Excavations near Mound 34 from 2002 to 2010 revealed the remains of a copper workshop, although the one of a kind discovery had been previously found in the late 1950s by archaeologist Gregory Perino, but lost for 60 years.

[1] From the Emergent Mississippian period (beginning approximately 800 CE) to the Stirling Phase (1000 to 1200 CE) the location was a village site with multiple houses, pit features, extensive midden deposits, a copper worskop,[2] and a large structure (possibly as large as 10 metres (33 ft) by 6 metres (20 ft)) with a centrally located hearth.

[3] Artifacts found during excavations of the site included Mississippian culture pottery, beads made from shell, worked copper fragments and raw nuggets, close to 100 distinctive Cahokian style serrated flint arrowheads, and at least one perforated sharks tooth used as a necklace.

[3][5] Other examples of avian related ceremonialism at the overall Cahokia site include two engraved stone tables with birdmen on them and the elite burial found under Mound 72.

Analysis of copper found during excavations showed that it had been annealed, a technique involving repeatedly heating and cooling the metal as it is worked, such as blacksmiths do with iron.

[1] Items produced at this workshop may have been similar to copper objects found at other Mississippian sites, such as long-nosed god maskettes, ceremonial earrings with a symbolic shape, thought to have been used in fictive kinship rituals.

[3][9][10][11][better source needed] Although noted on early maps of the Cahokia site and tested by Warren K. Moorehead in 1921 and 1922,[2] the mound was not excavated until 1950 by James B. Griffin and Albert Spaulding.

Their small excavations produced large amounts of pottery shards, the remains of the first engraved shell cup found at Cahokia, and fragments of repousséd copper plates.

In the late 1990s archaeologists began examining Perinos field notes and artifacts collected from Mound 34 in order to further refine the Mississippian Art and Ceremonial Complex, define its connection to Cahokia, and find the theorized copper workshop.