About one thousand years ago, Native Americans built hundreds of earthen platform mounds, plazas, residential areas, and other types of monuments in the vicinity of present-day St. Louis. This sprawling complex, known to archaeologists as Cahokia, was the dominant cultural, ceremonial, and trade center north of Mexico for centuries. This stimulating collection of essays casts new light on the remarkable accomplishments of Cahokia. Timothy R. Pauketat, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is the author of The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America. Thomas E. Emerson is director of the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program and an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is coeditor of Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation across the Midcontinent.