who lived in the largest mound at cahokia

Cahokia: North America's First City

• Monks Mound The most awesome example of architecture at Cahokia is the 100-foot (30-meter) tall "Monks Mound" — the name given to it because a group of Trappist monks lived near it in historic times. It was built with four terraces, covering about 17 acres (6.8 hectares) at its base, the mound towering over the city. ...
• Woodhenge ...
• Human sacrifice ...
• Cosmology ...
• Chunkey ...

Full Answer

Who lived in the Cahokia Mounds?

Illiniwek peopleThe mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century.

Did people live in the Cahokia Mounds?

Cahokia was first occupied in ad 700 and flourished for approximately four centuries (c. 950–1350). It reached a peak population of as many as 20,000 individuals and was the most extensive urban centre in prehistoric America north of Mexico and the primary centre of the Middle Mississippian culture.

Who settled in Cahokia?

The name "Cahokia" is from an aboriginal people who lived in the area during the 17th century.

Who was buried in Mound 72 at Cahokia?

Researchers discovered that a famous “beaded burial” in Mound 72 at Cahokia held high-status males and females, not just males, as was previously thought. Fowler and later archaeologists came to believe that this was a burial of two high-status males surrounded by their servants.

What happened to the people of Cahokia Mounds?

Then, Climate Change Destroyed It : The Salt The Mississippian American Indian culture rose to power after A.D. 900 by farming corn. Now, new evidence suggests a dramatic change in climate might have led to the culture's collapse in the 1300s.

What happened to the mound people?

The most-widely accepted explanation behind the disappearances were the infectious diseases from the Old World, such as smallpox and influenza, which had decimated most of the Native Americans from the last mound-builder civilization.

What were the Cahokia people known for?

The Native Americans at Cahokia farmed, traded and hunted. They were also early urban planners, who used astronomical alignments to lay out a low-scale metropolis of 10-20,000 people, featuring a town centre with broad public plazas and key buildings set atop vast, hand-built earthen mounds.

What are the Cahokia tribe known for?

Covering more than 2,000 acres, Cahokia is the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico. Best known for large, man-made earthen structures, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to 1400.

Why is Cahokia important in history?

Cahokia was the largest city ever built north of Mexico before Columbus and boasted 120 earthen mounds. Many were massive, square-bottomed, flat-topped pyramids -- great pedestals atop which civic leaders lived. At the vast plaza in the city's center rose the largest earthwork in the Americas, the 100-foot Monks Mound.

What is significant about Mound 72 at Cahokia?

The mound was the location of the "beaded burial", an elaborate burial of an elite personage thought to have been one of the rulers of Cahokia, accompanied by the graves of several hundred retainers and sacrificial victims.

What is inside Monks Mound?

Unlike Egyptian pyramids which were built of stone, the platform mound was constructed almost entirely of layers of basket-transported soil and clay. Because of this construction and its flattened top, over the years, it has retained rainwater within the structure.

Did mound Builders lived in the mounds?

The Hopewell came from central Ohio. At their height, their culture spread from western New York to Missouri, Wisconsin to Mississippi. Like the Adena, they lived along the river systems and built mounds.

Did people live in mounds?

The mound-building society that lived at Cahokia is one of America's most famous — and mysterious — ancient civilizations. The Mississippian people thrived for centuries in what is now Illinois' Mississippi River valley, just outside of St. Louis, until they mysteriously vanished sometime around 1400 A.D.

What was life like in Cahokia?

The Native Americans at Cahokia farmed, traded and hunted. They were also early urban planners, who used astronomical alignments to lay out a low-scale metropolis of 10-20,000 people, featuring a town centre with broad public plazas and key buildings set atop vast, hand-built earthen mounds.

What were Cahokia houses made of?

Cahokia Sprawled Over Five Square Miles “It likely was a trading center,” Belknap says. Like a modern city with suburbs, Cahokia's outer edge was a residential area, consisting of houses made from sapling frames lined with clay walls and covered by prairie grass roofs.

Why were the Cahokia Mounds abandoned?

It might have been a matter of political factionalization, or warfare, or drought, or disease—we just don't know.” There are clues. In later years, Cahokians built a stockade encircling central Cahokia, suggesting that inter-group warfare had become a problem.

How many people lived in the Cahokia Mounds?

Nicknamed America’s Forgotten City or The City of the Sun, the massive complex once contained as many as 40,000 people and spread across nearly 4,000 acres. The most notable features of the site are hand-made earthen mounds which held temples, political buildings, and burial pits. Cahokia Mounds are a testament to the highly organized culture ...

What Happened to Cahokia Mounds?

Cahokia was not destined to last. Its collapse is somewhat of a mystery, however, based on research, the following three events may have had something to do with it.

What is Cahokia Mounds?

Cahokia Mounds are a testament to the highly organized culture of the early Mississippian people who built the largest city in pre-Columbian North America. Artist’s (William Iseminger) rendering of the city, circa AD 1150-1200. Photo: Cahokia Historic State Park.

How tall is Mound 72?

Its length is about 140 feet, while the width and height are 72 feet and 10 feet, respectively. Within the mound, researchers found several smaller mounds that contained more than 250 skeletons. The Mississippians had covered those sub-mounds with soil and added another layer to give it its final outer shape.

What is the name of the city in the 1600s?

Although today we call the site Cahokia Mounds, no one knows the original name of the city. French explorers in the 1600s named Cahokia after the Cahokia tribe, which lived in the area around that time. However, they may not have had any relation to the original mound builders.

What did the Mississippians worship?

They worshipped the Sun and other celestial beings within a well-developed religion. Additionally, their lives revolved around warfare, and sacrifices were common. In many ways, however, it was the impressive Cahokia mounds that defined the culture of the Mississippians.

How many sacrificial victims were there in Mound 72?

One of the mounds contained 53 young sacrificial females.

Who Were The People Of Cahokia Mounds?

Louis, Cahokia was the biggest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico. Cahokia’s citizenry had no standardized writing system, so archaeologists still largely rely on peripheral data to interpret any artifacts they’ve found that might unlock the city’s mysteries.

What is the significance of the Cahokia Mounds?

In fact, during its height in the 12th century, Cahokia Mounds was larger in population than London.

What do remnants of Cahokia suggest?

Indeed, the remnants of Cahokia suggest that there were strong religious elements at play in this society.

How many posts are needed for Monks Mound?

Monks Mound, a cluster of smaller mounds, and one of the grand plazas were once walled in with a two-mile-long palisade made of wood that required 20,000 posts — just one feature of Cahokia that reveals its massive and sophisticated urban scope.

How tall is the Monks Mound?

The most immediately-apparent remnant of ancient Cahokia near modern-day St. Louis is the 100-foot tall “Monks Mound.” The impressive structure was given this name because a group of Trappist monks lived nearby in historic times, long after the ancient city had thrived.

What is the history of Cahokia?

According to University of Illinois professor of anthropology Thomas Emerson, however, Cahokia itself — and Monks Mound, specifically — indicates a far more nuanced, sophisticated past than many people realize.

When was Cahokia abandoned?

Cahokia Mounds was abandoned entirely by 1400, with much of the ancient city still buried under 19th- and 20th-century developments today. In other words, underneath modern-day Illinois and its tangled web of highways and construction lies America’s first known city.

Where are the Cahokia mounds?

Louis, Missouri. This historic 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 2 ), and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles (16 km 2) and included about 120 manmade earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions. At the apex of its population, Cahokia may have briefly exceeded contemporaneous London, which at that time was approximately 14,000–18,000.

How many square miles were there in Cahokia?

At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles (16 km 2) and included about 120 manmade earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions. At the apex of its population, Cahokia may have briefly exceeded contemporaneous London, which at that time was approximately 14,000–18,000.

What tribe was Cahokia named after?

The city's original name is unknown. The mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in 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.

What is the largest archaeological site in Mexico?

Today, the Cahokia Mounds are considered to be the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site for state protection. It is also one of the 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States.

Why was Cahokia abandoned?

The population of Cahokia began to decline during the 13th century, and the site was eventually abandoned by around 1350. 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.

Why was Cahokia unhealthy?

A related problem was waste disposal for the dense population, and Cahokia became 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.

When was Cahokia settled?

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 was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period. Mound building at this location began with the emergent Mississippian cultural period, about the 9th century CE.

How many people were buried in Cahokia?

Cahokia had over 100 large mounds spread across the land like skyscrapers in a city today. One of these mounds, Mound 72, contains the remains of 272 people buried in 25 separate places within the mound. In one burial, a man who archaeologists call ‘Birdman’ was carefully placed on a bed made from thousands of shell beads in the shape of a bird. He was surrounded by special items like jewelry, copper, and hundreds of arrowheads that had never been used. Archaeologists think these special items, called

Why did people come to Cahokia?

We do not know why people chose to come to Cahokia, but it is located at an important confluence of the Mississippi River where the valley is wide and can hold a lot of people and farms. As Cahokia grew more powerful, more immigrants arrived, perhaps against their will as captives from war or by choice as families looking for work and a good life .

Why were the people next to Birdman buried?

Because the people next to the special grave goods and the young men and women a little farther away were buried at the same time as Birdman, many archaeologists think that they were human sacrifices who were killed to honor him or his family, show his power, or as an important religious act. The young men and women probably were forced to die and were chosen because they were not powerful people. However, the people next to Birdman may have chosen to die with him. A French colonist in 1725 witnessed the burial of a leader, named Tattooed Serpent, of the Natchez people in Mississippi. The Natchez had a similar way of life to people at Cahokia. At Tattooed Serpent’s funeral several commoners were killed, but some of his family and friends chose to join him in death. While we will never know for sure, it is possible that a similar event happened at Cahokia. Although Mound 72 tells a dramatic story, it is the only example of human sacrifice archaeologists have found at Cahokia and the practice was rare, possibly happening only once.

How did politics at Cahokia work?

There are two main ideas for how politics at Cahokia worked: a single, powerful leader, like a president or shared power between multiple leaders, like senators. Evidence for a single, strong leader includes one mound much bigger than the others, Monks Mound, that may have housed the most important family at Cahokia, and human sacrifice at Mound 72 (see ‘Religion, Power and Sacrifice’ section for more information). On the other hand, the fact that there are many large mounds at Cahokia, not just Monks Mound, suggests that power may have been shared. Most likely, there was one leader or group that was more important than others, but their power was not total.

Why are people buried at Mound 72?

People were buried in special ways because of their religious beliefs and some people were more powerful than others, having fancier grave goods and the power of life and death over commoners. Human sacrifice has happened throughout time all over the world. Cahokia shows us that human sacrifice is complicated – at Mound 72 some people were certainly forced to die, but others may have chosen to die along with someone they loved or found very important.

What did the Cahokians eat?

They also grew squash, sunflower and other domesticated crops and also ate a variety of wild plants. They fished in lakes and streams and hunted birds, deer, and occasionally animals like beavers and turtles. Isotopes in bone from burials (see ‘Religion, Power and Sacrifice’ section for more information) tells us that more powerful people at Cahokia ate more meat and probably had a healthier diet than commoners. Although many people were involved in getting or making food in some way, there still were many other jobs at Cahokia: you could be a potter, flintknapper, beadmaker, builder, healer, priest, leader, or some combination of all these. People had free time too, and for fun would play games like chunkey. To play chunkey, you roll a stone across a field and then try to throw a spear as close to the stone as possible before it stops rolling, sort of like a more exciting and dangerous game of bocce ball.

Where are the pyramids in Illinois?

Cahokia is an archaeological site in Illinois that was built and occupied by Native Americans from about 1000-1400 CE. I used to think that you had to go far away to find ancient ruins like pyramids, but Cahokia has tons of them with over 100 remaining today. Unlike the stone pyramids of Egypt, the pyramids at Cahokia are made of clay piled high into large mounds. The biggest mound at Cahokia, Monks Mound, is over 100 feet tall, 775 feet wide, and 950 feet long, making its base about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza. After climbing 154 steps to the top of Monks Mound, the view is amazing – it was basically America’s first skyscraper!

When did the Cahokia Mounds get settled?

European settlers. There is no evidence of significant Native American settlement in the Cahokia Mounds urban area for hundreds of years after about 1400 CE. In 1735, French missionaries built a chapel at the west end of the south terrace of the mound.

How big is Monks Mound?

This makes Monks Mound roughly the same size at its base as the Great Pyramid of Giza (13.1 acres / 5.3 hectares). The perimeter of its base is larger than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. As a platform mound, the earthwork supported a wooden structure on the summit.

What is the name of the largest pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas and the largest pyramid north of?

Monks Mound in summer. The concrete staircase follows the approximate course of the ancient wooden stairs. /  38.660667°N 90.0620444°W  / 38.660667; -90.0620444. Monks Mound is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas and the largest pyramid north of Mesoamerica. The beginning of its construction dates from 900–955 CE.

Why was the Great Mound overgrown?

From the time the original urban society collapsed, the great mound became overgrown with trees, the roots of which helped stabilize its steep slopes. In the 20th century, researchers removed the trees in the course of work at the mound and park preparation.

How many terraces are there in Monks Mound?

Monks Mound from the side showing the 2 terraces.

Why were drains installed on the Mound of Stone?

A decade later, there was further slumping on the western side, so irregular that repair was impractical. Drains were installed to reduce the effects of heavy rain. It was during this process that workers discovered a mass of stone deep within the mound. The repairs of the 1980s and 1990s were only partly successful.

What was the name of the trading post that was established next to the River L'Abbe Mission?

In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, a trading post called the Cantine was established next to the mound (by then known as the Great Nobb). It lasted only until 1784.

Overview

Notable features

History

Related mounds

Cahokia Museum and Interpretive Center

Designations

See also

Notes