000 individuals who called this river-land home 800 to 1000 years ago. It amazes me how archeologists piece together a picture of these ancient cultures. I wonder what the Mississippians would think of the product of all the educated conjecture on how they lived, why here, what the structures mean, and why they left this area. Are we any where near correct?