Archaeologists continue searching for clues to Cahokia

Researchers are always finding pieces of broken clay pottery at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville. It's nothing to write home about.

But every once in a while, someone digs up an artifact that gets an archaeological crew really excited.

That's what happened to Susannah Fulling and Rita Cooper last week at an excavation site near Mound 34. They found a fragment of a shell cup with engraved lines that once formed a Native American symbol or pattern.

"It's cool to find things that are engraved because it adds a human element to it," said Fulling, 22, of St. Louis. "You know somebody was here, and they cared about (the object)."