Ruins of a thriving Prehistoric civilization lie just east of St. Louis, Missouri

It has been classified by experts as one of the great treasures of human history. It has been ranked alongside India's Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Egypt. It's influence on early civilizations is unprecedented. It isCahokia.

If the name doesn't ring a bell, don't worry, relatively few people would know about or have heard of Cahokia. So how can such a treasure of human history be so unknown to so many. Maybe it's because Cahokia lies in our own back yard.

In Southern Illinois, just eight miles east of St. Louis Missouri, stand the remains of what was once the largest city in America north of ancient Mexico. Around A.D. 1250, Cahokia had more than twenty thousand residents. It's size was surpassed only as recently as the eighteenth century when Philedelphia could boast a population over twenty tousand. Some archaeologists declare Cahokia to have "embodied political order and social inequality of a sort seldom associated with precontact peoples. "Cahokia, more than any of it's contemporary "Mississippian" neighbors, was a vortex of native social, political, economic, and religious activity. For a time it was the preeminent cultural center in the Mississippi valley (Pauketat and Emerson: 1997,1).

Not only was it awesome in size, but it enjoyed an incredible sphere of influence. Cahokia's impact on other civilizations directed the development of the Mississippian world. The city's location allowed it to be in the center of an extensive trade network and through this, it's influence spread to communities from Minnesota to Oklahoma, Louisiana and Tennessee. "Cahokia stood at the center of a water network stretching effectively from the Carribbean to Hudson Bay and uniting peoples with vastly different cultures, economies, and languages. We have no evidence that Cahokia controlled a political empire, but it certainly controlled the nexus of a trade empire that surpassed in geographic size the empires of ancient Rome and Egypt" (Weatherford: 1991, 14).

The city had amazing endurance as well. "Archaeological investigations reveal that settlment began between A.D. 600 and 800 at Cahokia and grew steadily to its greatest size a few centuries before the arrival of the Europeans. the city started before the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire and persisted through the time of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe (Weatherford: 11).

People of Cahokia

Beyond the amazement of the site itself is the mystery surrounding the inhabitants of such a civilization. In John Francis McDermott's book, "Old Cahokia", he states that the city was founded in 1699 as a small village, followed in 1703 by another village called Kaskaskia. "The beginning of the actual settlements grew out of the desire of the Seminary of Foreign Missions at Quebec to have a share in missionary activities in the Mississippi Valley" (McDermott: 1949, 4). He also suggests that the initial settlers were "frontier roughs who could not get along in the Canadien towns or restless fellow who were always in search of exciting adventures," (11). As for names and numbers of those who followed, all records were burned when the church was destroyed in 1783. As a result, the record of French domination in Cahokia is quite sparce.

Preceding this time, even less is known of the site. The name Cahokia comes from the name of the Indians living in the area when the French arrived in the 18th century. Because we have no record of those who built the city, the best way we can try and understand their lifeways is by studying other Mississippian communities.

Woodhenge

The site of Cahokia contains several physical aspects that add to its complexity and importance. One of these is what Dr. Warren Wittry named Woodhenge. While studying excavation maps he noticed a large number of pits that formed a circle in the ground. With time these and other pits were discovered, revealing five circles in all. Wittry believed the pits once held posts made of wood and were placed stratigically to mark times of the year, as a sundial marks the time of day. The actual purpose of the posts is debated. Initially they were seen as a calendar only, keeping track of the solar year. But after deeper examination, the evidence suggested that they served as monuments, commemorative offerings and maybe even a representation of a world culture.

If used as a calendar, studies have shown that the observation of the surnrise over certain posts could have been used to signal proitious times for seasonal activities such as planting around the time of the spring equinox and harvest after the autumnal equinox (Stoltman,9). At the same time, only three of the posts can actually be used as seasonal markers, those marking the first days of winter and summer (the solstices), and the one halfway between marking the first days of spring and fall (the equinoxes). With only three posts scientifically explainable, well over 200 posts are still unexplained. The purpose of the remaining posts can only be hypothesized.

One such hypothesis involves the marking of other dates which would have been important to the inhabitants of Cahokia, such as festival dates coordinating with the agricultural cycle. Stoltman auggest that the posts represent a world wide culture prevalent at the time. Most likely the posts served both pruposes - monumental as well as scientific. Either way, Stoltman feels their significance is undebateable.

Pyramids on the Mississippi

Perhaps the most fascinating features of Cahokia are the earthen mounds, often called the pyramids of the Mississippi Valley. "The largest of these mounds, Monk's Mound covers 16 acres; it rests on a base 1,037 feet long and 790 feet wide, with a total volume of approximately 21,690,000 cubic feet, a base and total volume greater than that of the pyramid of Khufu, the largest in Egypt. In all the world, only the pyramids at cholula and Teotihucan in central Mexico surpass the Cahokia pyramid in size and total volume. No other structure in the United States approached the size of the Cahokia pyramid until the building of airplane hangars, the Pentagon, and skyscrapers in the twentieth century," (Weatherford, 9).

As Henry Marie Brackenridge first encountered the East St. Louis mounds he was quite astonished. "Around me, I counted forty-five mounds, or pyramids, besides a great number of small artificial elevations; these mounds form something more than a semicircle, about a mile in extent," (Pauketat and Emerson, 11). These mounds held several purposes, religious, civic and even as burial grounds.

Archaeologists

As with other major archaeological sites, the study of Cahokia has numerous facets. Everything from the original inhabitants to detailed analysis of Woodhenge and the Stockade. So it goes without saying that more than a few archaeologists and others interested in the site have spent quite a bit of time researching this North American treasure. This short list in no way does justice to the multitude of people who have been involved with research at Cahokia.

Henry Marie Brackenridge brought Cahokia to the attention of the world with it's discovery. Since that time, scientists from various disciplines have studied a wide array of aspects concerning the site.Warren Wittry first documented Woodhenge, located just west of Monks Mound. He hypothesized about their intended purpose.

Timothy R. Pauketat, who specializes in early civilizations, has conducted reasearch at Cahokia since 1980. He has authored several articles and books concerning the site and its effects on surrounding surrounding areas. Along with Thomas E. Emerson, Pauketat edited "Cahokia, Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World" in which he discusses Cahokia not just as a complex society, but as a phenomenon whose influence directed the evolution of the Mississippian World.

John E. Kelly, the Coordinator for the American Bottom Survey Division of te Illinois Transportation Archaeological Reasearch Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been involved with Cahokia since 1969, specifically the late prehistory of the region. In a slightly different discipline, Lucretia S. Kelly has been conducting zooarchaeological research in and surrounding Cahokia for over twenty years. Her interst also lies in biological remains.

Neal H. Lopinot has contributed another branch of knowledge about Cahokia by way of his studies in archaeobotany. He has recently published an article titled "Wood Overexploitation and the Collapse of Cahokia". James B.Stoltman has authored and edited several books, articles and monographs on a range of topics from a discussion on the mound builders to the introduction of cultural tradition in the Upper Mississippi Valley.

For a list of works cited, see sources

Written and created by Heather McBride

3/11/98