The Cahokia Civilization

Recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site, Cahokia Mounds is located in the current day city of Collinsville, Illinois. Near the Mississippi River, this pre-history site is made of mounds scattered around an area of about Three and a half square miles of land. The park may be large, but the actual city of Cahokia in pre-history spread much further than what the park is recognized as today. Cahokia is recognized by historians as part of the Mississippian culture which groups them with other native civilizations that lived along the Mississippi River who shared architectural styles (like the mounds fount in Cahokia) as well as other attributes like maize based economics and tools

Cahokia is an ancient city established around c. 700-1500. It was a city built along the entire Mississippi River. It was a major city with 20,000-30,000 people and was a major trade center. It had a social structure set up by royalty, a Theocracy. Mesa Verde on the other hand was inhabited by the Anasazi in c.1100-1300. It was built mostly under cliffs and housed thousands. They were both similar in the time periods they inhabited and both had over thousands of people. Both planted corn but the Anasazi planted the three sister crops together while the people of Cahokia main crop was corn. Both societies had taken notice of the ancient supernova of 1054. This let scientist know that both civilization inhabited around such period. Also, showed

As Indian groups started to settle in the Mississippi floodplain, their cultures and political systems began to intertwine, creating a complex sociopolitical structure (Page, 70). The largest polity to arise out of this area, known as the American Bottom, was Cahokia. At its height, it resembled a city, extending over five square miles, mounds and structures that towered over smaller dwellings, and a population, that some believe to have been the largest, north of Mexico, for its time (Page, 70). Estimates predict several thousand lived at the site of Cahokia, many of them elites, whose particular talents or skills, earned them the privileged title (Pauketat). Beyond its boundaries were smaller groups and

Ancient civilizations have had profound effects of what we know as the modern world today. The primary purpose for anything that lives is to survive. Throughout history animals, plants and humans have adapted to their surroundings. All living things have changed throughout time. The thing that differs humans from rest is, humans are more cognitively advanced. Over the course of time the shape and size of the human skull has changed. The size of the human brain has increased, which has allowed humans to adapt more to their surroundings. To survive, humans were making tools for hunting and to cut with. The closer you lived to the equator the darker your skin may have been, so you could adapt to the intensity of the sun’s rays. If you lived further

a. Cahokia was a Mississippian settlement located in modern-day Illinois, which was home to around 25,000 people at its peak

Many theories viable or not have come about through the years about the fall of the Cahokians, climate change, a political falling out, a massive flood or a fire and some erroneous suggestions involving the cosmos. Many of these theories really do not hold a torch to the climate change or societal fall. A massive fire, a disastrous flood, although more evidence of remains would have be revealed to be appropriate. Overcrowding and depletion of resources can hold up to the evidence and reigns true in common sense. I will bring up these factors of cause for the demise, but I will explore and focus mainly on the climate changes in this American Bottom region as the prime factor of the Cahokian

The Cahokia Indians were settled near modern-day St. Louis, Missouri close to the Mississippi River. Some archaeologist believe that the Cahokia once had 20,000 Natives and over 100 mounds in their village. The reason they believe in these outstanding growth in people was the land around them. Situated with land with great

Many of the local villages shared in the same customs as the Cahokians, because of the same beliefs one could easily see a centralized city forming. The construction of modern developments, makes it difficult to know what Cahokia was like at its height. Because a modern highway system is now in the same spot of Cahokia, archeologists often have trouble doing work. Though learning about the scope of Cahokia may be difficult, archaeology research can still show us many things, one of which was the idea of outdoor games. Games played a very important role in the social

How can a civilization that has been so powerful for a thousand years suddenly decline? This civilization was Rome. Rome was a Republic for five hundred years, and a Empire for five hundred years. During this time Rome did amazing achievements that we still use to this day. The Romans made buildings out of concrete, Olympics, drama plays, an arch , an a collision which we call a studium, their Empire expanded as far east as India.

Starting in AD 800 and hitting its peak from 1050- 1200 AD, Cahokia covered six square miles with a population between 10,000 and 20,000 people (Jarus 1). During their 500 years, the Cahokians developed America’s first city and arguably the greatest civilization of its time, and then seemingly disappeared without a trace. But, despite Cahokia’s disappearance, a significant amount of history was left behind through earthen mounds, evolved social structures, advanced cultural practices, and Cahokia’s unexplained demise.

Cahokia is arguably one of the most influential cities in its time. Although there is little known about Cahokia, aspects of their culture (like games, artifacts, and religious aspects) can be found throughout the Americas. If so much of the area had not been bulldozed before being excavated, we may have known more about the area. Cahokia had such an impact during its time, traces of Cahokia can be found in other communities such as the Osage, Pawnee, and many more.

Cahokia was a large, complex settlement built by Native Americans that lived along the Mississippi River in about 950 C.E. near present-day St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois. At the city’s peak at around 1150 C.E., nearly ten thousand citizens lived on more than five square miles of 120 earthen “mounds.” At the time, Cahokia was the third-largest city in the Americas, and it contained multiple residential neighborhoods, plazas, and religious sites. Scientists and historians widely agreed that corn had been cultivated in this region since as early as the year 1000 C.E. At the location of the ancient city, archaeologists discovered corn fragments, such as kernels and cobs, in sites that were dated to the year 1000 C.E. and earlier. Several

Cahokia is located near St. Louis and constructed numerous mounds. There were three major types of mounds found at Cahokia: platform, conical and ridge-top. One mound, called Monks Mound was enormous, it stood 100 ft. high and covered 16 acres. It is thought that this mound would have required many workers with mound experts supervising and took about 370,000 days to build (Fagan 2005: 472). Cahokia made improvements in agriculture through intercropping, and built a great plaza used for games and ceremonials that was the size of 35 football fields. Large public feasts were held at Cahokia. There are signs of people with a higher social status seen in where they lived and how they were buried. (Fagan 2005: 475). Mound 72 has the burial of a high-status male on a platform of 20,000 shell beads, with 800 arrowheads, copper and mica sheets, and 15 polished stone disks (Fagan 2005: 475). Cahokia had a large population of over 10,000 people and a three tier chiefdom. Moundville was occupied AD 1050 – 1450 and is located west-central Alabama. It had a large central plaza, a protective palisade, large mounds with numerous other earthworks, and over 3,000

The so-called mound builders built big ceremonial and burial mounds that were located in the Ohio Valley. Cahokia, near East St. Louis today, had a population of about 40,000 people.

Also, for the mounds in these cities, wood and dirt was used. Unfortunately, the wood from the surrounding area was sometimes overused, which led to the eventual flooding of Cahokia. They built the mounds for many different reasons, as they served many different purposes, from functioning as burial grounds to the bases of temples and palaces. Other Native American cultures were not mound-builders, which is a very big difference. Also, the Cahokia people (as mentioned on the video) did not live in tepees, as typically thought that Native Americans did. The people of Moundville lived in “small houses composed of pole and thatch (according to the Moundville