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13 Mound 72 Funerary Monument or World Renewal Icon? Mound 72 takes us back to the Lohmann phase (or earlier), which has been deemed the opening scene of the Mississippian period in the American Bottom . As I note in an earlier chapter, many proponents of the hierarchical monistic modular polity account point or allude to Mound 72 as being among the strongest supporting evidence for this view.1 Although Mound 72 has many bundle burials, it also has a large number of extended burials. In fact, the latter make up the majority of mortuary deposits. Therefore, on first appearance numerous indicators would suggest that this was a cemetery manifesting hierarchy and differential status. However, the supposition that Mound 72 is a cemetery or even marks a chiefdom-type social system does not logically follow from this burial pattern, since, under the Autonomous Cult model (and especially the ecclesiastic-communal cult version), hierarchy generated by social differentiation based on specialization (laity/clergy) and age-set seniority is recognized as part of this type of cult. At the same time, however, we must remember that under this model the hierarchy is characterized as an enabling and not a dominance hierarchy. Autonomy is the operative value of the squatter ethos. This means that the hierarchy is built on the authority of obligations, duties, responsibilities, and entitlements, and not on rights and privileges; furthermore , it also means that decisions are made by consensus among all the parties that must implement the decisions. I first describe the most relevant components and associations of Mound 72. This is followed by the hierarchical monistic modular polity interpretation, which, of course, takes a strong funerary perspective with regard to the mortuary data and a symbolic referential perspective with regard to the monumental aspect of this mound and its archaeological context—in particular, what Melvin Fowler refers to as Woodhenge 72 (Fowler 1991, 6–9; 1996, 49–55; Fowler et al. 1999, 1–11). Following a critique of the funerary and symbolic referential interpretations of these mortuary data and their immediate material context, I reinterpret the same data in the framework of the Mourning/World Renewal 32 / Cahokia Mortuary model and the symbolic pragmatic perspective. When Woodhenge 72 and its associated feature, Mound 72, are in total shown to be interpreted more coherently in these rather than the former terms, the World Renewal Cult Heterarchy model is strongly supported. The Monumental Component As noted in the previous chapter, Mound 72 is a rather small ridge-top mound that is about 930 meters due south of Monks Mound or, more specifically, due south of a large post pit that was found on the southwestern corner of the first terrace of Monks Mound (Fowler 1991, 3). There are a number of other ridgetop mounds in Cahokia, such as Rattlesnake Mound (Mound 66), which is the largest ridge-top mound, Powell Mound (Mound 86), and Mound 95 of the Tippetts Group. Not only are all of these larger than Mound 72, but also they are oriented due east-west, while Mound 72, which is only about fifty meters long, is oriented to azimuth 120° (an orientation that reciprocally marks the southeastern winter solstice sunrise and the northwestern summer solstice sunset). Furthermore, Fowler has established that the southeast end of Mound 72 covers a large post pit and that a line joining this post pit and the post pit on the southwest corner of the first terrace of Monks Mound would define a north-south axis. He also established that there is a second, matching post pit under the northwest end of Mound 72. He calls the southeast feature Post Pit 1 (PP1 or Feature 1) and the northwest feature Post Pit 2 (PP2 or Feature 204; Figure 13.1). PP1 and PP2 are effectively identical to the post pits characteristic of the large woodhenges in Tract 15A due west of Monks Mound and northwest of Mound 72. Four—or possibly five or more—woodhenge circles or partial circles were sequentially constructed on Tract 15A. Most had or shared a large observation post at the epicenter. Aligning the center post of the Tract 15A woodhenges with different perimeter posts, an observer could note the equinoctial and the summer and winter solstitial sunrises on the eastern horizon. In fact, the east-west axis through the center post was aligned through the large post pit on the southwest corner of the first terrace of Monks Mound, and the same post pit was aligned north-to...

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