Cahokia: Mississippian Metropolis

in 1811 a frontier lawyer and future congressman henry brackenridge was in the city of st louis after traveling up the mississippi river thanks to the louisiana purchase by thomas jefferson this was the edge of the new frontier indeed lewis and clark's expedition had only just returned to the city four years earlier and brackenridge made a point to document everything about his journey up the river in doing so brackenridge noted a discovery that astonished him he wrote in his journal i crossed the mississippi at st louis and after passing through the wood which borders the river about a half a mile in width entered an extensive open plain in 15 minutes i found myself in the midst of a group of mounds mostly of a circular shape and at a distance resembling enormous haystacks scattered through a meadow one of the largest which i ascended was about 200 paces in circumference at the bottom the form nearly square though it had evidently undergone considerable alteration from the washing of the reins the top was level with an area sufficient to contain several hundred men around me i counted 20 mounds or pyramids besides a great number of small artificial elevations pursuing my walk along the bank of the cahokia i passed eight others in the distance of three miles before i arrived at the principal assemblage when i reached the foot of the largest mound i was struck with a degree of astonishment not unlike that which is experienced in contemplating the egyptian pyramids and could not help exclaiming what a stupendous pile of earth to heap up such a mass must have required years and the labors of thousands were it not for the regularity and design which it manifests the circumstance of its being on alluvial ground and the other mounds scattered around it we could scarcely believe at the work of human hands what had stunned brackenridge was the remains of the great ancient city of cahokia he would later write to thomas jefferson about the site and publish an article in the local st louis press incredibly his published accounts of it appear to have been completely ignored by the locals which is a shame because the site would suffer greatly for it as brackenridge could plainly see cahokia was the greatest city built north of mexico and in its heyday it was a city of over 120 mounds arranged in large plazas housing a population of 10 to 20 000 people with thousands of additional people living in the hinterland the story behind the rise of cahokia is not just the story of a great city but the story of a cultural explosion that transformed eastern north america let's check it out [Music] cahokia lies along the mississippi across from the modern day city of saint louis and that's not a coincidence for any of you not very familiar with the gateway to the west st louis sits right where the missouri drains into the mississippi river not only is this area blessed with an abundance of natural resources but these rivers make it ideal for the transport of people and goods making this even more appealing is that at the confluence of the two rivers is a wide flood plain called the american bottom in case you find that term strange bottom used to be a common term for floodplains and in this instance it stuck around so cut out that snickering this is history we are serious these floodplains made the area very fertile and well suited for agriculture now cahokia didn't just pop up out of nowhere for most of its history cahokia was a larger woodland settlement that had been inhabited since 700 ce woodland culture had developed out of the archaic around 800 bce in eastern north america and was characterized by small settlements practicing agriculture hunting fishing and foraging late woodland communities were fairly insular and for the most part there wasn't much interaction between settlements by the time cahokia was founded or old cahokia as it's referred to in the late woodland period the times were changing after the introduction of the bow and arrow from the west around 700 ce give or take communities began to increasingly cluster in villages which necessitated an increased reliance on agriculture during this time old cahokia was a larger woodland settlement and after about 900 ce it began to grow steadily as more and more people moved in by the way the name cahokia is not the original indigenous name the name actually comes from the tribe that was living there when the french first explored the area the original indigenous name has unfortunately been lost to time because of the floodplains cahokia had plenty of productive and fertile land for crops especially maize maize or corn as english speakers colloquially call it was far more productive than anything else woodland peoples had previously cultivated that's not to say that maize hadn't been around in the late woodland period it was there but it was farmed sparingly and it wasn't a staple crop it's not until the late woodland early mississippian period that this changes this may be because in part at 950 ce the medieval warm period began and turned the american bottom into a warmer and wetter area that allowed mace crops to thrive so just to recap at 1000 ce cahokia was a prosperous settlement steadily growing in size and farming maize more and more intensively in a very fertile area long time viewers of this channel should know that when maze begins to take off things have a tendency to change profoundly and i'll just say now that you won't be disappointed here around 10 50 for reasons that are not entirely understood everything at cahokia changed abruptly this is one of those moments where we can only frustratingly speculate at what caused such an incredible change perhaps some charismatic leader inspired other cahokians with a vision maybe cahokia reached a tipping point in food surplus and population and had to reorganize dr timothy pochette has theorized that the appearance of the supernova sn1054 which was recorded worldwide in the year 1054 may have been seen as a cosmic sign by the cahokian leadership and perhaps this was a catalyst in the justification of the new order while this is very speculative and unprovable it is i think an interesting coincidence by the way if you have a telescope you can still see the remains of this terrific supernova when you zoom into the crab nebula nearly a thousand years ago that thing would have been visible in the daylight whatever the reason seemingly out of nowhere cahokia exploded in size and i do not exaggerate old cahokia had a population of perhaps 2 000 people during the late woodland but it would grow to a city of more than 10 000 in just decades to accommodate this sudden swell in population the site underwent a complete redesign old cahokia was raised and in its place a new planned city began to take shape that would be dominated by huge mounds plazas and causeways these changes were so startlingly abrupt that it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that archaeologists refer to this moment as the big bang of cahokia now let's get out our magnifying glasses and dissect this big bang first of all who is migrating to cahokia and why if we look at the early pottery at the site we can gain some insight into this early pottery cahokia is fairly diverse in style which means that people from outside the area were moving in and taking their cultural traditions with them among them people of the coles creek culture in modern louisiana and plum bayou culture in modern arkansas cahokia-style pottery even shows up at some of those sites as well showing that there were older connections a good example of this migration can be seen in the decline of the impressive toltec mound site in central arkansas now just to clear something up especially for you mesoamerican enthusiasts out there there's no connection between the toltec mound site in arkansas and the toltec empire in mexico that's a modern name and one that shows us that enthusiastic archaeologists of ages past did not always come up with the most clear and precise names oh well the toltec mountain site was abandoned around 1050 just as cahokia was starting to take off and it's likely that many of the inhabitants made their way up the river to find a new home in cahokia like any great urban settlement cahokia was taking in new people from near and far these people would have also brought their own rituals traditions and political organization gahokia was likely a multi-ethnic and multilingual melting pot of people as cahokia grew it spilled across the river through modern day east saint louis and into st louis but sadly almost nothing remains of the great mounds of the saint louis and east st louis sites they've since been leveled and swallowed up by urban sprawl besides those other satellite communities have been documented all over cahokia's hinterland some of these were brand new settlements and others were previous woodland settlements that were absorbed into the cahokian sphere now that we have a rough idea of who was coming into cahokia let's look at the why as i mentioned earlier cahokia's floodplains offered a fantastic location for farming it was also ideally located for trade and transport since it was very close to the confluence of the mississippi and missouri rivers and yet there are other floodplains along the mississippi and other similar confluences but there was only one cahokia why was that it turns out cahokia was much more than just a tidy spot to settle on the river it was forging a new vibrant and appealing culture which likely played an important role in drawing in people from afar the big bang was just as much a cultural shift as it was a demographic one cokia wasn't just a big city it was the center of a new order a mississippian order these sudden changes touched almost every aspect of life and they can be seen in everything from houses pottery art consumption and burials let's take a quick look at some of these changes a good example of this is in the construction of houses previously woodland houses had been constructed by digging individual post holes before inserting posts and constructing the rest of the house suddenly cahokians ditched this method and began digging wall trenches to build houses this allowed workers to pre-fabricate walls on the ground before setting them into the trench perfect for planning and quick construction these are a trademark of cahokian and later mississippian culture also a distinct style of pottery called raymian sized pottery emerges as the signature style of cahokia these were clay pots created with a shell temper and incised with sticks reeds stone or bone implements these incise designs show a rich cosmology through a variety of cosmograms these pots served as both domestic as well as ritual functions and were so prized by people outside of cahokia that foreigners imitated and adopted this style another important element of cahokia was the game of chunky what is chunky you may be asking chunky was a game played by rolling a puck-like chunky stone across the ground two players with long javelin-like sticks would gauge the roll and path of the stone and throw their sticks as close to the stone's final resting point as possible think of it like horseshoes except you have to throw the horseshoe at a moving stake this game held very important ritual significance to cahokia and to later mississippian people but it was also a beloved spectator sport and later historical accounts state that it was even rife with gambling something to note about chunky and cahokia is that a distinct style of chunky stone was developed at cahokia which is characterized by a polished concave stone disc you can see examples of these here these chunky stones are going to be an important calling card of cahokia in art there are unique naturalistic flint clay statues of culture heroes gods and goddesses that provide tantalizing glimpses into cahokian mythology along with these beautiful works of art a new style and elaboration of art and iconography began to germinate at cahokia that would be exported far abroad the style is referred to as the secc the southeastern ceremonial complex now that term is a bit of a misnomer because when it was coined back in the 1940s the southeastern united states was seen as the epicenter of this complex but we now know that the secc had its origins around the mississippi now i do want to note that some of these symbols and motifs do have pre-mississippian antecedents but we shouldn't automatically assume that their meaning and application remain constant like many other cultural symbols across the world they were likely developed elaborated and perhaps even reinvented by cahokia but we'll get into more detail on that later what's important is that cahokia was pioneering a vibrant new way of life to people who had grown up in small isolated woodland settlements cahokia must have seemed like an alluring and grand experiment full of wonder with all that under our belts let's take a look at the landscape of cahokia when cahokia was planned out it was laid out on an orthogonal design offset about five degrees from true north the reason for this offset is not understood but it's clear that the city's layout adheres to this axis with this master plan the people of cahokia built mounds the scale of which had never been seen before or since atop these mounds would have been elite houses community buildings and religious shrines and temples before we start diving into the features of the site we need to make a few distinctions between the different types of mounds there are three types of mounds at the site platform mounds conical mounds and ridge top mounds platform mounds were flat flat-topped mounds that would have been topped with a building of some type these types of mounds are nothing new and there are similar mounds at earlier sites such as the toltec mound site we discussed earlier conical mounds also have some historical precedent as well from earlier cultures particularly from hopewell and adina sites these are believed to have been burial mounds for local elites but may have had other functions too the last type of mound at the site ridge top mounds are a cahokia original with perhaps one or two exceptions they are not found anywhere else in the eastern united states these mountains get their name from the pointed roof shaped top that they have although today these mound tops have been eroded and smoothed over by the march of time now that we have that out of the way let's look at the site in more detail and start at the most prominent feature monks mound if you're curious about where the name comes from it's because trappist monks settled at the site in the 18th century its construction actually began in the days of old cahokia around 950 ce and over the centuries it grew bigger and bigger until the final construction phase at about 11 50. the mound is the largest pyramid north of mesoamerica rising to a height of 30 meters with a base of 291 meters by 236 meters and let me tell you the view from the top will take your breath away literally i can tell you from personal experience that it's a long climb and you'll be huffing and puffing when you reach the top the mound is aligned to the city's north-south axis like other monuments at the site it had a total of four terraces which you can see here these would have had their own buildings on top of them there's compelling evidence to suggest that the second terrace was once part of the summit that collapsed and then was refinished in its current position at the mount summit would have stood a large structure most likely an elite residence of the cahokian leader excavations have uncovered post holes and wall remains which can give us a vague idea of the building's dimensions building the mound was a truly colossal undertaking all the earth for this mound would have been moved by hand and transported in baskets and piled up slowly but surely and don't get the idea that people were just piling up dirt cores taken from the mounds show that specific soils and clays were used in different layers and these likely had both structural as well as aesthetic purposes for example clay layers were probably added to aid in runoff recent estimates have put the volume of the entire structure at 740 000 cubic meters or 26 million cubic feet that's a lot of dirt probably too much actually because despite all that care and engineering the mound has unfortunately suffered from sagging and erosion turns out that earth piled that high does not always like to stay in place even today monks mound requires maintenance to combat this and to preserve its shape if you're curious where all the dirt for this and the other mountains came from it was dug locally and you can actually see the remains of those pits today these barrel pits form depressions in the landscape and many of them have become small ponds to the west of monk's mound is another important but sometimes overlooked part of the cahokian landscape the woodhenge now we've seen woodhenges on this channel before one of the earliest examples we already covered at poverty point and such monuments were also erected by the later hopewell culture in the first centuries of the common era like its ancient and distant ancestors the woodhenge was a series of wooden posts likely around 6 meters tall arranged in a circle the monument was constructed to observe astronomical events particularly the equinoxes and solstices the woodhenge was first built around 1100 ce and was actually rebuilt several times over the next century in slightly different sizes ranging from 73 meters in diameter to 145 meters at its largest arrangement the placement to the west of monk's mound is not a coincidence from the center point of the woodhenge the equinox sun would have risen from the center of monk's mound which would have been powerfully symbolic while we're on the west side let's push a little further until the 1930s the second tallest mound at the site stood there the powell mound the story of the powell mound is a tragic tale and one that's shared by many amount not just at cahokia but in east st louis and st louis as well the mound was originally a huge ridge top mound about 94 meters long and over 13 meters high the state of illinois had actually made an effort to purchase the mound from the powell family but the family had not been wanting to sell unless the entire property was bought a prospect that the state was unwilling or unable to do at the time the powell family had also offered to allow excavation of the mound for a rather large fee but at the time the lack of finance failed to bring about any such work little public interest also prevented additional funds from being raised fearing that eminent domain would be used the family hired a company to level the mound via steam shovel to fill in a low depression nearby incidentally that depression was likely the source of all the mound's dirt in december of 1930 archaeologists could only watch in as the mound was carted away archaeologists were able to make some quick observations and note some burials but not much else with almost no public outcry the second largest mound at the site was lost forever but let's get back to the monuments that are still there south of monk's mound would have been the grand plaza excavations have shown that this expanse was meticulously leveled out smoothed and topped with a sandy soil to provide solid footing in some places as much as three feet of earth had to be added to achieve this the grand plaza was likely used for public rituals feasts games dancing and other public gatherings the space was especially fine-tuned for public speaking and reportedly the acoustics are good enough that you can hear a good speaker from the top of monk's mound on a quiet day commerce may have also occurred here but that's still debated one important and iconic activity that would have happened here was chunky games the plaza provided a perfect surface for the sport the plaza is interrupted by a few smaller mounds that likely contained buildings and burials as impressive as the grand plaza is it's not the only plaza at the site there are also plazas to the north east and west that likely served similar functions as the grand plaza these four plazas likely represented the cardinal directions which were very important to mississippian cosmology and this design likely signified the four corners of the earth this theme is also represented in ancient art as a cross in the middle of a circle on the eastern side there's actually a second plaza that was likely constructed after the palisade was built in the middle of the eastern plaza but we'll talk more about that later of particular interest in this area is mount 34 which was constructed near the end of the 11th century this mound was excavated back in the 50s and it turned up a variety of secc artifacts from all over the mississippian world such as engraved whelk shells and effigy shark teeth from the gulf coast arrowheads from arkansas and even the remains of a copper workshop to the south of the grand plaza are two of the larger mounds at the site the twin mounds mound 59 is a conical mound about 12 meters tall that is believed to have been a mortuary mound mount 60 right next door is over 12 meters high and likely held an elite residence or possibly a charnel house on top if you're curious what a charnel house is it's a structure meant to inter the dead before a later burial there are actually historical accounts from later mississippian cultures that document instances of charnel houses on raised platforms near conical burial mounds and it's possible that this is what we're seeing here while researching this i was really surprised to find that very little excavation has been done on these mounds so there isn't much archaeology to discuss but that's not the case with our next stop because just beyond the twin mountains lies what is debatably the most important mound at the site in archaeological terms the excitingly named mound 72 mount 72 is a ridge top mound that has been reduced by centuries of erosion and plowing at first no one really bothered to give it much attention and it's not hard to see why it's not even two meters in height and i even once read in a book that one of the first maps of the site left it completely off but don't let first impressions fool you there is so much written on this that i could have made an entire episode about mount 72 alone in 1967 archaeologist melvin fowler first excavated the mound he was actually interested in the mound because he noticed that it lined up perfectly with the equinoxes rather than cahokia's grid and that the center line from monk's mound went directly through it he predicted that there would be a marker post lined up to that center line incredibly he found what he was looking for there was a post which was actually part of an earlier woodhenge dating all the way back to old cahokia the woodhenge was terminated with the rest of old cahokia and the mound was eventually built over the northeast section of the former woodhenge so that it aligned with the summer solstice sunset and the winter solstice sunrise as cool as that is it's not even the most interesting part of mount 72 not by a long shot unbeknownst to fowler and his team the mount had been constructed over a few smaller burial mounds that contained elite burials these burials were made over several decades and they were likely venerated long after by their descendants the most prominent burial excavated contained a man buried on a blanket of over 20 000 shell beads from the gulf coast all in the shape of a falcon or thunderbird in this beaded burial as it was later called there were a few copper tablets mica sheets chunky stones and hundreds of arrowheads several other burials were also interred with him possibly his retainers or kin to this day this is one of the richest burials ever found in the united states it's very impressive on its own but things took a grisly turn when archaeologists unearthed some sacrificed bodies in the mounds and not just a few of them no no mount 72 has over 270 bodies interred in it most of them were sacrificed some of them even appear to have been buried alive yikes a large number of these sacrificial victims were young women in their late teens and early 20s now some instances of human sacrifice in the eastern united states were documented by settlers notably among the pawnee and the natchez peoples but these instances never approached the dramatic scale seen at mount 72 sacrifice on this scale was completely unknown north of mesoamerica but it was happening at cahokia and it shows the power that the elites commanded over the local population another interesting thing about many of the female victims is that we know from dental and bone analysis that they were not eating particularly well they were subsisting primarily on maize which probably means that they came from a poor background we can also tell from strontium analysis that many of them were not local it's unknown if these women were attendants slaves captives or people offered up as tribute from outer satellite communities what is typically agreed upon is that this ritualized violence was part of an elaborate political and ritual theater meant to aggrandize elites and impress commoners even more interesting is that these burials date from the very beginning of new cahokia around 1050 ce even before the great mounds were raised the politics of cahokia were incredibly complex its leaders immensely powerful and mount 72 isn't an isolated instance it's just the best and most thoroughly studied instance it actually follows a pattern among other ridge top mounds at the site sadly many of these have been destroyed and were only hastily excavated in salvage operations long ago before modern techniques and carbon dating were available however these salvage excavations did confirm that these were mortuary mounds buried with honored dead as well as other sacrificial victims and while we're on the topic of ridge top mounds let's look at the largest one that still survives at the very south of cahokia is mount 66 affectionately called the rattlesnake mound for the pit viper nest that long infested it and presumably warded off would-be exploits by indiana jones by length this ridgetop mound is the second largest mound at the site it measures about 150 by 60 meters and has a height of about 9 to 10 meters it was built along an east-west axis instead of the north-south axis the mound was originally excavated back in the 1920s by warned king moorhead and some 140 burials were found inside but they were in a very poor state of preservation excavations also showed that this mound was built up fairly quickly but i've never seen any solid dating of this mound in my research some have speculated from the mountains phil that this mound may have been one of the earliest structures at cahokia from which the site was laid out what makes this idea even more intriguing is that the rattlesnake mound is connected to monk's mound by a large causeway running along the main axis of the site which was likely a ceremonial procession path there are many other mounts and features we could talk about but we've got a lot more to cover if you're interested in the nitty-gritty details i'd recommend picking up a copy of william eisminger's book cahokia mounds america's first city he'll gladly take you through the weeds and turn over every stone at the site for you it's a good read even for the interested layman you don't have to be an archaeologist to enjoy it now that we have a good idea of what cahokia looked like let's discuss what life would have been like there a city this big needs food and agriculture was central to cahokia's existence we already know that maize was the primary staple crop and an important part of the diet but it wasn't the only star of the show the eastern woodlands had long had its own agricultural tradition which is referred to in the literature as the eastern agricultural complex this made use of such plants as squash sunflower little barley may grass marsh elder and notweed and cahokia continued cultivating these crops the eastern agricultural complex is definitely worth more in-depth treatment but that's for another episode interestingly beans were never cultivated at cahokia and they only appear in the archaeological record after cahokia declines along with this small and large game fish and waterfowl were also hunted to provide meat farms and satellite communities spread out into the hinterland around cahokia to help feed this huge population the average cahokian lived in a waddle and daub house with a semi-subterranean foundation and a thatched roof as i mentioned earlier these are easy to spot in the archaeological record because these houses all had wall trenches you can easily see their outlines in the earth if you dig down by the way for those who aren't familiar with the term wattle and dobb it's a method of construction where a lattice of wood and sticks is covered with some type of soil or sand or clay mixture it's a fairly common method of house construction seen all over the ancient world not just at cahokia certain houses or structures also featured a t-shaped design but the function of these buildings isn't fully understood houses would have been constructed around a small plaza or courtyard another feature of neighborhoods would have been the circular sweat baths in which people would have ritually cleansed themselves outside of cahokia proper people would have lived in smaller satellite communities which were organized and constructed in the same manner as cahokia's neighborhoods population estimates for cahokia proper vary a bit but most scholars agree that 15 000 is a reasonable estimate with thousands more living in suburban communities people at cahokia were bonded by important cultural practices and ceremonies first and most obvious among these was the construction of the site's mounds you may wonder why people would have signed up for this back-breaking work but there's actually a telling clue in the garbage pits that have been excavated at the site ah yes garbage pits archaeological gold mines you see cahokians were repeatedly feasting within the city remains of deer grouse fish fruit stews tobacco seeds and broken dishes in huge numbers show that the people of cahokia were partying hard these feasts were probably associated closely with larger ceremonies chunky games and the redistribution of local surplus to allies those raymen-sized pots we described earlier were likely given away at such ceremonies to visitors from near and far the local crowds attracted to this would have constituted a huge labor force underpinning all of this ceremony in labor however was religion and this was vital to ancient life at cahokia reconstructing early mississippian religion is challenging but by combining archaeology with what historical accounts tell us of later indigenous people of eastern north america we can draw some conclusions i'm going to be highlighting the elements that we can really pin down at cahokia mississippian beliefs in mythology really deserves its own episode that said one important figure in later mississippian mythology is the birdman or thunderbird these figures are usually depicted as warriors with a beaked nose and striped eyes examples of birdman can be found at cahokia most famously on this tablet excavated from monk's mound but recall the beaded burial in mount 72 the beaded cape was fashioned in the shape of a falcon and it might be the case that the elites at the city made efforts to associate themselves with the thunderbird another figure that appears in cahokian art is the mississippian culture hero redhorn sometimes known by the longer but much more descriptive name he who wears human head earrings actually human head earrings with long noses an important feature of red horn's appearance hence the name have been found at and around cahokia later historical accounts of mississippian peoples also note an association with their chiefs and the sun and this dovetails rather nicely with the woodhenge alignments that we saw earlier remember from the woodhenge the rise of the summer equinox would have been seen coming from monk's mound likely from the chief's own house it would have been some powerful symbolism another series of artifacts that can cue us into cahokian beliefs are the female flint clay figurines that we mentioned earlier these figurines depict female figures perhaps mother goddesses or earth goddesses and what is most interesting is that they're usually depicted with crops in some instances these crops literally sprout from their bodies what role these goddesses played in cahokian beliefs is not entirely certain but they were likely linked with agricultural fertility especially when we consider that most of these figurines were recovered from the city's periphery it's bread baskets so to speak rather than within the city itself speaking of agriculture the intensification of maize farming may have had an impact on religion anyone who's ever grown maize knows that it's a demanding crop that needs the right amount of water at the right time so it shouldn't come as a surprise that water and rain became an important element to cahokian religion and there's some interesting evidence for this 24 kilometers east of cahokia is the emerald site a small mountain site that once housed a religious complex near a natural spring excavations show that this site was built up as cahokia rose in prominence and power it's also marked by the lunar alignments of the mounds so we can see an emphasis not just on water but the moon too the emerald site was an important location for cahokian ritual because a processional causeway connecting it to cahokia was recently discovered this was likely used as a pilgrimage route for important lunar events even more interesting at the site is that many of the buildings show termination rituals and even a human sacrifice involving water this is compelling evidence that water held power and sanctity and we're gonna see what happens later when that water begins to diminish incomplete as this picture is we can still get an idea of a very rich spiritual and cultural life that everyone at cahokia would have participated in let's take a step back and look at the wider picture cahokia was a juggernaut and its influence over the emerging mississippian world was nothing short of incredible traces of cahokia's influence can be seen as far south as louisiana as far north as wisconsin as far west as oklahoma and as far east as georgia one easy way to see this is through trade i should note here that most archaeologists believe that commerce was not central to cahokia's prosperity or influence or appeal but it still played a role nonetheless exotic materials such as marine shells from the gulf coast mica and quartz crystal from the appalachians sandstone from wisconsin and copper from the great lakes were transported to cahokia finnish materials such as arrowheads axes blades and exotic pottery have also been found at cahokia though they're not very common coming from cahokia were rainy incised pots long nosed god ear ornaments cahokia style chunky stones flint clay statuettes and cahokia style points and tools this exchange might look like everyday trade but this is actually part of a far larger cultural intrusion by cahokia into the lands beyond nowhere is this more pronounced than the northern mississippi around 100 northern sites from western wisconsin all the way to southeastern south dakota show unmistakable evidence of contact with cahokia and a resulting cultural shift the exact reasons for this are debated it's possible that colonists from cahokia migrated north and established new cahokia style settlements or that people from northern territories visited cahokia and brought back with them new ideas that transformed their homeland regardless this transformation was rapid just like the big bang had been at cahokia mississippian culture bursts onto the scene and just subsumes previous cultures the best example of this is the otstellon site in southern wisconsin and no there's no relation to the mythical outstolan or the aztecs so don't ask me in the comments just another case of poor naming prior to 1050 the locals here had built effigy mounds like other people in southern wisconsin and eastern iowa after 10 50 austellon suddenly emerges as a cahokia style settlement with mounds plazas wall trench houses and cahokia style artifacts local styles still continued but the fact that they're mixed up with cahokia artifacts shows that this was a sudden intrusion very early in cahokia's history and not a gradual change it really brings into focus the influence cahokia wielded oth salon is not an isolated example to the south cahokian influence can clearly be seen from spyro in oklahoma to shiloh in tennessee just to name a few specific locations by 1300 mississippian culture had diffused all over the southern united states and upper midwest and cahokia played a huge role in legitimizing this new order as glorious as cahokia was it couldn't last forever already at 1100 the gap between upper and lower classes began to widen and factionalism was probably increasing however this is actually the period where we can date most of the site's mound construction this construction spree likely displaced many people from their homes as new mounds and woodhenges were constructed when new houses were constructed they paid less attention to the city's grid layout during this time there doesn't seem to be any signs of internal conflict by 1150 however there were signs that cahokia was beginning to face serious challenges the most glaring change is the huge palisade cahokia built to enclose about 200 acres of the central precinct this wooden dobb-covered palisade was over 2 800 meters long and between three and four and a half meters high bastions and l-shaped gates were stationed at regular intervals along the palisade the construction of these fortifications represented an enormous expenditure of labor and resources it's estimated that 15 to 20 000 logs would have been needed for the palisade and if you think that's where it ends you're in for a surprise because that palisade was built and rebuilt four times during cahokia's history although no evidence for an attack on cahokia has ever been found these walls were clearly a high priority and it shows that cahokia had enemies most likely other mississippians warfare was becoming a concern and not just at cahokia this trend is mirrored all over the wider mississippian world at ottolon for example an equally impressive palisade was erected around the same time the palisade of cahokia would have also had profound social consequences because it cut directly through neighborhoods and public spaces those living within the walls were clearly differentiated from those living outside although they still would have been allowed inside for public events and ceremonies as well as when the city was under attack even more alarming than the erection of the fortifications was the fact the population was beginning to shrink by twelve hundred in the decades after twelve hundred cahokia was severely depopulated and only had a population of about three thousand to forty five hundred down from its peak population of perhaps 15 000 people whatever appeal cahokia had had two centuries earlier had faded and people were now leaving in droves without a large population to support it cahokia imploded like a star at the end of its life by 1350 the city was completely abandoned as well as most of the american bottom what caused this precipitous decline unfortunately cahokia's decline in its final demise are just as mysterious as its rise many causes have been suggested and we'll take a look at these real quick first and perhaps most common is that cahokia's incredible population depleted its local resources in particular force would have been felt in huge numbers for construction material and firewood remember the palisade alone would have required huge amounts of lumber archaeologists have speculated since the 90s that this mistake would have resulted in erosion and localized flooding episodes that would have catastrophically wiped out young crops however in recent years this theory has been reevaluated and challenged by recent archaeological work at cahokia which has shown that no such flooding occurred others have pointed out that changes in climate and drought episodes had an impact not just on cahokian harvests but on people's faith in the leadership according to these proponents the end of the medieval warm period in 1200 ce and a series of prior droughts that had a calamitous impact on the local agriculture and that this in turn discredited the cahokian leadership's ability to intercede with the gods this could have possibly coincided with a wider political decline as well former satellite communities might have broken away from cahokia's control depriving cahokia of their resources others have suggested that warfare and conflict contributed to cahokia's fall obviously warfare and conflict were a concern of later cahokians because they went to huge lengths to fortify their city as i mentioned earlier no direct evidence of warfare exists at cahokia though warfare would become rampant among mississippians in the post-cahokian world however at the nearby east st louis site salvage archaeology has revealed that much of the site was burned down around the same time the fortifications in cahokia were going up whether this was the result of an attack or an accident is unknown an interesting coincidence but hardly a smoking gun some have suggested that cahokia's huge dense population was at a higher risk of disease due to the effects of poor sanitation a challenge faced by all ancient urban populations worldwide and indeed there is some evidence to suggest that as cahokia grew the health of the common people suffered whatever the case cahokia was a ghost town by 1350. you may be wondering what happened to the tens of thousands of people that had formerly populated cahokia and its hinterland although it's impossible to trace the descendants of cahokia with certainty it's likely that the ancestors of later suhin speakers such as the osage the kansa the ponca the qapah and the omaha likely migrated from the american bottom to the west and south with them they took those hallmarks of cahokia's culture like chunky urban planning and its ceremonial and political practices this emigration was so complete that the american bottom was nearly emptied of all serious habitation until about 1 500. oddly however no surviving oral histories speak about cahokia or anything like it and i have personally found this very puzzling how could such an incredible time in history not be remembered in legend i think however it's important to remember that just because we admire a moment in time doesn't always mean that people who lived through it did cahokia may have been something imperfect or even oppressive that people didn't care to remember or perhaps oral histories did survive for centuries only to fade later we'll never know and that's going to wrap us up for today and i appreciate you sticking around to the end this video was a blast to make from start to finish this was the first episode where i covered a site that i have personally visited and i can't recommend it enough if you're ever passing through st louis on i-70 or i-55 do yourself a favor pull over climb monk's bound walk the site and visit the museum if you've made it this far through the episode you won't regret it special thanks to my patrons listed here you guys are the best if you would like to join the ranks of these fine individuals and support the show you can do so on patreon the link will be in the description below don't forget to like and subscribe and follow us on facebook take care and we'll see you in our next episode [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Ancient Americas

Views: 542,482

Keywords: Cahokia, cahokia mounds, mississippian, ancient, america, americas

Id: iciOvaIm51M

Length: 45min 15sec (2715 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 31 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Purple_Passion000]

Watched this a couple of days ago. A very good doc.