Mound 72
Beaded or Birdman burial

5 metres (16 ft) west of the post was the burial of paired male/female elite pairs. The bodies were placed with their feet to the northwest on an elevated platform between a bed of 10,000 marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a falcon, with the bird's head beneath and beside the heads, and its wings and tail beneath the arms and legs. This burial is now known as the "Beaded burial" or the "Birdman burial." The falcon warrior or " birdman " is a common motif in Mississippian culture, and is even represented by other finds at Cahokia in the form of two small stone tablets with avian-human imagery. Below the birdman was a woman, buried facing downward. This burial clearly had powerful iconographic significance to the peoples of Cahokia.
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