Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

Presented by Joe Harl, St. Louis Archaeological Research Center

From ancient mounds and small villages to bustling marketplaces, the Missouri River has been a conduit of human occupation for thousands of years. Archaeologist Joe Harl of the St. Louis Archaeological Research Center shared some of the amazing stories he's dug up from the rich floodplain of the Missouri River.

Joe Harl and his colleagues at the St. Louis Archeological Research Center have been involved in many recent archeological digs revealing this rich heritage here. He shared his knowledge of the parade of cultures in this area, from the first hunting bands, through the widespread Woodland culture, the complex civilization of the Mississippians based out of Cahokia and the later groups moving through as Europeans moved into the area.

Two sites he focused on in his talk were the Dampier site, a Mississippian marketplace related to Cahokia discovered in 2009 in the Chesterfield bottoms, and the Callaway Farms site excavated near Mokane, Mo.

There is no one in the area that knows quite as much as Joe Harl about the latest discoveries of our heritage along the Missouri River.

Feature photo - a wood duck effigy, image courtesy of arc-stl.com. Joe Harl image from a story in the Suburban Journal