What is coming in the next generation of Cahokia research is, in broad outline, visible from the current state of the field.

The integration of remote sensing data — LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, and satellite imagery — with the extensive baseline of earlier excavation will produce a comprehensive map of the site’s full extent and internal organization that is currently impossible.

That map will reveal features that have not yet been excavated, guide future investigation toward the most significant unexcavated areas, and allow a regional perspective on the Cahokia settlement system that individual site investigations cannot provide.

The isotopic and ancient DNA work on human remains from the site, as the samples available for analysis grow and the analytical techniques improve, will produce increasingly detailed pictures of who lived at Cahokia — where they came from, how they were related to each other, how their health and diet changed over time, and how the population composition of the city changed through its history.