3.3: Assignment

Assignment:

1. Describe the main characteristics of the floodplain of an alluvial channel:
   1. What is the typical width of a floodplain of a large river like the Mississippi River?
   2. When is the floodplain inundated with water?
   3. What created the sediments, i.e., the alluvium, on the floodplain?
   4. How have humans utilized the floodplain?
2. Describe the major erosional landforms on the floodplain:
   1. Cut bank,
   2. Meander,
   3. Oxbow lake.
3. Describe the major depositional landforms on the floodplain:
   1. Natural levee,
   2. Point bar.
4. The article by Pauketat et al. states that "single-family rural domestic habitations...featured one or more non-domestic, ostensibly Cahokian structures."
   1. What percentage of Cahokia's buildings were "non-domestic" structures?
   2. What were some of the "non-domestic" structures?
   3. Who lived in the "non-domestic" structures?
   4. What significance do the "non-domestic" structures bring to the notion that the Cahokian urbanism is anomalous?
5. The North Plaza, the area immediately north of Monks Mound, was the topic of investigation in the paper by Rankin (2022).
   1. What was the environmental condition of North Plaza at Cahokia's time?
   2. What does this condition imply about the Cahokian urbanism?
6. The authors of the article states that Cahokia’s known anomalous characteristics include its "distanciated configuration" among the precincts.
   1. Consider the "distanciated configuration" in relation to proximity to water bodies as shown in the maps shown in the Reading.
   2. Discuss whether this configuration was intended to border the bodies of waters.