America's Largest Ancient City

[Cd.]

Cahokia Mounds

http://medicine.wustl.edu/~mckinney/...a/cahokia.html


The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archaeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

<http://www.unesco.org/whc/nwhc/pages/sites/main.htm> ,

in 1982, designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site

<http://www.unesco.org/whc/sites/198.htm> for its importance to our understanding of the prehistory of North America. Cahokia Mounds is managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency

<http://www.state.il.us/hpa>.


According to archaeological finds, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to 1400. At its peak, from A.D. 1100 to 1200, the city covered nearly six square miles. Houses were arranged in rows and around open plazas, and the main agricultural fields lay outside the city. The site is named for a subtribe of the Illini - the Cahokia - who occupied the area when the French arrived. Archaeological investigations and scientific tests have provided what is known of the once-thriving community.
The fate of the prehistoric Cahokians and their city is unknown. Depletion of resources probably contributed to the city's decline. A climate change after A.D. 1200 may have affected crop production and the plant and animal resources needed to sustain a large population. War, disease, social unrest, and declining political and economic power may have also taken their toll. A gradual decline in population began sometime after A.D. 1200, and by the 1400s, the site had been abandoned.

http://www.cr.nps.gov/worldheritage/cahokia.htm

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is located on the Mississippi River across from St. Louis, Missouri. This area was first inhabited by Indians of the Woodland culture about A.D. 700. By about 900 the Cahokia site was the regional center for the Mississippian culture with satellite settlements around it. After about 400 years, the population began to decline and the site was abandoned by 1500. In the late 1600s the Cahokia Indians came to the area; it is from these later Indians that the current name is derived. However, it is the building accomplishments of the earlier Indians that make this site significant. They constructed more than 100 earthen mounds, 87 of which have been documented. It is estimated that these industrious people moved 50 million cubic feet of earth in woven baskets to create this network of mounds. Monk's Mound, for example, covers an area of 14 acres and rises in 4 terraces to a height of 100 feet. Atop this would have been a massive building another 50 feet high. As the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas, Monk's Mound is a testament to the sophisticated engineering skills of these people. (Inscribed in 1982)


http://www.prairieghosts.com/cahokia.html

While the record of European explorers in Illinois begins with the arrival of Marquette and Joliet in 1673, the chronicle of the Native American inhabitants dates back much further. This far earlier story, still only partially disclosed, reaches back into a dim and mysterious past. Scattered across the region are the relics of a dead and vanished civilization. They have been called the Mound Builders, thanks to the vast monuments of earth which tell of their previous existence.... an existence which is still shrouded in mystery.
As the early explorers began to come into the Mississippi Valley, they began to find strange mounds of earth which were man-made and in distinct shapes and designs. The settlers began to look upon these mounds as evidence of a long-vanished and forgotten culture and as they dug into the mounds, they found a wealth of extraordinary artifacts. These remaining antiquities included pottery; beautifully carved stone pipes; intricate stone carvings; and effigies of birds and serpents made from copper and mica. The mounds also contained vast number of human bones and it became obvious that most of them had been designed as burial mounds.
Soon, the mystery as to who the Mound Builders had been gripped the public imagination. A number of intriguing theories sprang up, suggesting that the builders of the mounds had been may have been Vikings; Phoenicians from the ancient city of Tyre; Welsh explorers and even the lost tribes of Israel. In other words, anything but Native Americans!
In 1839, a solution to the mystery was suggested by an eminent ethnologist named Samuel G. Morton, who produced evidence that the skulls taken from the mounds were identical in shape to the skulls of Indians who had recently died. The Mound Builders, he stated, were the early ancestors of the present-day Indians. Few people accepted this conclusion until around 1881, when the Smithsonian Institution mounted a special investigation that was led by an Illinois naturalist and archaeologist named Cyrus Thomas, who was himself a supporter of the "lost" race theory. Thomas and his team unearthed and examined thousands of artifacts over a seven-year period and he was eventually forced to change his mind. The Mound Builders truly had been early Native Americans.
One of the largest of the Mound Builder sites is located in southwestern Illinois. Near Collinsville is the Cahokia site, which is sometimes called "Monk’s Mound" after Trappist monks who farmed the terraces in the early 1800’s. It is a stepped pyramid which covers about 16 acres and one which was apparently rebuilt several times in the distant past. At the summit of the mound, are the buried remains of some sort of temple, further adding to the mystery of the site.
During the Middle Ages, Cahokia was a larger city than London and yet today, is an abandoned place about which we know almost nothing. Centuries ago, there were more than 120 mounds at the Cahokia site, though the locations of only 106 have been recorded. Many of them have been destroyed or altered because of modern farming and construction, although 68 have been preserved inside of the state historic area boundaries.
It is generally believed that about 20,000 people once occupied Cahokia, living inside of a wooden stockade which surrounded various pyramids. The site is named after a tribe of Illiniwek Indians, the Cahokia, who lived in the area when the French arrived in the late 1600’s. What the actual name of the city may have been in ancient times is unknown. The site is believed to have existed from 700 A.D. until its decline in 1300. By 1500, it is thought to have been completely abandoned.
So, what happened to the Mound Builders of Cahokia? Some archaeologists believe the last survivors of the Mound Builders were the Natchez Indians of the Lower Mississippi Valley. These Indians were known for being devout worshippers of the sun, which may explain the uses of the mounds at Cahokia and the so-called "Woodhenge" of the site. These 48 wooden posts make up a 410-foot diameter circle and by lining up the central observation posts with specific perimeter posts at sunrise, the exact date of all four equinoxes can be determined.
It has been suggested that perhaps the Mound Builders abandoned the area because of overcrowding or contamination of the local water supply, while others have theorized that it may have been a breakdown of the civilization itself. The sun-worshipping Natchez Indians were already in severe decline by the time the first Colonial explorers reached the Mississippi. Soon afterward, they were completely wiped out by the French during a series of Indian wars along the river.
According to legend, a bearded and robed god visited the Mound Builders and inspired them to love one another, live in harmony with the land and built the great earthen works. But later, they degenerated back to human sacrifice and warfare. The Natchez were described by the French as being the "most civilized of the native tribes" but it was later reported that in 1725, the death of a chieftain touched off a sacrificial orgy when several aides and two of the man’s wives agreed to be strangled so they could escort him into the next world.
Could the degeneration of the Mound Builder’s society have brought the civilization to ruin? Perhaps, although many people still consider the Cahokia site to be a sacred place. In August 1987, the Monk’s Mound was the meeting place of more than 1000 people who took part in a worldwide "harmonic convergence" which was designed to bring peace to the planet. Many Native Americans and metaphysical groups believe Cahokia is a source of powerful psychic energy even today.


Cahokia mounds: the pyramids of Illinois
The Midwest and Southern states are home to numerous Native American earth mounds. When our country was being settled, explorers found thousands of these mounds in the Ohio Valley alone. Iowa, Georgia and Indiana among others, all have similar ancient mounds you can visit. Another well-known mound in Ohio resembles a writhing snake with a egg in its mouth, and is called fittingly, Serpent Mound.
Although they're less spectacular than some prehistoric constructions such as the pyramids of Egypt, these mounds reveal some fascinating insights into the early cultures of North America. Mystery still surrounds these Native-Americans. They disappeared and left little evidence as to where they went and why. Was it famine, warfare, natural disaster or a breakdown in social order?
<http://www.myitaliancharm.com>

<http://www.myitaliancharm.com>No discussion of Moundbuilders would be complete without including Cahokia in western Illinois. The site is the largest and most sophisticated prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico. At its zenith, A.D. 1050-1150, population estimates range from 8000 to 40,000 inhabitants, though the most constant figure is 20,000. In its day, Cahokia was a major trading center, whose influence extended throughout much of North America. The city covered roughly six square miles, only part of which can be seen today.
The people of this area were known as Mississippians and they built as many as 120 earthen mounds in this vicinity. The part of the mounds made from dirt were dug with tools of stone, wood or shell, and transported on people's backs in baskets to the mound site...very hard work indeed! The digging left large depressions called borrow pits, which can still be seen. Experts believe most of the mounds were built in several construction stages.
Cahokia was laid out in neat rows with a ceremonial central plaza featuring "stepped" pyramid temples. At the heart of the central plaza was Monks Mound. Monks Mound, named for French Trappist monks who farmed its terraces in the early 1800s, is the largest Indian mound north of Mexico. It's also considered the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the New World. At 100 feet tall, the four-tiered platform was probably built in stages over a period of 300 years. Its base covers more than 14 acres. A large building sat atop Monks Mound, where the scientists speculate the principal ruler may have lived, conducted ceremonies and governed the city below. Modern man can't be absolutely sure of its purpose however, because the Cahokians left no written language and relatively few artifacts have been found. Climbing to the top of Monks Mound is now easier, as new stairways and railings were recently added.
Surrounding Monks Mound were once hundreds of smaller burial, boundary and minor ceremonial mounds. Some were flat-topped, others conical and the some ridge-shaped. Of these, only about 80 remain today. The others were victims of the urban progress and farming.
One of the most interesting features of Cahokia is a reconstructed sunrise horizon calendar, known as "Woodhenge" because its astronomical function was similar to that of Stonehenge in England. The circle consists of 48 large cedar posts arranged in a 410 foot diameter circle around a central observation post. This calendar marked the seasons and important dates for the ancient Cahokians. Evidence suggests there were four other similar "calendars" at this site.
<http://www.santamail.org>

<http://www.santamail.org>
So what did happen to the Cahokians? One theory says their increasing reliance on lumber for fuel, houses and temples may have caused its collapse. Removing too much timber from the area would have left nothing to anchor the soil, so that heavy rainfall would have washed it away, wiping out the crops. As the decades pass, Cahokia is slowly emerging from the shadows, thanks to the work of scientists and archeologists. Perhaps someday we'll know the fate of these people.

[Banky]

Isnt it amazing how they have no written records, no great artifacts other than building ruins (unless I missed it), and yet they speculate on how they lived, how they died, and what they ate??

[kiwimac]

Banky,

A lot can be told about a people by what they leave behind them, not just building ruins but pictures on the ruins, ideographs, the rubbish in their middens.

All can add up to a 'useful' picture of a people.

Kiwimac

[Cd.]

Originally posted by Banky
Isnt it amazing how they have no written records, no great artifacts other than building ruins (unless I missed it), and yet they speculate on how they lived, how they died, and what they ate??

What was found was pottery and millstones and so on. They were able also to examine skelletons. Particularly they could see by their teeth the effect that a corn diet had on these people.

[Blossom]

Originally posted by Criminal

What was found was pottery and millstones and so on. They were able also to examine skelletons. Particularly they could see by their teeth the effect that a corn diet had on these people.

Hmph. I can tell anyone that without looking at skeleton teeth...it ain't pretty. Hehehe.

(Cool, I used it on myself first! LOL!)

I always find it fun to read about lost civilizations like this!

Ever read any of Barry Fell's books? Pretty intense!

[Banky]

Originally posted by Blossom


Hmph. I can tell anyone that without looking at skeleton teeth...it ain't pretty. Hehehe.

(Cool, I used it on myself first! LOL!)

I always find it fun to read about lost civilizations like this!

Ever read any of Barry Fell's books? Pretty intense!

Yes, but it is this idea that we can 'learn' so much about a people from ruins but no literature from them or about them.

All we have is the ruins they died in, and from the pile of trash, we know what the ple of trash was, not certain if it was a steady diet or just a seasonal one, and since there wqas no reffrigeration then, any thing scooped up from the pile, had to be a seasonal diet, same with the clothes, seasonal clothing.