Affiliation: Washington University of St. Louis
John Kelly has great interest and expertise in Eastern North American archaeology with a focus on the central Mississippi River Valley and the cultural developments related to Mississippian culture, especially the Cahokia site. He has been involved in a number of survey and excavation projects in the Mississippi valley. In addition to his initial field work at Cahokia between 1969 and 1972 with Beloit College, he directed the excavations at the large multicomponent Range site. Most recently he has been involved in the rediscovery of the Mississippian mound center in East St. Louis. I also recently excavated an early Mississippian village in the uplands east of Cahokia. Presently, my research is based upon the role of ritual and kinship in the mix of ingredients that contribute to the dispersal of the Mississippian population in the fourteenth century.
