|
SLAS Regular Meeting
Friday, May 15, 2015 7:30pm
McDonnell Hall,
Washington University
Skywatchers of Ancient Cahokia
by
William Iseminger
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
William Iseminger of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, will be featured at the June meeting of the St. Louis Astronomical Society. The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM Friday, June 19, in McDonnell Hall, Room 162, on the Washington University campus.
The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, just 15 minutes east of Saint Louis, is the location of a Native American city that flourished from 600 A.D. to 1100 A.D. The Site preserves the remains of about 80 earthen mounds out of the 120 mounds constructed in the city. The Cahokia tribe included ancient astronomers who discovered much about the movements of the Sun, Moon, and stars centuries before the European invention of the telescope. They constructed a "Woodhenge" of upright logs, positioned to mark the changing of the seasons and the motion of the Moon. Mr. Iseminger will talk about the astronomy of the Mound City builders and about how the Historic Site and its Interpretive Center tell the story of this vanished civilization and its great city.
William Iseminger is the Assistant Site Manager for the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma and a Master's degree from SIU-Carbondale, in anthropology. A participant in excavations of Native American sites in South Dakota and Illinois, Mr. Iseminger is author of a recent book Cahokia Mounds, America's First City.
|
Meeting Agenda
Welcome
Introduction of Officers and Visitors
Main Speaker: William Iseminger
Astro 101 Mission Control Report - Brad Waller
4 Library Telescopes entered into the Loaner Scope program
Announcements
Star Parties
|
