Qualla: Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory: Introduction https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge/ Photo credit QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0. A highway was about to pave over a thousand years of astronomical knowledge. In the early 1960s, archaeologist Warren Wittry was conducting routine salvage excavations ahead of interstate construction near Collinsville, Illinois, when he noticed something odd among the expected house foundations: unusually large post holes arranged in curving arcs. When he plotted them on a map, the arcs formed circles. Five of them, in fact, built one inside the other over two centuries, each larger and more elaborate than the last. Wittry realized he was looking at an American Stonehenge, a monumental timber calendar that the Mississippian people of Cahokia had used to track the sun across the sky.

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Image: QuartierLatin1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/9yzg-cahokia-woodhenge-americas-ancient-solar-observato-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory: Circles in the Dirt https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge/ Photo credit QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0. The five timber circles, designated Woodhenges I through V, were constructed between approximately 900 and 1100 CE, each iteration generally larger and containing twelve more posts than its predecessor. Woodhenge I, the earliest, had 24 posts. By Woodhenge III, the count had reac...

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Image: QuartierLatin1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/9yzg-cahokia-woodhenge-americas-ancient-solar-observato-circles-in-the-dirt.mp3 0:06 2 full Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory: Reading the Sunrise https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge/ Photo credit QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0. From a central observation post within each circle, specific perimeter poles aligned with the sun's position on the horizon at the winter and summer solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes. The alignment was deliberate and precise. From the central pole of Woodhenge III, the ...

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Image: QuartierLatin1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/9yzg-cahokia-woodhenge-americas-ancient-solar-observato-reading-the-sunrise.mp3 0:06 3 full Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory: More Than a Calendar https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge/ Photo credit QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Woodhenges contained far more posts than needed to mark the four cardinal solar events. This surplus has led archaeoastronomers to speculate that the circles served additional purposes: tracking lunar cycles, monitoring the motion of the Pleiades star cluster, or observing ot...

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Image: QuartierLatin1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/9yzg-cahokia-woodhenge-americas-ancient-solar-observato-more-than-a-calendar.mp3 0:06 4 full Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory: Salvaged from the Bulldozers https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge/ Photo credit QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wittry's discovery came just in time. The interstate highway construction that prompted the salvage excavation would have destroyed the post hole evidence entirely. Additional excavations by Robert L. Hall in 1963 confirmed the circles' existence, and Wittry returned in the late ...

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Image: QuartierLatin1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/9yzg-cahokia-woodhenge-americas-ancient-solar-observato-salvaged-from-the-bulldozers.mp3 0:06 5 full Cahokia Woodhenge: America's Ancient Solar Observatory: Standing at the Center https://qualla.com/cahokia-woodhenge/ Photo credit QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0. To stand at the central observation post of the reconstructed Woodhenge on an equinox morning is to share an experience with people who lived a millennium ago. The sun rises behind a specific post, just as it did when Cahokia was the largest city on the continent. The timber circ...

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Image: QuartierLatin1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/y/z/g/cahokia-woodhenge-wp/9yzg-cahokia-woodhenge-americas-ancient-solar-observato-standing-at-the-center.mp3 0:06 6 full