Cahokia Mounds
The author believes that the Cahokia site will be helpful in proving the hypothesis. It may simply be that the raised platforms from the first ejecta emplacements were actively being used as living sites. Considering the closeness of the Mississippi, it would seem appropriate that "high ground" was at a premium.
From The 1997 Grand Plaza Waterline Excavation From the cahokian WINTER 1997-98“Several years back, researchers from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville observed, using electromagnetic instruments and small test excavations, that this monumental plaza was not natural (Dalan 1997). Rather, the Grand Plaza had been leveled through a cut-and-fill method around the beginning of the Mississippian period (now dated to about A.D. 1050). In 1994, with a crew from the University of Oklahoma, I found evidence beneath Mound 49 that corroborated their results: the earliest mound stages were built at the same time as the plaza was leveled.
by Timothy R. Pauketat, Ph.D.State University of New York at Buffalo
Artist Lloyd K. Townsend’s rendering details the expanse of the Grand Plaza, explicitly presenting the characteristic tear-drop shape of a Perigee: Zero ejecta emplacement. The "bell" of the teardrop is in the foreground, and the tip is located in the small site across the Old Cahokia Creek to the north. Monk’s Mound is located along the major axis. The image below,a long with a description of the central palisade, can be seen at http://www.cahokiamounds.com/centralplaza.html.
Grand Plaza
Using Google Earth, a graphic was created imposing the generic ejecta overlay over monks mound using the second emplacement azimuth.
Grand Plaza with GE overlay
The mounds are documented as either an “oblong mound or of the pyramid type”, the author contends the mounds were originally oval and the pyramids were constructed “into them”.
The hypothesis suggests the landing of numerous mega-kilogram sand hills onto the landscape. Having been ejected at many kilometers per sec, the leading surface -and impact surface- of the ejecta would be incendiary hot. It would be expected that whatever was on the landscape under the ejecta would be “fossilized” in some way. Here is an example of one excavation that seems to have inspected this layer at a Cahokia mound, which suggests that the Cahokia site was inhabited at the time of the event, and that the “burials” that are commemorating were that of the casualties, entombed beneath the ejecta.“About 100 meters (328.1 feet) south of Monks Mound is a tumulus that was called Red Mound on one of the park's early signs, supposedly because so much red pottery was discovered there. Mound 49 appears on the Patrick Map as a conical mound of regular form. The contours on the 1966 UWM Map, however, suggest a more oval or elongated shape with an east-west axis of nearly 50 meters (164.0 feet) and a north-south axis of approximately 35 meters (114.8 feet).” From CahokiaMounds .com
“On October 3, 1921, Moorehead began a long trench at the extreme eastern end of Mound 30 into Mound 31. He wanted to excavate a terrace, or apron, leading up to one of the larger mounds. Moorehead's trench extended due west 55 feet (16.8 meters). At 35 feet (10.7 meters) west he sunk a test pit 10 feet, 5 inches (3.2 meters) deep and found disturbed earth, charcoal, and small pottery sherds at 7 feet, 3 inches (2.2 meters). He dug another pit at 55 feet and found the disturbed area extended to 7 feet, 8 inches (2.3 meters). During the excavation he found animal bones, broken artifacts, and pottery. He also discovered lumps of burnt clay containing impressions of reeds or rushes, probably from the building of aboriginal houses in the area. Nearer the base of Mound 31, he excavated, by means of a horse team and scraper, a pit 30 feet (9.1 meters) square and 8 feet (2.4 meters) deep. He noted a hard, burned layer of floor beneath the base line similar to the formation noted in the hand-dug trench. Moorehead, on the basis of his excavations, was unable to determine whether Mound 31 was a burial structure or merely a foundation for houses or ceremonial lodges.”From CahokiaMounds .com
Here is another detailed description of the shape and composition of an undisturbed Cahokia mound. Clearly the archeologists considered it to be a product of the Indians, even though it was “not constructed of earth taken from a village site.“ The hypothesis contends that this was just a generic ejecta mound that did not strike an occupied site.
From From CahokiaMounds .com“Mackie Mound, Number 79—This is about one and one-fourth miles west of Monks Mound and is on the bank of old Cahokia Creek. It is covered by a heavy oak grove, has never been plowed, and is about one hundred thirty feet north and south and ten feet high. It is surrounded on three sides by a swamp and there is a long low platform, or apron, extending about 150 feet to the east. This platform varies from three to five feet high. A trench was extended a distance of about thirty feet in the mound down to within a few feet of the base line, then the post augers were brought into service. Numbers of pits were sunk three or four feet in depth. With the exception of a few scales of flint or chert and one pottery fragment, absolutely nothing was found. The mound was composed of the hardest kind of buckshot gumbo, with no sign of stratification. It is clear that no village existed at the point from whence the earth was taken to build this mound as there are no broken artifacts to be observed in to the soil. [Moorehead 1929: 5556]”
We interpret this text as strongly suggesting against human construction techniques, and the last sentence calls into question why it would have been built by man's hand. The 'apron" discussed is interpreted as being the manifestation of a first event emplacement underlaying and extending out from the second event ejecta structure.
The glyph shown here could be assumed to be a “Sun God” symbol.
In the context of the hypothesis it symbolizes the impact of an oval PZ ejecta mound on the Paleo-Indian village. The image is indeed oval, not round as a sun glyph would be. The glyph suggests to us a three-dimensional “hill” with the linear ridge at the top, as see on Monks Mound today. The radiating burst pattern is commonly ascribed to being a “sun-burst”. In the context of PZ, it is interpreted as being a comic book “splat” burst.
The existence of a "Woodhenge" celestial monitoring structure is considered by the hypothesis as a correlating feature. Coincident with many paleo Indian sites are man-made structures which serve as “Stonehenge” type calendars, aligned as seasonal markers. Please reference the page at cahokiamounds.com
The hypotheses suggests that the indigenous Paleo-Indian passed down a fear of the heavens, and in particular, fear of what we call comets - transient bright lights in the sky. The unknown alignment features could well have attempts to predict future calamities from the heavens.
Other interesting data can be reviewed at the Cahokia Mounds web site, including a discussion of "The stones under Monks Mound", which we interpret as being strongly indicative that a remote PZ cratering event delivered substantial solid stone elements during the first event. The paper referenced notes that surface stone is rather unusual in this area of the Mississippi flood plain, and that the nearest quarry is a considerable distance away.
[Moorehead 1929: 5556]Mackie Mound, Number 79—This is about one and one-fourth miles west of Monks Mound and is on the bank of old Cahokia Creek. It is covered by a heavy oak grove, has never been plowed, and is about one hundred thirty feet north and south and ten feet high. It is surrounded on three sides by a swamp and there is a long low platform, or apron, extending about 150 feet to the east. This platform varies from three to five feet high. A trench was extended a distance of about thirty feet in the mound down to within a few feet of the base line, then the post augers were brought into service. Numbers of pits were sunk three or four feet in depth. With the exception of a few scales of flint or chert and one pottery fragment, absolutely nothing was found. The mound was composed of the hardest kind of buckshot gumbo, with no sign of stratification. It is clear that no village existed at the point from whence the earth was taken to build this mound as there are no broken artifacts to be observed in to the soil.