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 Blending contemporary and ancient aboriginal instruments, Cahokian Sun
is one of Dr. Von Zuko’s more complex compositions. It has also
proven to be one of his most popular works with listeners swept away
in an evocative vision of an exotic far off place. Cahokia Sun was
influenced by the ancient and lost American Indian civilization of
Cahokia.
Cahokia and its people have long fascinated Dr. Von Zuko and following
a rather extensive period of research and an exhaustive visit to the
Cahokia site, the doctor was compelled to compose this piece to honor
these people of the past.
The ancient village site of Cahokia is located in Collinsville,
Illinois, just a few miles from the Mississippi River. From the top
of Monks Mound (108 feet tall as measured in 1882), the largest
earthen pyramid on the North American continent, you can see the
famous arch of St. Louis, Missouri.
Cahokia represents the most sophisticated prehistoric civilization
North of Central America and was inhabited from approximately A.D. 700
to 1400. At its zenith, Cahokia was home to 20,000 people and the
village covered an area of nearly six square miles. The central part
of the village was fortified with a stockade wall complete with watch
towers, market places, and even fish ponds. Cahokia was actually
larger then medieval London of the same time period. Archaeologists
are not sure what happened to the people of Cahokia, but sometime in
the late 1300’s the village was abandoned.
Dr. Von Zuko frequently observes (and lectures to all who will
thoughtfully consider) that the native people of the Americas were
here for several thousands of years prior to the Europeans. These
native inhabitants had villages, monuments, art, and culture and yet
we persist in the belief that America was “discovered” in 1492. “How
do you discover that which was not unknown?”
To learn more about Cahokia and Dr. Von Zuko’s studies of ancient
civilizations
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