Cahokia

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Cahokia
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Cahokia

• Site location
• 16 km east-northeast of Saint Louis (in East
  Saint Louis), On Cahokia Creek
• Cahokia was the largest prehistoric city north of
  Mexico
• At its peak it may have had some 20,000-30,000
  inhabitants
• Appears to have been the center of at least 50
  communities in the American Bottom region

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Occupation

• This site was first inhabited by Indians of the
  Late Woodland culture about AD 700.
• The site grew during the following Mississippian
  period, after AD 900, and by AD 1050-1150, the
  Cahokia site was the regional center for the
  Mississippian culture with many satellite
  communities, villages and farmsteads around it.
• After AD 1200, the population began to decline
  and the site was abandoned by AD 1400.

http//www.nps.gov/history/worldheritage/cahokia.h
tm
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Cahokia Reconstruction
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Additional Reconstruction
http//www.nps.gov/history/worldheritage/cahokia.h
tm
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City Center

• Site center is basically diamond shaped with an
  interior palisaded core
• 4.58 km east-west by 3.67 km north-south and 13.4
  km2
• 120 mounds
• City center
• Monk's Mound plus 16 other mounds
• Basically shaped like a squat boat heading south
• Surrounded by a palisade on three sides (Cahokia
  Creek defining the fourth side)
• Majority of mounds lie outside the palisaded
  inner core
• One small mound yielded the burial of a
  high-ranking individual buried with Caches of
  arrow heads, Polished stone, Mica, Six sacrificed
  male retainers, A separate mass grave containing
  53 women

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Palisade

• Excavations begun in 1966 uncovered a
  two-mile-long stockade surrounding the central
  portion of Cahokia.
• The wall was started around A.D. 1100 and then
  rebuilt three times over a period of 200 years.
• Each construction required 15,000-20,000 oak and
  hickory logs, one foot in diameter and twenty
  feet tall.
• The logs were sunk into a trench four to five
  feet deep and were supported with horizontal
  poles or interwoven with saplings.

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Reconstructed Palisade
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Woodhenge

• Evidence that there were as many as five
  Woodhenges.
• These were built over a period of 200 years (A.D.
  900-1100).
• Fragments of wood were identified as red cedar
  and used for the posts.

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"Woodhenge Functions

• Possible functions of "Woodhenge
• Observatory (?) May have functioned like
  Stonehenge as a sort of "observatory"
• For astral and horizon alignment observations.
• three posts are crucial as seasonal markers --
  those marking the first days of winter and summer
  (the solstices), and one halfway between marking
  the first days of spring and fall (the
  equinoxes).
• Sun Dance "Temple" (?)

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Woodhenge Reconstruction
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Burial Status Cahokia Mound 72
The wood dates to approximately 1000 A.D.   272
burials were discovered in mound 72.
Burials without litters
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Mound 72
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Mound 72
Female Burial Pit (53 between 15 and 30)
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Mound 72
Headless Burials
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Reconstruction of Chief from Mound 72
http//www.sacred-destinations.com/usa/images/illi
nois/cohokia/birdman-burial-cc-jefgodsky.jpg
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Monks Mound

• Largest monument at Cahokia is the famous Monk's
  Mound
• Monk's Mound
• About 100 feet high
• Covers sixteen acres (3 acres more than the great
  pyramid at Giza!) (6.4 hectares)
• 316 by 241 meters(76156 square meters) rising
  over 30 meters high
• Contains over 600,000 cubic meters of earth
• Constructed in stages
• This constitutes one of the largest examples of
  prehistoric construction in the entire Western
  Hemisphere

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Monks Mound
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Another View
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Mississippian Collapse

• Most Mississippian centers abandoned by 1500s,
  before contact with Europeans
• Reasons largely unknown.
• Natchez and Coosa still around until decimated by
  European disease.

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Sources

• http//www.crt.state.la.us/crt/parks/marksvil/mark
  svle.htm
• http//www.picturesofrecord.com/Mississippian20Cu
  lture20thumbnail.htm
• http//users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/cahokia.html