![]() Cahokia was located in a strategic position near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers. This culture was expressed in settlements that ranged along major waterways across what is now the Midwest, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Cahokia's east–west baseline transects the Woodhenge, Monk's Mound, and several other large mounds.Ĭahokia became the most important center for the Mississippian culture. Rise and peak (11th and 12th centuries) Artist's recreation of central Cahokia. The decline of the city coincides with the Little Ice Age, although by then, the three-fold agriculture remained well-established throughout temperate North America. 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. This period appears to have fostered an agricultural revolution in upper North America, as 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. Historian Daniel Richter notes that the apex of the city occurred during the Medieval Warming Period. Most likely, multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the Cahokia Mounds area during the time of the city's apex. 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. 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. 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. Construction made use of 55 million cubic feet (1.6 million cubic meters) of earth, and much of the work was accomplished over decades. The city's complex construction of earthen mounds required digging, excavation and transportation by hand using woven baskets. The inhabitants left no written records beyond symbols on pottery, shell, copper, wood, and stone, but the elaborately planned community, woodhenge, mounds, and burials reveal a complex and sophisticated society. Mound building at this location began with the emergent Mississippian cultural period, around the 9th century CE. Cahokia is located near the center of this map in the upper part of the Middle Mississippi area.Īlthough 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. See also: Ramey state Development (9th and 10th centuries) A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures. It was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of the selections for 'Illinois 25 Must See Places'. ![]() In celebration of the 2018 Illinois state bicentennial, the Cahokia Mounds were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois). The largest prehistoric 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. It is also one of the 25 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States. Today, the Cahokia Mounds are considered to be the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico.Ĭahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site for state protection. Ĭahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the Central and the Southeastern United States, beginning more than 1,000 years before European contact. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles (16 km 2), 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. The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km 2), and contains about 80 manmade mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. This historic park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. 1050–1350 CE ) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site / k ə ˈ h oʊ k i ə/ ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed c. Cahokia winter solstice sunrise over Fox Mound and the Cahokia Woodhenge ca.
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