Inside the Secret Mounds Of Pre-Historic America | Ancient Mysteries (S3) | Full Episode | History

now andy takes you to the land before time  where a mysterious culture built enormous cities   hundreds of years before columbus uncover  the secret mounds of prehistoric america   it's one of the stories of the  asians one of the ancient mysteries before we unlock the future we  must find the keys to the past   i'm leonard nimoy join me and open the door  to ancient mysteries beginning now here on anu when the settlers of the 16 and 1700s began  pushing inland across north america from   the eastern and southern coasts they came  across many strange earthen structures high   cone-shaped mounds long ridges huge flat-topped  pyramids dotted and rippled across the landscape   inside these mounds unusual pottery and ornate  artifacts were often found next to human remains   remains of an ancient people  that vanished long ago   we now know that mounds and the practice  of mound building in north america   was more than just the peculiarity unlike the  famous carved stone heads on easter island   for over 2 000 years ancient peoples left  their marks throughout the eastern half of   the country referred to as the woodlands once the  information was collected it was found that there   were hundreds of sites containing thousands of  earthworks looking at this colossal undertaking   in its entirety it becomes clear that the  labors of the north american mound builders   were of such magnitude it makes these structures  one of the great accomplishments of early mankind the europeans exploring america were  understandably curious about the origin   of these mounds and the treasures that might be  found inside them and early excavations uncovered   an extraordinary amount of beautifully crafted  pottery and artifacts many showed sophisticated   workmanship and were evidence of elaborate  trading networks that brought goods from as far   off as the rocky mountains and the gulf of  mexico a distance of more than a thousand miles   many of the graves that were unearthed  revealed elaborate burial practices   this all seemed too exotic to be indigenous  to what people thought of as the new world   when confronted with the question of who built  these earthen structures later inhabitants of   north america didn't accept that these vines were  the work of ancestral indians the finds indicated   a more sophisticated culture had once thrived  there not only did the current lifestyle of the   indians seem unrelated but the indians themselves  when asked who was responsible for the mounds   didn't have an answer anxious for a solution  americans at the time came up with other   explanations the earliest interpretations of  the people who built the mountains was that they   couldn't have been native americans they had to  have been constructed by someone coming in from   somewhere else whether they were lost welch tribes  or lost children of israel or maya from south   america or something like that but in fact they  do appear to be and there's no evidence to suggest   that they're not purely indigenous the people  who were living here at the time constructed them even the lost continent of atlantis was  included in these lost race theories the   ideas presented not only seemed exciting  and magical but were proudly promoted to   increase the value of the artifacts being sold as  curios by those plundering the mounds for profit   these theories also supported the then racist  notion that indians were not sufficiently   civilized or ambitious enough to have been  responsible for such feats when these lost   civilization explanations lost credence that began  an almost willful effort to dismiss the mounds as   natural geological features formed through unusual  forms of erosion to support this it was pointed   out that america was filled with other spectacular  and unique natural land forms additionally most of   the mound sites were located on fertile ground  which would have been perfect for farmland the artifacts being uncovered were often  explained as coming from tribes that lived   on these natural land forms at different  times part of the problem of course   was that the science of archaeology was in  its infancy other tribes had indeed inhabited   the sites both before and after the era of mound  construction but without modern dating techniques   and a total understanding of statigraphy  the confusion is understandable it's hard   to believe how the largest structures in north  america built before 20th century skyscrapers   and giant airplane hangars could ever have been  misinterpreted as erosional remnants even when   considering the hundreds of years of weather and  vegetation that had obscured them we now know   that western illinois was once home to america's  prehistoric population at a site we call cahokia it was in the 1920s that warren k moorhead an  archaeologist came here to help the effort for   the state to acquire this property he did this  by excavating in the mounds some places between   the mounds to find objects pottery worked  shell flint work that would demonstrate that   these mounds were not only lived upon by indians  but they were built by indians and that these   were a man-made these are artificial in the case  of monk's mound it was almost a magic mountain   monk's mound is the largest prehistoric  earthwork in the whole western hemisphere   its base covers over 14 acres it stands a hundred  feet high and has several terraces excavations   have revealed that there was a huge building  at the top this construction was over 104 feet   long and about 48 feet wide and would be where  a chieftain a paramount ruler would have lived   and governed his community it also would have been  the setting for ritual and ceremonial activities   we estimate that there's at least 22  million cubic feet of earth amongst mound   and someone has figured out this would be over 14  and a half million basket loads of dirt that were   probably carried on the indians backs load after  load so tremendous expenditure of human labor   time and material to construct this mound but it  wasn't all done at once it was done in a series of   stages and from excavations and corings we've done  through the mountain we can identify many building   stages so perhaps as a leader would die they'd  burn down or tear down the old building on top   add more dirt put up a new building for the new  leader so the mound gradually increased in size   monk's mound stood at the center of what  is often referred to as america's first   great city archaeological data indicates that  the site came into existence around 800 a.d   and flourished for around 500 years monks  mound was one of the first examples of what   was categorized as the mississippian culture  large temple mounds are the primary features   that defines a mississippi in sight these can be  found all the way down the mississippi river from   east texas to the east coast whenever such  massive human endeavors were accomplished   by an ancient civilization slave labor is  often considered as the logical explanation   as to how the complex construction was achieved  that was certainly the prevalent theory when   the explanation of the mounds construction was  compared to egypt's pyramids and what was known   about them at the time but today these theories  have been rejected the analogy to understand   the construction of the mounds i think is  appropriate is to look at the cathedrals of europe   monumental constructions that were built by  people in a very primitive state of technology   some taking hundreds of years to build from  what we can tell no one was forced in fact   there were competitions among european groups  to build cathedrals i believe the mississippi   mound construction probably falls very much into  that line it was an honor to be involved in the   construction of a sacred edifice that in fact made  your group powerful and was a symbol of that power   cahokia had the largest earthworks and might have  been the greatest power on the continent at that   time this power arose not from some magical  force emanating from monk's mound but from   the efforts of the successful and influential  people who inhabited america's first great metropolis the prehistoric mounds of north america  are the most visible remains of the lost   culture at cahokia but they can sometimes  overshadow what was really happening there   so very long ago thanks to exhaustive research and  analysis we now may be able to get a true picture   of who the mound builders were and what life was  like for the inhabitants of this great metropolis   30 years ago about the time i first started  working at cahokia the concept was that this was   a vacant ceremonial center with these mounds where  people would come in on various special occasions   but with all of the detailed work that's been  done since then our concept has totally changed   we now feel that it was a large center with  a resident population in the five figures   and with very specialized subdivisions of the  site for instance areas that look like suburbs or   barrios of cahokia each with its own plaza and  its own platform mound and its own burial mound   the area within the palisade  is what i call downtown cahokia   the palisade was a fortress wall two miles long  around monk's mound demonstrating that earthworks   were not the only great architectural  accomplishments of the mississippians   the evidence of this once great wall was  discovered in 1966 when the locations of   dark lines on aerial photographs were found to  be portions of trenches thousands of 20-foot   tall timbers had been embedded in these  trenches to construct a fortified stockade   it's a possibility that the walls may have been  plastered with a heavy coating of clay and grass   mixed together we call dobb and in this part  here we've simulated that we know from historical   accounts in the southeast that when de soto  and his expedition were traveling through there   and fighting with indians they described walls  just like this that were heavily plastered with   clay so we assume that it's a possibility here in  cahokia though we've found no positive proof of it   while the walt undoubtedly had defensive purposes  i think it also served as a social barrier   between the general population and the  elite that live within this center including   the paramount ruler of cahokia who  undoubtedly lived on top of monk's town about the same time the stockade was discovered  the evidence of another timber structure was   unearthed this appeared to be the  american equivalent of stonehenge this post circle this american wood hinge  is thought of as a solar calendar or   a solar observatory because an  observer uh standing next to this   center post would see the sun uh rising over  the post behind me with the two white marks   we have put there on the first day of spring and  the first day of fall the equinox days and would   also see the sun rising over two  other posts on the first day of   winter and the first day of summer the solstice  posts now this host circle defined a a social   space an area where games could be played where  rituals could be performed and also for helping   to focus the energy of nature into this location  india's regarded circles is representing the earth   and so this circle probably was thought  of as symbolizing the earth in microcosm with no written language as was the case  with all north american native populations   the study of artifacts was the only way to achieve  an understanding of this culture that has ceased   to exist it was assumed that there was some  uniformity in the symbolism and religious beliefs   of native american cultures and this became the  basis for an interpretation the sandstone table   i'm holding was found in the in excavations on  the east side of monk's mound and engraved on its   surface was a design of a man wearing a bird-like  mask holding a wing up to one side and sort of a   dancing posture and on the reverse side is a cross  hatch design which some people believe interprets   the underworld serpent so we have embodied on  this tablet then the underworld being the serpent   this world being the man in the upper world  the bird representation and mississippian   symbolism of motifs and belief systems these  were major realms of the the spirit world it is estimated that at its peak in around 1100  a.d cahokia had between 20 to 40 000 citizens   urbanization on this huge scale was made possible  by their highly developed agricultural skills what   i'm holding in my hand is a mississippian hoe it's  manufactured from a church from southern illinois   there are quarries located in that area in which  the people there locally would manufacture these   objects ship them up to cahokia as well as the  smaller communities where they would be used   and in cultivating their fields as well  as in the excavation of their houses   with a population too dense to be supported by  the natural flora and fauna of the surrounding   countryside and with bountiful harvests a matter  of survival these concerns produced a continuous   theme in their culture we have here an example of  a type of pottery which is fairly rare at cahokia   now the symbolism involved in this piece  has to do with agricultural fertility   one of the classic designs is shown on this vessel  if you can see this scroll that wraps around here   it indicates rain and it indicates water in  general and we think that this was distributed   probably at one of the major ceremonials at  cahokia which is called the green corn ceremony the construction of the mounds was certainly a  central part of the ceremonial life in cahokia   and their size shape and location gave them  unique symbolism more than 120 were put together   and without doubt each one had a special  significance and purpose behind me is mountain   72 i was interested in this because it differs  from many of the other mounds at the hokies site   one difference is a shape the other is its  orientation along different axes than the rest   of the mound so we came up with the interpretation  that these ridge mounds were marker mounds marking   important locations at okay when we excavated we  found that the mound contained about 280 burials   the most important individual buried in  the mound was laid out on a platform of   several thousand shell beads this group  of beads made the pattern of a large bird   so we have the birdman theme that's  so common of coal in this burial   near the remains of this important person  were huge caches of artifacts deeper down   lay four male skeletons each without heads or  hands along with the remains of 53 young women   evidence of sacrifices are to be expected at  the burials of the elite in chieftain societies   these rituals were performed not only by the  mississippians but also in other lands by   peoples in similar stages of societal evolution  one of the things that we have to back off of   when we're thinking about cahokia is we we have  to not think of cahokia again in european terms   like the hokian empire cahokia probably in  reality never controlled any areas more than   about 50 miles from the site of cahokia it did  not seem to be involved in that kind of conquest   it had influences throughout the midwest  and the eastern united states but they were   influences through the passing on of religious  beliefs and through trade not through warfare   it was not a conquest state it was simply a very  large very successful group of farmers who for   a short time did very well by themselves   the people here played games using puck-like  objects called chunky stones found at this   and many other sites the people adorned themselves  with piercings and tattoos as shown in their human   effigies but they like all mississippian societies  were doomed to extinction what made the rise and   fall of these people an even greater puzzle was  what happened in the years that came before them it was about 12 000 years ago when the  glaciers of the ice age receded to the north   and the environment became fit for human  habitation in the middle eastern part of   what is now the united states it is  possible that the early paleo indians   focused their efforts on big game hunting and  continued this practice for several thousand years   about three thousand years ago the woodland period  began and some very important changes came about   these included the start of gathering local plants  as a food source and the first mound building   activities this is a worldwide phenomenon at about  this time frame people were building very similar   structures in many other parts of the world it  occurs at a time when there's a shift in economies   from hunting and gathering to cultivation and what  they represent on one level is that someone had to   have enough control over people to say we need  to do this we need to work cooperatively to do   that with hunting and gathering cultures you  you don't have that everyone's equal no one   can tell other people what to do and expect  them to do it given that these are generally   ceremonial sites the idea is that we're generally  talking about religious practices and so it is   something that we need to build these kinds of  structures because the gods deem it necessary   the earliest of what is referred to as a  mound building culture on north america   was given the name of the adina complex  many of their mounds reveal several   burial practices that include complete  inhumations cremations and bundle burials   the adena didn't build their temple mounds in the  shape of pyramids like those of the mississippian   culture but they constructed their own fascinating  structures including an earthen observatory dating   back to 160 bc that's located in the anderson's  mound site north of indianapolis indiana this is   the central platform of the great mound enclosure  in anderson mounds you can see the embankment   here behind me constructed by excavating a ditch  throwing the dirt to the outside and piling it up   in an embankment in essence what was done was a  false horizon was created to observe the sunset   there are slight depressions in the embankment  that i'm sure were much more obvious originally   behind me is the dip where the sun sets at  the winter solstice though it's obscured   now by tree growth and over here is the  dip where the sun sets at the equinox   and this depression marks where the sun sets at  the summer solstice around the embankment there   are other dips and depressions that are lined up  for the rising and setting points of bright stars   the adena are also the people most likely to have  been responsible for one of the most curious and   inexplicable earthen constructions ever found  slithering across the landscape in southern ohio   the great serpent mound is the world's largest  snake effigy twenty feet wide and five feet high   it is nearly a quarter of a mile long a tower  was built for the victorians to view and ponder   this enigma the symbolism of the oval in the  mouth of the snake draws the most speculation   it's been interpreted as an egg a frog or  the world itself it is believed to be the   work of the adena because a nearby village site  is similar to theirs but since effigy mounds are   not burial mounds and contain no artifacts the  great serpent mound remains a complete mystery it was around 100 bc that the adena apparently  disappeared from archaeological record   possibly due to an emerging  culture identified as the hopewell   it was originally theorized that this was  clearly the ending of one culture and the   beginning of another now this change is seen  as the cultural evolution of the same people   leading to the hopewell era that then flourished  in the ohio river valley in this particular part   of the world there were earthworks built as  circles and squares and octagons and then miles   and miles of just parallel walls so the designs  are very important and had special meaning to   the people who made them and they put a great deal  of effort into placing these things on the ground it's important to realize that what we perceive as  a mound is really the final stage of construction   at that particular location when no longer in  use ceremonial sites or buildings were turned   into burial sites and finally capped off with  earth to form the conical shapes we see today   fortunately the burial practice of interning the  dead with offerings and many of their belongings   has allowed us to find many important artifacts  and one of the most spectacular things about these   hopewellian people was their use of exotic raw  materials which were fashioned into really finely   crafted artifacts copper occurs in in a native  nugget form at several locations throughout the   eastern united states there's there's no local  sources of copper here and really tremendous   quantities of that material were brought here  to the site and worked into artistic objects   some of these were objects of personal ornament  like ear spools little copper discs that were worn   at the ears breast plates which are associated  only with the very highest status individuals one of the modern concepts considered in the study  of civilizations such as the hope well is that we   are only learning about their ceremonial  life from evidence found at the mountains   and this doesn't accurately reflect the  day-to-day life of the early mound builders it's important to recognize that these people  that their lives were not entirely focused on   death and mortuary behavior they they led  rich and varied lives like everyone else that   involved you know the whole range  of human activities and emotions   these people lived in households and hamlets  scattered throughout the river valleys   these settlements have been the focus of the  most recent archaeological work being undertaken   at hopewell sites excavations produce  discoveries that bring a whole new perspective   every fragment that is found becomes a part  of an unfolding tapestry of human experience   in prehistoric america this is one of the things  that we're finding a lot of here at the site it's   a fragment of a ceramic vessel a lot of the pits  that we've excavated have a large number of pieces   and we believe we'll be able to fit them together  and see what the vessels actually look like   from this fragment i i think we're looking  at the upper part of a bowl and the curvature   suggests that it would have been a round  bottom vessel probably for storage of something   at a typical hopewell settlement around 200 a.d  there would be a thatched and pole structure for   a small number of families to live in because  needed resources were scattered far and wide   the settlements were dispersed across the area and  even though they were becoming even more dependent   on agriculture greater population densities were  not yet possible something that we have acquired   information on really only in the last 20 years  is that these people had domesticated plants and   through sifting the contents of these trash pits  like we're excavating here through very fine mesh   using water flotation and in some cases chemical  floatation to retrieve charred remains of the   foods that they ate we have found kernels of  corn but we find only occasional kernels or   broken uh burned parts of cobs and they clearly  knew about it and used it but it was not part   of their agricultural repertoire the work going  on at archaeological excavations such as these   is only a part of the latest effort to understand  the prehistoric peoples of north america the egyptian pyramids near cairo were built  as tombs for kings and nobility between 2700   and 1000 bc it was 500 years later that the first  mound building culture emerging in north america   began to develop similar burial practices it was  generally accepted that in the 5th century a.d   the great archaic cultures came to an end and  europe slipped into the dark ages at the same   time across the atlantic the adena hopewell era  of mound building came to an end between 800   and 900 a.d the mighty mayan empire of mexico  and central america began to decline similar   structures made of earth were being erected  by the new mississippian culture to the north in 1492 columbus sailed toward the new world   but he never learned that america was home to  this great mississippian civilization by the time   other europeans began to explore the continent  the mound builders were destined to disappear the science of archaeology was put to a severe  test in trying to reconstruct the mound building   cultures of north america to begin with the  mounds had been constructed of soil and were more   prone to the ravages of time than the ancient  stone edifices found elsewhere in the world   it's impossible to determine how much  more defined the angles were originally   and how much the ditches and  depressions have been filled   time has taken its toll on most of the objects  left behind by these fascinating people   only the faintest traces remain of their  basketry leather and cloth the rest has   degraded into oblivion if we use a definition of  archaeology as a scientific study of the material   remains of the human past all we have left to  work with are those material remains that survive   generally stone artifacts pottery some metals  and if most of the earthen structures have been   damaged or destroyed we're dealing with probably  less than ten percent of what was here originally   and from that then trying to reconstruct what  people were doing here two thousand years ago   to help them to fill in their evolving  understanding of the mound builders   american archaeologists were aided by the  written accounts of the spanish explorer   hernando de soto and his expedition into the  southeast united states de soto began his   four-year trek in 1539 and he encountered some of  the last mississippian settlements along the way   one of the many facts the de soto documents  confirmed was that the temple mounds had   ramps leading to the tops accounts existed of  spanish horsemen riding up them on horseback   by the time the colonial era of america began  there were no mound building populations or   direct historic links in existence one of  the first scientific excavations of a mound   was done by a man considered the father of north  american archaeology thomas jefferson in 1781   after excavating a small burial mound near his  monticello home in virginia jefferson had no   doubt that this and other mounds in the area  were the work of american indians it was later   during the era of westward expansionism that the  idea of the lost civilizations became fashionable   in the mid-1840s the first fairly extensive study  of mound sites was conducted by two men working   out of chillicothe ohio efraim g squire a local  newspaperman and edwin h davis who was a physician   they excavated at nearby mound city and also  explored a large number of other earthen mounds   and enclosures their findings were published by  the recently established smithsonian institute   they concluded that some of the earthworks were  sacred enclosures and that the people who built   them were skilled mathematicians and engineers  unfortunately after helping enlighten americans   about the importance of these people the two  men had a falling out davis sold his collection   of artifacts for ten thousand dollars with no  reliable federal or state legislation existing   to protect these sites the destruction and looting  of the mounds and their buried treasures became   a critical problem they were very obvious  people excavated them purely out of curiosity   with no record keeping whatsoever  one instance that i know of a farmer   was removing a burial mound found a copper  artifact and used it to repair his shovel   there were mississippian mounds that were  dynamited and artifacts hauled out in wheelbarrow   loads and sold to people right on the spot and  the collection dispersed all over the country   the spiro mound site in oklahoma became known  for being a veritable treasure trove of artifacts   in the early 1930s it was declared the king  tut's tomb of arkansas valley as it was being   ransacked by a mining company that had control  of the land the local citizens were outraged   and became instrumental in oklahoma passing an  antiquities law in 1935. a great find unearthed   there was one of the best preserved and largest  of the mississippian figurines a human effigy   pipe standing 11 inches tall the adornments the  cap braid beaded necklace and feathered cape   make it a fine representation of a member of the  elite of that particular society the long fight   to preserve the mississippian site in alabama now  called moundville is an even more dramatic example   of people taking pride in local history and  taking it upon themselves to provide protection   in the 1920s the people banded together and  bought pieces of the property containing the   mounds whenever they could afford to do so  a young archaeologist named walter b jones   mortgaged his house on more than one occasion  he also labored tirelessly to gain support in   a 1929 appeal he wrote this matter has been before  state and federal legislative bodies time and time   again and has never made any headway in the  meantime the mounds are slowly disintegrating   we robbed the indians of everything they had and  the least we can do is to preserve this wonderful   monument which they left behind the persistence  of walter jones and the other citizens paid off   in 1933 mound state park was established to create  further interest jones assisted in the production   of a film called temples and peace his wife hazel  made a cameo appearance as a native american   most importantly the film chronicled some of the  excavations made by the alabama museum of natural   history at moundville one of the interesting  early experiments was to try to determine how   much effort went into building the largest of  the mounds assuming that an average basket load   contained 35 pounds of soil and a round trip  for each bearer took 20 minutes a total of   approximately 10 million man-hours were estimated  and over a million artifacts were recovered   where the dwellings once stood the diggers not  only found surprisingly well-preserved fireplaces   but also burial sites just beneath the flooring  the reason the film was called temples and peace   was because the site produced no real evidence of  war by or against this particular mississippian   society only 79 arrowheads were found and no other  obvious weaponry out of three thousand skulls   studied only two showed damage that  could be attributed to violence   the skeletons showed the average height of the  population to be just under five feet four inches   in 1938 restoration of moundville was undertaken  by work crews of the civilian conservation corps   the ccc curiously enough it was a great depression  that was responsible for much of the work done at   the mound sites during the thirties as part of the  many ccc projects men were finding themselves in   excavation crews under the supervision of  a trained archaeologist there's been some   criticism of these efforts as the men doing the  work were not scientists but they nevertheless   took part in many important discoveries at the  mississippian site okmulgee near macon georgia   a railroad had been sliced through a mountain that  was later discovered to be a large funeral mound   noted archaeologist a.r kelly brought his ccc team  to okmelge where they made a clearer cross-cut   that revealed five distinct layers these clearly  supported the theory that the mounds were built   in stages over long periods of time with  only black and white photography available   kelly commissioned a painting of what had been  found so that he could accurately record the   colors within the strata another important  part of the work done by kelly and his crew   was the uncovering of a well-preserved floor  and the reconstruction of the building that   once stood over it most people when they visit  a mound site see large earthworks and they think   in terms of mounds only but a unique feature  here is the earth lodge that's behind me it's a   reconstructed religious meeting place or cultural  meeting place perhaps a business meeting place   as you enter the earth lodge  around the wall there are 47 seats   starting from the entrance and going around to  the platform each seat gets wider and higher   until you get the final three seats for a total of  50 on the platform itself the earth lodge itself   is an almost perfect circle it comes within six  inches the upright timbers do form a perfect 16   foot square the reason the flooring had been  so well preserved was that it appeared that   the earth large site had been ceremonially  burned by the mound builders of ocmulgee   about the time they moved away ceremonial burnings  of temple sites is thought to be an integral part   of the rituals of some mississippians so why  the site was vacated is the lingering question for about 2 000 years the practice of mound  building was associated with the most important if   not dominant cultures of north america both during  the adina hopewell and then mississippian eras   these cultures each seemed poised to become  one of the world's great civilizations   but then inexplicably disappeared from the  land or at least from archaeological remains one of the things that has impressed me as i  work on the hopewell question is rooted in this   long-term stable adaptation that they achieved  lasting anywhere from four to six hundred years   when you consider that stability of the mystery of  what happened to this cultural tradition becomes   even more intriguing and however we ultimately  explain it whether by demographic growth or   climate change or the leaders adopting a new  system of relationships or whatever might   come out of the archaeological research  this fact of why such a stable adaptation   succumbed and was replaced by something  else is a very deep part of the mystery when a culture ceases to exist the most  melodramatic scenarios for his demise   are always proposed first but there  is no evidence that warfare disease   or a cataclysmic event brought an  end to these people around 500 a.d sometimes people overemphasize the mystery of the  disappearance of the hopewell people but actually   they didn't disappear the people who built these  monuments and made these big earth works and did   all this work and their descendants stayed in the  area were quite sure but they made a different way   of making their living and their culture evolved  into something different just as our own evolves   changes from what george washington  did to what we did but we're still here when it comes to the end of the mississippian  era we may be talking about something altogether   different many major mississippian sites  like etowah in georgia lasted into the 1500s   succumbing about the time of european incursion  into the continent the natchez people of louisiana   practicing many of the mississippian traditions  until around the year 1700 probably died out   after desoto and the later french explorers  unknowingly unleashed a form of bacterial warfare   on the native american populations but this  isn't the reason for the demise of cahokia   200 years earlier perhaps the very fact that it  was home to the biggest mississippian population   was the reason for the early decline that  left this once magnificent city abandoned   in the 1300s many theories for his decline are  based on the kind of problems that continually   plague urban settlings the population may  simply have grown beyond the ability of the land   to support it for example one of the reasons  cahokia declined was because they ran out of wood   and that's clearly shown in the rebuilding  of the stockade much larger stockade logs   at the beginning down to very small stockade  logs at the end suggesting that the the wood   in the immediate vicinity is being cut down and  doesn't have time to replenish so it may be that   people are simply running out of resources to  support a large population in that immediate area one of the least looked at variables in terms of  the collapse of these mississippian societies in   particular cahokia is the role of environmental  change particularly climatic change and   over this area you have essentially three  large air masses one of these air masses   involves the hot dry air coming off the planes  and so it's very possible that there was much   drier we know for example out in iowa there were  droughts that were happening at about 1200 a.d   it may not even be drought it could be  continuous rains certainly one of the   things we do see is that there appears  to have been a much higher water table   at about 1300 a.d because people are  located on higher portions of the floodplain some of the new work we've been doing  suggests that the end of cahokia is not   a slow decline in fact that it may be very rapid  and this gives more credence to the idea that   the end of cahokia is a political phenomena  rather perhaps an environmental one we know   that it was a chieftain chieftains are  unstable there are many competing groups   it is very likely that the end of cahokia  came through something like civil war and that   it created a situation in effect where there were  no winners and that you had basically a dispersal   of elites with their followers throughout perhaps  the west and to the north and that simply was the   end of coqui it was rapid it may have taken  place in 10 or 20 years rather than 100 years maybe we should stop looking at the eras of the  edena hopewell and the mississippians as failures   when we look at our modern problems such as  urban overcrowding political upheaval and   apathetic society as well as all the environmental  issues the several hundred years that each of the   mound builders existed should be considered  successful we may never know that much more   about these ancient peoples and the true reasons  for their disappearance but to consider their fate   may serve a far greater purpose than  simply to satisfy scientific curiosity so so you

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 500,882

Rating: 4.7827029 out of 5

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Id: AcbC7V5KC9o

Length: 46min 36sec (2796 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 30 2020