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96-503: Cahokia Mounds / k ə ˈ h oʊ k i ə / ( 11 MS 2 ) is the site of a Native American city (which existed c. 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis . The state archaeology park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville . The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km), and contains about 80 manmade mounds, but

192-478: A 2007 study in Quaternary Science Reviews , "Between AD 1050 and 1100, Cahokia's population increased from between 1,400 and 2,800 people to between 10,200 and 15,300 people", an estimate that applies only to a 1.8-square-kilometre (0.69 sq mi) high-density central occupation area. As a result of archeological excavations in the early 21st century, new residential areas were found to

288-706: A designated site for state protection. It is also one of the 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States . The largest pre-Columbian earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico, the site is open to the public and administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division and supported by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois state bicentennial,

384-546: A disc-shaped chunky stone across the field. The players would throw spears where they thought the chunky stone would land. The game required a great deal of judgment and aim. The major ceremonial north–south 'axis' connects the main precinct with the large ridgetop mortuary mound to its south now known as the Rattlesnake Mound (Mound 66). The feature, named the Rattlesnake Causeway by archaeologists,

480-526: A dull blackish-brown color....I find it pretty good food for humans." Another plant species at Riverton that can confidently be identified as domesticated was sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ). This is based on the larger size of the seed in the domesticated than in the wild varieties. Remains of plants that were used, but may or may not have been domesticated at Riverton, include bottle gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria ), squash ( C. pepo ), wild barley ( Hordeum pusillum ) and marsh elder ( Iva annua ). Some of

576-588: A few years to the thickness they had been in the wild. By about 500 BCE, seeds produced by six domesticated plants were an important part of the diet of Native Americans in the middle Mississippi River valley of the Eastern Woodlands region. The local indigenous crops were replaced slowly by other more productive crops developed by the Mesoamericans in what is now called Mexico : maize, beans and additional varieties of squash. Maize, or corn,

672-4257: A four-part identifier, "50" for the state, a two-digit code for the island, then a two-digit code to designate the USGS topographical quad, plus a four digit sequential site number for sites on each island. NN: One or two digit number, 1 though 16, identifying rectangles (15 ' USGS maps) in a quadrangle map. AA: Alamance (AM)  · Alexander (AX)  · Alleghany (AL)  · Anson (AN)  · Ashe (AH)  · Avery (Av)  · Beaufort (BF)  · Bertie (BR)  · Bladen (BL)  · Brunswick (BW)  · Buncombe (BN)  · Burke (BK)  · Cabarrus (CA)  · Caldwell (CW)  · Camden (CM)  · Carteret (CR)  · Caswell (CS)  · Catawba (CT)  · Chatham (CH)  · Cherokee (CE)  · Chowan (CO)  · Clay (CY)  · Cleveland (CL)  · Columbus (CB)  · Craven (CV)  · Cumberland (CD)  · Currituck (CK)  · Dare (DR)  · Davidson (DV)  · Davie (DE)  · Duplin (DP)  · Durham (DH)  · Edgecombe (ED)  · Forsyth (FY)  · Franklin (FK)  · Gaston (GS)  · Gates (GA)  · Graham (GH)  · Granville (GV)  · Greene (GR)  · Guilford (GF)  · Halifax (HX)  · Harnett (HT)  · Haywood (HW)  · Henderson (HN)  · Hertford (HF)  · Hoke (HK)  · Hyde (HY)  · Iredell (ID)  · Jackson (JK)  · Johnston (JT)  · Jones (JN)  · Lee (LE)  · Lenoir (LR)  · Lincoln (LN)  · Macon (MA)  · Madison (MD)  · Martin (MT)  · McDowell (MC)  · Mecklenburg (MK)  · Mitchell (ML)  · Montgomery (MG)  · Moore (MR)  · Nash (NS)  · New Hanover (NH)  · Northampton (NP)  · Onslow (ON)  · Orange (OR)  · Pamlico (PM)  · Pasquotank (PK)  · Pender (PD)  · Perquimans (PQ)  · Person (PR)  · Pitt (PT)  · Polk (PL)  · Randolph (RD)  · Richmond (RH)  · Robeson (RB)  · Rockingham (RK)  · Rowan (RW)  · Rutherford (RF)  · Sampson (SP)  · Scotland (SC)  · Stanly (ST)  · Stokes (SK)  · Surry (SR)  · Swain (SW)  · Transylvania (TV)  · Tyrrell (TY)  · Union (UN)  · Vance (VN)  · Wake (WA)  · Warren (WR)  · Washington (WH)  · Watauga (WT)  · Wayne (WY)  · Wilkes (WK)  · Wilson (WL)  · Yadkin (YD)  · Yancey (YC) AA: Abbeville (AB) · Aiken (AK) · Allendale (AL) · Anderson (AN) · Bamberg (BA) · Barnwell (BR) · Beaufort (BU) · Berkeley (BK) · Calhoun (CL) · Charleston (CH) · Cherokee (CK) · Chester (CS) · Chesterfield (CT) · Clarendon (CR) · Colleton (CN) · Darlington (DA) · Dillon (DN) · Dorchester (DR) · Edgefield (ED) · Fairfield (FA) · Florence (FL) · Georgetown (GE) · Greenville (GV) · Greenwood (GN) · Hampton (HA) · Horry (HR) · Jasper (JA) · Kershaw (KE) · Lancaster (LA) · Laurens (LU) · Lee (LE) · Lexington (LX) · Marion (MA) · Marlboro (ML) · McCormick (MC) · Newberry (NB) · Oconee (OC) · Orangeburg (OR) · Pickens (PK) · Richland (RD) · Saluda (SA) · Spartanburg (SP) · Sumter (SU) · Union (UN) · Williamsburg (WG) · York (YK) Eastern Agricultural Complex The Eastern Agricultural Complex in

768-457: A heavy crop of tiny seeds in panicles at the end of every branch. In early winter, when the panicles are dry, it is quite easy to gather these seeds in considerable quantity. Just hold a pail under the branches and strip them off. Rub the husks between the hands to separate the seed and chaff, then winnow out the trash. I have collected several quarts of seed in an hour, using this method. The seeds are quite fine, being smaller than mustard seeds, and

864-833: A million visitors a year, was designed by AAIC Inc. The building, which opened in 1989, received the Thomas H. Madigan Award, the St. Louis Construction News & Reviews Readers Choice Award, the Merit Award from the Metal Construction Association , and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Brick Manufacturer Association. Cahokia has long been a point of interest in the academic community. As early as

960-400: A natural or man-made event, such as a fire, leaves a bare patch of soil. The process of domestication of wild plants cannot be described with any precision. However, Bruce D. Smith and other scholars have pointed out that three of the domesticates (chenopods, I. annua , and C. pepo ) were plants that thrived in disturbed soils in river valleys. In the aftermath of a flood, in which most of

1056-426: A possible indicator of weak integration along ethnic lines. It is likely that social and environmental factors combined to produce the conditions that led people to leave Cahokia. Cahokia's connections to the surrounding regions seems to have shifted from one of direct contact and outpost construction to one of dispersal. The immigrant populations inhabiting upland villages in the so-called Richland Complex were some of

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1152-576: A standardized suite of building types, including steam baths, council houses, and temples. Cahokian domestic structures were generally of pole-and-thatch construction and followed rectangular footprints. Wall trenches were often used instead of posts for building construction. Alleen Betzenhauser and Timothy Pauketat argue that upwards of 20 percent of Cahokia's neighborhood structures did not serve domestic functions, but were rather intended to facilitate engagement with non-human spiritual beings as part of an animistic religion. These beings may have resided in

1248-412: Is 100 ft (30 m) high, 951 ft (290 m) long, 836 ft (255 m) wide and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha). It contains about 814,000 cu yd (622,000 m) of earth. The mound was built higher and wider over the course of several centuries, through as many as 10 separate construction episodes, as the mound was built taller and the terraces and apron were added. Monks Mounds

1344-755: Is Phillips Spring in Missouri. At Phillips Spring, dating from 3000 BCE, archaeologists found abundant walnuts, hickory nuts, acorns, grapes, elderberries, ragweed, bottle gourd, and the seeds of Cucurbita pepo , a gourd with edible seeds that is the ancestor of pumpkins and most squashes. The seeds found at Phillips Spring were larger than those of wild C. pepo . The agency for this change was surely human manipulation. Humans were selecting, planting, and tending seeds from plants that produced larger and tastier seeds. Ultimately, they would manipulate C. pepo to produce edible flesh. By 1800 BCE, Native Americans were cultivating several different plants. The Riverton Site in

1440-443: Is also an increase in cemeteries of grouped minor-elites outside of Cahokia. Though mound construction still occurred, it did so at a lesser rate. Many earlier mounds were ritually capped and ceased to be modified afterwards. Altogether this has been taken as a time when centralized political structures were weakening and essential religious practices were rethought. Political, economic, or cultural problems may also have contributed to

1536-629: Is based on modern understandings of crop yields that assume the use of plows. Cahokians' exclusive use of hand tools was less damaging to the soil and thus may have maintained soil quality far longer than is typical today, making a rapid collapse of agricultural productivity in Cahokia less likely. Historian Daniel Richter notes that the apex of the city occurred during the Medieval Warming Period . This period appears to have fostered an agricultural revolution in upper North America, as

1632-484: Is invasion by outside peoples. Many theories since the late 20th century propose conquest-induced political collapse as the primary reason for Cahokia's abandonment. Evidence of warfare found is defensive wooden stockade and watchtowers that enclosed Cahokia's main ceremonial precinct. Multiple associated 13th century burned villages in the Illinois River Valley to the north speak to the rising tensions at

1728-706: Is now the Central and the Southeastern United States , beginning more than 1,000 years before European contact . Today, the Cahokia Mounds are considered to be the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico. The city's original name is unknown. The mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe , a historic Illiniwek people living in

1824-638: Is that agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands preceded the import of crops from Mexico and that the Eastern Woodlands were one of about ten cultural regions in the world to become an " independent center of agricultural origin ." In the 1970s and 1980s, new archaeological techniques demonstrated that by 1800 BCE the Native Americans of the eastern woodlands had learned to cultivate indigenous crops independently and that indigenous crops formed an important part of their diets. A major element in determining that plants were cultivated rather than being collected in

1920-469: Is that higher levels of maize consumption may be correlated with a lower social status among Cahokian residents. The impact that Cahokian agriculture had on the environment, and its relationship to the city's ultimate collapse, is hotly debated. The depletion of farming soil surrounding Cahokia may have led to a decline in food resources that doomed the city. Jane Mt. Pleasant, however, argues that these models of Cahokia's soil longevity are flawed, because it

2016-401: Is the bottle gourd , remains of which have been excavated at Little Salt Spring , Florida dating to 8000 BCE. Squash ( Cucurbita pepo var. ozarkana ) is considered to be one of the first domesticated plants in the Eastern Woodlands, having been found in the region about 5000 BCE, though possibly not domesticated in the region until about 1000 BCE. The squash that was originally part of

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2112-562: The Black Hawk's War ) their claim to the land and its usage was usurped. In downtown Cahokia a group of early 19th century (circa 1809) Trappist Monks lived on the grounds. Later the land was farmed by the Ramey family through the latter-half of the 19th century. This is when serious archaeological interest began as Euro-American settlers began trying to make sense of the site. The Cahokia Museum and Interpretive Center, which receives up to

2208-527: The Bootheel ; and the Upper Tombigbee drainage in northeastern Mississippi. The region may have been used by occasional hunting parties but there was no settlement of any substantial kind at Cahokia nor in the wider region from 1400 to 1600 CE. However archeologists discovered evidence in 2020 that there was a population rebound in the greater area following Cahokia's population minimum in 1400, with

2304-540: The Riverton Site in Illinois in 1800 BCE were goosefoot ( Chenopodium berlandieri ), sunflower ( Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus ), marsh elder ( Iva annua var. macrocarpa ), and squash ( Cucurbita pepo ssp. ovifera ). Several other species of plants were later domesticated. The term Eastern Agricultural Complex (EAC) was popularized by anthropologist Ralph Linton in the 1940s. Linton suggested that

2400-555: The Wabash River valley of Illinois, near the present day village of Palestine , is one of the best known early sites of cultivation. Ten house sites have been discovered at Riverton, indicating a population of 50 to 100 people in the community. Among the hearths and storage pits associated with the houses, archaeologists found a large number of plant remains, including a large number of seeds of chenopods ( goosefoot or lamb's quarters ) which are likely cultivated plants. Some of

2496-593: The three-fold crops of maize , beans ( legumes ), and gourds ( squash ) were developed and adapted or bred to the temperate climates of the north from their origins in Mesoamerica . Richter also notes that Cahokia's advanced development coincided with the development in the Southwest of the Chaco Canyon society, which also produced large-scale works in an apparent socially stratified society. The decline of

2592-522: The 12th century. Others paddled upriver to the site in southern Wisconsin of Trempleau Bluffs to create a mounded religious center at the end of the 11th century. It was during the Stirling phase (1100-1200 CE) that Cahokia was at its height of political centralization. Current academic discourse has emphasized religion as a major component in consolidating and maintaining political power essential to Cahokia's urbanity. The Emerald Acropolis mound site in

2688-471: The 13th (the Moorehead phase 1200-1300 CE) was one of change. People stop constructed and using the earlier T and L shaped ritual buildings as well as large circular rotundas. Family homes began to be built larger and storage pits previously located outside of them were moved inside. Ceramic styles and production techniques shifted, with an increase in plates, cord-marking, and solar-themed iconography. There

2784-503: The 1960s, universities across the Midwest have gone to the site to conduct research in fields ranging from geology to archaeology. One of the most prominent archaeological researchers of Cahokia is Timothy Pauketat . He has been writing about and researching Cahokia for the majority of his professional career. Other prominent Cahokia academics include Warren Wittry, who was instrumental in the recovery of Cahokia Woodhenge . Cahokia Mounds

2880-586: The American Bottom region. Moundbuilding activity may have occurred at Cahokia proper, but certainly did at one site to the north near Horseshoe Lake. These Late Woodland people were farmers, but maize's importance at this time was marginal. Its successful introduction occurred around 900 CE. Most of the crops grown at the time were from the Eastern Agricultural Complex suite, an older and endemic farming tradition. Cahokia became

2976-595: The Cahokia Mounds were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois). It was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of the selections for 'Illinois 25 Must See Places'. Although some evidence exists of occupation during the Late Archaic period (around 1200 BCE) in and around the site, Cahokia as it is now defined

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3072-711: The Eastern Woodland tribes integrated maize cultivation from Mayans and Aztecs in Mexico into their own pre-existing agricultural subsistence practices. Ethnobotanists Volney H. Jones and Melvin R. Gilmore built upon Ralph Linton's understanding of Eastern Woodland agriculture with their work in cave and bluff dwellings in Kentucky and the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas . George Quimby also popularized

3168-549: The United States in 2009. State Senator Evelyn M. Bowles wrote about the Cahokia Mounds site: Through the years my friends and I made occasional Sunday afternoon trips to the Mounds. When I became the State Senator, it afforded me the opportunity to secure funds for the acquisition of additional acreage in which there are smaller Mounds. Many of these have contained additional artifacts. The designation has helped protect

3264-465: The ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles (16 km), included about 120 earthworks in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions, and had a population of between 15,000 and 20,000 people. Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture , which developed advanced societies across much of what

3360-412: The area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century. As this was centuries after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants, the Cahokia tribe was not necessarily descended from the earlier Mississippian-era people. Most likely, multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the Cahokia Mounds area during the time of the city's apex. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and

3456-461: The beginning of Cahokia's rearticulation and decline. Circa 1160-1170 CE a large walled, residential compound in the East St. Louis precinct was burned down. Multiple ritual structures that were filled with an unusual density of stone tools, exotic materials, and pots filled with shelled maize were included in this burning, possibly representing unrest in response to 12th century inequalities. The area

3552-429: The builders in connection with their lunar maize goddess of the underworld. This is further strengthened by its close proximity to the ridgetop mortuary Mound 72 , the underworld connotations of the low water-filled area the causeway traversed, and its terminus at the mortuary complex at the Rattlesnake Mound. The causeway itself may have been seen as a symbolic "Path of Souls". The high-status central district of Cahokia

3648-535: The building itself or inhabited large marker posts, similar to the posts used to build the Cahokia Woodhenge. Betzenhauser and Pauketat compare their theorized Cahokian buildings to similar historical examples such as shaking tents or medicine lodges. Monks Mound is the largest structure and central focus of the city: a massive platform mound with four terraces, 10 stories tall, it is the largest man-made earthen mound north of Mexico. Facing south, it

3744-423: The centuries preceding 1000 CE American Bottom populations were living in small settlements of 50-100 people that were used for short durations of 5-10 years. At least two of these larger clusters were present at Cahokia. One dating to the mid-7th and 9th centuries. Later in time many began to be constructed along cosmologically organizing principles emphasizing cardinal directions and distinct sectors of society. By

3840-549: The chances that a single cataclysmic flood would wipe out the city's food supply. Cahokia's abandonment came in tandem with the abandonment of the wider surrounding region, referred to by scholars as "the Vacant Quarter." Populations left what is now southern Illinois; the Lower Ohio Drainage in southern Indiana; nearly the entirety of western Kentucky and Tennessee; most of southeastern Missouri excepting

3936-430: The chenopod ( Chenopodium berlandieri ) seeds had husks only a third as thick as those of wild seeds. Riverton farmers had bred them selectively to produce a seed easier to access than wild varieties of the same plant. The wild food guru of the 1960s, Euell Gibbons , gathered and ate chenopods. "In rich soil," he said, " lamb's quarters will grow four or five feet high if not disturbed, becoming much branched. It bears

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4032-747: The city center. To date, 109 mounds have been located, 68 of which are in the park area. The mounds are divided into three different types: platform , conical , and ridge -top. Each appeared to have had its own meaning and function. In general terms, the city center seems to have been laid out in a diamond-shaped pattern about 1 mi (1.6 km) from end to end, while the entire city is 5 mi (8.0 km) across from east to west. Cahokian residential zones were arranged into carefully planned clusters around plazas and mounds. Specific delineations and functions have been hard to determine, but many of these clusters may have been designed to accommodate religious or ethnic segregations. Cahokia's neighborhoods possessed

4128-636: The city coincides with the Little Ice Age , although by then, the three-fold agriculture remained well-established throughout temperate North America. The original site contained 120 earthen mounds over an area of 6 square miles (16 km), of which 80 remain today. To achieve that, thousands of workers over decades moved more than an estimated 55 million cubic feet (1,600,000 m) of earth in woven baskets to create this network of mounds and community plazas. Monks Mound , for example, covers 14 acres (5.7 ha), rises 100 ft (30 m), and

4224-479: The city's abandonment as such Algonquian groups from the east moved into the Vacant Quarter in the mid-17th century, specifically the Illinois Confederation . The Cahokia tribe was one such group from where the site gets its name. While Cahokia proper had ceased to exist the mounds continued to be present on the landscape. Various French settler-colonial families are documented to have claimed

4320-594: The city's early period of existence. A diversity of crops such as goosefoot and sumpweed from the Eastern Agricultural Complex were grown and eaten at Cahokia. Thomas Emerson and Kristin Hedman attribute the discovery of Cahokian individuals with low-maize diets to the existence of hunter-gatherer immigrant communities who had not yet adopted maize as a staple food source. Residents of outlying areas relied heavily on maize for subsistence, while residents of Cahokia's city center enjoyed more diverse diets. One interpretation

4416-399: The city's initial rapid growth. At the onset of the "Big Bang" non-local ceramics begins to appear in higher frequencies across site types indicating interaction or immigration from populations around the lower Ohio Drainage ( Yankeetown ), Lower Mississippi Valley ( Coles Creek ), Upper Midwest (below), and south-central plains ( Caddo ). Many of these immigrants moved into outlying villages in

4512-505: The community's decline. Thomas Emerson and Kristin Hedman argue that Cahokia's large immigrant population was a factor in the city's ultimate fragmentation, as differing languages, customs, and religions obstructed the creation of a cohesive Cahokian cultural identity. Analyses of Cahokian burial sites and the associated remains have also shown that many Cahokians were not native to the city or its immediate surrounding region. These immigrants were sometimes buried separately from native residents,

4608-783: The complex was raised for edible seeds and to produce small containers (gourds), not for the thick flesh that is associated with modern varieties of squash. Cucurbita argyrosperma has been found in the region dated to circa 1300-1500 BCE. C. pepo cultivars crookneck, acorn, and scallop squash appeared later. Other plants of the EAC include The plants are often divided into "oily" or "starchy" categories. Sunflower and sumpweed have edible seeds rich in oil. The seeds of erect knotweed and goosefoot are starches, as are maygrass and little barley, both of which are grasses that yield grains that may be ground to make flour. The archaeological record suggests that humans were collecting these plants from

4704-404: The dense population, and Cahokia is believed to have become unhealthy from polluted waterways. Because it was such an unhealthy place to live, Snow believes that the town had to rely on social and political attractions to bring in a steady supply of new immigrants; otherwise, the town's death rate would have caused it to be abandoned earlier. By the end of the 12th century two distinct events mark

4800-435: The domesticated weeds became more productive. The seeds of some species became substantially larger and/or their seed coats were less thick compared to the wild plants. For example, the seed coats of domesticated chenopodium is less than 20 microns thick; the wild chenopodium of the same species is 40 to 60 microns thick. Conversely, when Native Americans quit growing these plants, as they did later, their seeds reverted within

4896-556: The east, west, north, and south of Monks Mound. To the south of Monks Mound is the Grand Plaza, a large area that covered roughly 50 acres (20 ha) and measured over 1,600 ft (490 m) in length by over 900 ft (270 m) in width. Researchers originally thought the flat, open terrain in this area reflected Cahokia's location on the Mississippi's alluvial flood plain , but instead soil studies have shown that

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4992-498: The eastern uplands referred to at the Richland Complex. Intensive farming and textile production occurred in these villages which has been interpreted as supplicant behavior directed towards the central urban core of the city. The novel practices these immigrant communities brought with them have been argued as essential to the creation of the character of Cahokia as a city. One such example, the common mound-and-plaza pairing

5088-403: The end of the 10th century many of these settlements aggregated into larger groups. These larger villages included the earlier cosmogram layouts complete with large central posts, pits, and/or structures. An extensive nucleated community sprawled across 35-70 hectares in Cahokia proper, with its beginnings at the end in the late 900s CE. By this time it seems a few thousand people were living in

5184-578: The first to leave the city. Many people leaving Cahokia went south into the Cairo Lowlands of southern Illinois and further south in the Central Mississippi Valley some later leaving for The Cumberland Basin in central Tennessee. Finely crafted artifacts from Cahokia such as copper repoussé plates and engraved shell appear at powerful centers such as Moundville and Etowah only after 1250 CE. Another possible cause

5280-469: The land of the city during the 18th century. St. Louis was defined by the mounds that Cahokian's had constructed across the river, referred to at one point as "Mound City." Nearly all these mounds in Downtown St. Louis were destroyed and used for fill in the growing city's construction in the mid-19th century.As Native Americans were forcibly removed from the land through treaties and war (particularly

5376-420: The landscape was originally undulating ridge and swale topography. In one of the earliest large-scale construction projects, the site had been expertly and deliberately leveled and filled by the city's inhabitants. It is part of the sophisticated engineering displayed throughout the site. It was used for large ceremonies and gatherings, as well as for ritual games, such as chunkey . The game was played by rolling

5472-583: The most important center for the Mississippian culture . This culture was expressed in settlements that ranged along major waterways across what is now the Midwest , Eastern , and Southeastern United States. Cahokia was located in a strategic position near the confluence of the Mississippi , Missouri , and Illinois rivers. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to

5568-589: The new social order. All villages either experienced renewal and construction efforts turning them into mound centers or were depopulated to become just a few households or a single farmstead. New settlement types including nucleated settlements, mound centers, small dispersed clusters of houses, and single-family farmsteads appear throughout region. The city's complex construction of earthen mounds required digging, excavation and transportation by hand using woven baskets. Construction made use of 55 million cubic feet (1.6 million cubic meters) of earth, and much of

5664-561: The north and the Gulf Coast to the south, trading in such exotic items as copper, Mill Creek chert , shark teeth, and lightning whelk shells. In the years around 1050 CE Cahokia experienced a “Big Bang.” The city proper's three urban precincts: St. Louis, East St. Louis, and Cahokia were constructed at all this time. At the same time an ordered city grid—oriented to the north along the Grand Plaza, Rattlesnake Causeway, and dozens of mounds—was imposed on earlier Woodland settlements. This

5760-459: The old vegetation is killed by the high waters and bare patches of new, often very fertile, soil were created, these pioneer plants sprang up like magic, often growing in almost pure stands, but usually disappearing after a single season, as other vegetation pushed them out until the next flood. Native Americans learned early that the seeds of these three species were edible and easily harvested in quantity because they grew in dense stands. C. pepo

5856-503: The period of settlement at Cahokia, in roughly 1100–1260 and 1340–1460. While flooding may have occurred early in the rise of the city, it seems not to have deterred the city builders; to the contrary, it appears they took steps such as creating channels, dikes, and levees that protected at least the central city throughout its inhabited history. In another indication of flood mitigation efforts, Cahokians dispersed their agricultural lands among both lowland and upland fields, thereby reducing

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5952-472: The plants to make them more productive and accessible. The region of this early agriculture is in the middle Mississippi valley, from Memphis north to St. Louis and extending about 300 miles east and west of the river, mostly in Missouri , Illinois , Kentucky , and Tennessee . The oldest archaeological site known in the United States in which Native Americans were growing, rather than gathering, food

6048-429: The population reaching a population maximum in 1650 and then declining again in 1700. Dhegiha Siouan migration was in part responsible for the depopulation of Cahokia. The city is where many contemporary Native American communities have their heritage, the former group in particular. Ponca oral tradition specifically to their ancestral time in Cahokia, calling the city or its location "P'ahe zide" [red hill]. Following

6144-614: The present understanding of the national and international significance of the site. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 19, 1964, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. In 1982, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) designated the site a World Heritage Site . This is the only such self-contained site in Illinois and among 24 World Heritage Sites in

6240-448: The property and attract funds to conduct research on this significant civilization. Cahokia was surrounded by rich agricultural lands. The city has been traditionally thought to have been a maize-centric civilization, the crop having been introduced to the region around AD 900. While maize is often credited with enabling Cahokia's early population growth, more recent research has suggested that Cahokian diets were quite varied, especially in

6336-457: The rectangle, and a code identifying the agency issuing the sequential number. California uses a three-letter abbreviation for counties. Connecticut and Rhode Island do not use any sub-state codes, with site identifiers consisting of the state abbreviation and a sequential number series for the whole state. Delaware uses a single letter code for counties and adds a block code (A-K) within each county, with sequential numbers for each block. Hawaii uses

6432-416: The sacrifice of dozens of women at mound 72 and interment of powerful leaders in ridge top mortuary mounds integrated populations in shared experiences and narratives of their world during the 11th and 12th centuries. One of the major problems that large centers like Cahokia faced was keeping a steady supply of food, perhaps exacerbated by droughts from CE 1100–1250. A related problem was waste disposal for

6528-400: The species cultivated by Native Americans for food are today considered undesirable weeds. Another name for marshelder is sumpweed; chenopods are derisively called pigweed, although one South American species with a more attractive name, quinoa , is a health food store favorite. Many plants considered weeds are the colonizers of disturbed soil, the first fast-growing weeds to spring up when

6624-416: The sunny environment and disturbed soil of a settlement, and those seeds sprouted and thrived. Over time the seeds were sown and the ground was cleared of any competitive vegetation. The seeds which germinated quickest (i.e. thinner seed coats) and the plants which grew fastest were the most likely to be tended, harvested, and replanted. Through a process of unconscious selection and, later, conscious selection,

6720-415: The term "Eastern complex" in the 1940s. Authors Guy Gibbons and Kenneth Ames suggested that "indigenous seed crops" is a more appropriate term than "complex". Until the 1970s and 1980s most archaeologists believed that agriculture by Eastern Woodland peoples had been imported from Mexico , along with the trinity of subtropical crops: maize (corn), beans, and squash. What became accepted by the 21st century

6816-416: The time. Palisades become popular across parts of the Midwest and mid-South during the 13th century as communities begin living together in much more nucleated settlement types. However, Cahokia's palisade may have been more for ritual or formal separation than for military purposes, but bastioned palisades almost always indicate warfare. As Cahokia's population shrank over the 13th century, Cahokia's palisade

6912-469: The trinomial system. Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont use two-letter abbreviations of the state name instead of the Smithsonian number. Alaska uses three-letter abbreviations for USGS map quadrangles in place of the county code. Arizona uses a five-part identifier based on USGS maps, specifying quadrangles, then rectangles within a quadrangle, a sequential number within

7008-653: The uplands was a site where the moon, water, femininity, and fertility were venerated; the mounds being aligned to lunar events in its 18.6 year cycle. Immigrant ceramics early in the archaeological record argue that it was central in attracting immigrants as pilgrims. Political control was exercised in the Cahokian hinterlands at distinctive temple complexes consisted of T or L shaped structures and sweatlodges . Distinctive rituals are archaeologically documented involving tobacco, red cedar, agricultural produce, and female Cahokian flint clay figurines . Intense public rituals like

7104-521: The west of Cahokia; this discovery increased estimates of historic area population. Archaeologists estimate the city's population at between 6,000 and 40,000 at its peak. If the highest population estimates are correct, Cahokia was larger than any subsequent city in the United States until the 1780s, when Philadelphia's population grew beyond 40,000. Its population may have been larger than contemporaneous London and Paris . Studies of Cahokia's rise see large-scale immigration as an essential contributor to

7200-408: The wild by 6000 BCE. In the 1970s, archaeologists noticed differences between seeds found in the remains of pre-Columbus era Native American hearths and houses and those growing in the wild. In a domestic setting, the seeds of some plants were much larger than in the wild, and the seeds were easier to extract from the shells or husks. This was evidence that Indigenous gardeners were selectively breeding

7296-527: The wild was the larger size of edible seeds and the thinner seed coat of the domesticated plant compared to its wild relative, an attribute of domesticated crops that came about through human selection and manipulation. When cultivation of most indigenous plants ceased in favor of maize agriculture about 900 CE, seed sizes and seed coats of plants reverted to their former uncultivated size and thickness. The earliest cultivated plant in North America

7392-471: The woodlands of eastern North America was one of about 10 independent centers of plant domestication in the pre-historic world. Incipient agriculture dates back to about 5300 BCE. By about 1800 BCE the Native Americans of the woodlands were cultivating several species of food plants, thus beginning a transition from a hunter-gatherer economy to agriculture. After 200 BCE when maize from Mexico

7488-523: The work was accomplished over decades. Its highly planned large, smoothed-flat, ceremonial plazas, sited around the mounds, with homes for thousands connected by laid out pathways and courtyards, suggest the location served as a central religious pilgrimage city. At the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico and Central America . Home to about 1,000 people before circa 1050, its population grew rapidly after that date. According to

7584-609: Was a relative latecomer to the Eastern Woodlands Cultures. The oldest known evidence of maize in what is now known as Mexico dates to 6700 BCE. The oldest evidence of maize cultivation north of the Rio Grande in use is by about 2100 BCE at several locations in what later became Arizona and New Mexico . Maize was first grown by Eastern Woodlands Cultures by around 200 BCE, and highly productive localized varieties became widely used around 900 CE. The spread

7680-410: Was abandoned. Scholars have proposed environmental factors, such as environmental degradation through overhunting, deforestation and pollution, and climatic changes, such as increased flooding and droughts, as explanations for abandonment of the site. However, more recent research suggests that there is no evidence of human-caused erosion or flooding at Cahokia. The late 12th century into the turn of

7776-500: Was about 5,000 sq ft (460 m). The east and northwest sides of Monks Mound were twice excavated in August 2007 during an attempt to avoid erosion due to slumping . These areas were repaired to preserve the mound. Smithsonian trinomial Most states use trinomials of the form "nnAAnnnn", but some specify a space or dash between parts of the identifier, i.e., "nn AA nnnn" or "nn-AA-nnnn". Some states use variations of

7872-409: Was accompanied by a homogenization of material culture (e.g. pottery and architectural styles) that divided the smaller settlements beforehand. Mound construction increased across the region in the 11th century in the floodplain and, for the first time, in uplands to the east. Some mounds were built on earlier settlement locations arguably by descendants emphasizing their particular ancestral positions in

7968-446: Was adopted from longstanding Coles Creek organizational principles. Contacts across the mid-continent and possibly beyond are attested to have reached a peak between 1050 and 1150 CE. Mill Creek chert from southwestern Illinois , most notably, was used in the production of hoes, a high demand tool for farmers around Cahokia and other Mississippian centers. Cahokia's loose control over distribution, though not production, of these tools

8064-446: Was an elevated embankment about 18 metres (59 ft) wide, roughly 800 metres (2,600 ft) in length and varies in height from 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) to almost 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) as it traverses a low swampy area to the south of the Grand Plaza. It is aligned 5° east of north, a direction thought to mimic the maximum southern moon rise of 5° west of north, albeit in reverse. This is thought to have had symbolic associations to

8160-488: Was first protected by the state of Illinois in 1923 when its legislature authorized purchase of a state park. Later designation as a state historic site offered additional protection, but the site came under significant threat from the federal highway building program in the 1950s. The highway program reduced the site's integrity; however, it increased funding for emergency archeological investigations. These investigations became intensive, and today continue. They have resulted in

8256-403: Was important also because the gourd could be made into a lightweight container that was useful to a seminomadic band. Chenopods have edible leaves, related to spinach and chard, that may have also been gathered and eaten by Native Americans. Chenopod seeds are starchy; marsh elder has a highly nutritious oily seed similar to sunflower seeds. In gathering the seeds some were undoubtedly dropped in

8352-643: Was important in emphasizing a new agricultural regime. Mississippian culture pottery and stone tools in the Cahokian style were found at the Silvernale site near Red Wing, Minnesota , and materials and trade goods from Pennsylvania, the Gulf Coast, and Lake Superior have been excavated at Cahokia. Cahokians traveled down to the Carson site in Coahoma County, Mississippi and built a settlement during

8448-511: Was introduced to the Eastern Woodlands , the Native Americans of the eastern United States and adjacent Canada slowly changed from growing local indigenous plants to a maize-based agricultural economy. The cultivation of local indigenous plants other than squash and sunflower declined and was eventually abandoned. The formerly domesticated plants returned to their wild forms. The first four plants known to have been domesticated at

8544-399: Was later rebuilt, but not for residential purposes. In the same general timeframe around 1175 CE, people constructed the first iteration of the large central palisade around Cahokia's core. People began leaving the city in larger numbers beginning in the late 12th century. In the middle of the succeeding 13th century Cahokia's population had decreased by half if not more, and by 1350 CE the city

8640-669: Was made though nixtamalization that made the maize more nutritious. Recent research indicates that early Cahokians nixtamalized maize but then stopped nixtamalizing maize around CE 1200. Intense reliance on maize that is not nixtamalized may result in pellagra and death. Isotope analysis of burial remains at Cahokia has revealed iron-deficiency anemia and tooth enamel defects potentially stemming from Cahokia's reliance on maize. Together with these factors, researchers found evidence in 2015 of major floods at Cahokia, so severe as to flood dwelling places. Analysis of sediment from beneath Horseshoe Lake has revealed that two major floods occurred in

8736-459: Was named for the community of Trappist monks who resided there for a short time, after Euroamericans settled in the area. Excavation on the top of Monks Mound has revealed evidence of a large building, likely a temple or the residence of the paramount chief , which would have been seen throughout the city. This building was about 105 ft (32 m) long and 48 feet (15 m) wide, and could have been as much as 50 ft (15 m) high. It

8832-452: Was rebuilt several times to encompass increasingly-smaller portions of the city. Diseases transmitted among the large, dense urban population are another possible cause of decline. Similarly, health issues like pellagra are known to arise through maize-intense diets like Cahokia's. However, evidence tying nutritional deficiencies to a broader societal collapse has not been conclusively identified. At Cahokia's beginning around CE 1050, hominy

8928-490: Was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period . Mound building at this location began with the emergent Mississippian cultural period, around the 9th century CE. The inhabitants left no written records beyond symbols on pottery, marine shell, copper, wood, and stone , but the evidence of elaborately planned community, woodhenge, mounds, and burials later in time reveal a complex and sophisticated society. In

9024-431: Was so slow because the seeds and knowledge of techniques for tending them had to cross inhospitable deserts and mountains, and more productive varieties of maize had to be developed to compete with local indigenous crops and to suit the cooler climates and shorter growing seasons of the northern regions. Maize does not flower under the long day conditions of summer north of tropical Mexico, requiring genetic adaptation. Maize

9120-488: Was surrounded by a 2-mi-long palisade that was equipped with protective bastions. A later addition to the site, when the palisade was constructed, it cut through and separated some pre-existing neighborhoods. Archaeologists found evidence of the stockade during excavation of the area and indications that it was rebuilt several times. Its bastions showed that it was mainly built for defensive purposes. Beyond Monks Mound, as many as 120 more mounds stood at varying distances from

9216-510: Was topped by a massive 5,000 sq ft (460 m) building another 50 ft (15 m) high. Early in its history, Cahokia underwent a massive construction boom. Along with the early phase of Monks Mound, an overarching urban layout was established at the site. It was built with a symbolic quadripartite worldview and oriented toward the four cardinal directions with the main east–west and north–south axes defined with Monks Mound near its center point. Four large plazas were established to

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