Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Monks Mound is the largest earthen structure at Cahokia
Location	St. Clair County, Illinois, USA
Nearest city	Collinsville, Illinois
Coordinates	38°39′14″N 90°3′52″W / 38.65389°N 90.06444°W / 38.65389; -90.06444Coordinates: 38°39′14″N 90°3′52″W / 38.65389°N 90.06444°W / 38.65389; -90.06444
Area	2,200 acres (890 ha)
Governing body	Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Type:	Cultural
Criteria:	iii, iv
Designated:	1982 (6th session)
Reference #:	198
State Party:	United States
Region:	Europe and North America
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Official name: Cahokia Mounds
Designated:	October 15, 1966[1]
Reference #:	66000899
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Official name: Cahokia Mounds
Designated:	July 19, 1964[1]

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( /kəˈhoʊkiə/) is the area of an ancient indigenous city (c. 600–1400 CE) located in the American Bottom floodplain, between East Saint Louis and Collinsville in south-western Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri.^[2] The 2,200-acre (890 ha) site included 120 human-built earthwork mounds over an area of six square miles, of which 80 remain.^[3] Cahokia Mounds is the largest archaeological site related to the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies in the central and eastern present-day United States, beginning more than five centuries before the arrival of Europeans.^[4] In the 1200s, its population was as large or larger than European cities, and it was not surpassed by any later United States city until 1800.

Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and designated site for state protection. In addition, it is one of only 21 World Heritage Sites within the United States. It is the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico.^[3]

Designations[link]

Cahokia Mounds was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 19, 1964, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.^[1]

In 1982 UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) designated Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as a World Heritage Site. The park protects 2,200 acres (890 ha), and is the center of continuing archaeological research. This is the only such site in Illinois and among only twenty-one cultural World Heritage Sites in the United States.^[5] United States Representative Evelyn M. Bowles wrote about the Cahokia Mounds site:

"Through the years my friends and I made occasional Sunday afternoon trips to the Mounds. When I became the State Senator, it afforded me the opportunity to secure funds for the acquisition of additional acreage in which there are smaller Mounds. Many of these have contained additional artifacts." The designation has helped protect the property and attract funds to conduct research on this significant civilization.^[6]

History[link]

Although there is some evidence of Late Archaic period (approximately 1200 BCE) occupation in and around the site,^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] The city's original name is unknown.

The original site contained 120 earthen mounds over an area of six square miles, of which 80 remain today. To achieve that, thousands of workers over decades moved more than an "estimated 55 million cubic feet of earth in woven baskets to create this network of mounds and community plazas. Monks Mound, for example, covers 14 acres (5.7 ha), rises 100 ft (30 m), and was topped by a massive 5,000 sq ft (460 m²) building another 50 ft (15 m) high."^[3]

The Mounds were later named after a clan of 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 were not necessarily descendants of the original Mississippian-era people. Scholars do not know which, if any Native American groups, are the living descendants of the people who originally built and lived at the Mound site, although many are plausible. Native American bands migrated through different areas, and those living in territories at the time of European encounter were often not the descendants of peoples who had lived there before.

Monks Mound[link]

Monks Mound (pictured above, right) is the largest structure and central focus of the city: a massive platform mound with four terraces, 10 stories tall, and the largest man-made earthen mound north of Mexico. Facing south, it is 100 ft (30 m) high, 951 ft (290 m) long, 836 ft (255 m) wide and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha).^[10] It also contains about 814,000 cu yd (622,000 m³) of earth.^[11] The mound grew in stature over the course of several centuries through as many as ten separate construction episodes, as the mound was made ever higher and the terraces and apron were added.^[10]

Monks Mounds received its name due to the community of Trappist monks that resided there for a short time, after Euroamericans settled the area. Excavation on the top of Monks Mound has revealed evidence of a large building, likely a temple or the residence of the paramount chief, which would have been seen throughout the city. This building was about 105 ft (32 m) long and 48 feet (15 m) wide, and could have been as much as 50 ft (15 m) high. It was about 5,000 sq ft (460 m²).

A large plaza located adjacent to Monk's Mound was a place where games and public rituals took place. The most popular of the games was the game of chunky. The game was played with young men rolling a pill-shaped chunky stone across the field. The men would throw spears where they thought the chunky stone would land. The game required a great deal of judgement and aim.^[11]

The east and northwest sides of Monks Mound were twice excavated in August 2007 during an attempt to avoid erosion due to slumping.^[12]

Woodhenge[link]

The reconstructed Woodhenge erected in 1985.

Woodhenge, a circle of posts used to make astronomical sightings, stood to the west of Monk's Mound. Archaeologists discovered Woodhenge during excavation of the site and noted that the placement of posts marked solstices and equinoxes, like its namesake, Stonehenge.^[13][14] Detailed analytical work supports the hypothesis that the placement of these posts was by design.^[15] The structure was rebuilt several times during the urban center's roughly 300-year history. Evidence of another Woodhenge was discovered near Mound 72, to the south of Monks Mound.

According to Chappell, "A beaker^[16] found in a pit near the winter solstice post bore a circle and cross symbol that for many Native Americans symbolizes the Earth and the four cardinal directions. Radiating lines probably symbolized the sun, as they have in countless other civilizations."^[17] (Cahokia's Woodhenge is not to be confused with another site of the same name that exists in the United Kingdom). The woodhenges were significant to the timing of the agricultural cycle.

Urban landscape[link]

The Grand Plaza is a large open plaza that spreads out to the south of Monk's Mound. Researchers originally thought the flat, open terrain in this area reflected Cahokia's location on the Mississippi's alluvial flood plain but instead soil studies have shown that the landscape was originally undulating. In one of the earliest large scale construction projects, the site had been expertly and deliberately leveled and filled by the city's inhabitants. It is part of the sophisticated engineering displayed throughout the site. The Grand Plaza covered roughly 50 acres (20 ha) and measured over 1,600 ft (490 m) in length by over 900 ft (270 m) in width.^[18] It was used for large ceremonies and gatherings, as well as for ritual games, such as chunkey. Along with the Grand Plaza to the south, three other very large plazas surround Monks Mound in the cardinal directions to the east, west, and north.

The high-status district of Cahokia was surrounded by a long palisade that was equipped with protective bastions. Where the palisade passed, it separated neighborhoods.^[11] Archaeologists found evidence of the stockade during excavation of the area and indications that it was rebuilt several times. Its bastions showed that it was mainly built for defensive purposes.^[11]

Beyond Monks Mound, as many as 120 more mounds stood at varying distances from the city center. To date, 109 mounds have been located, 68 of which are in the park area. The mounds are divided into several different types: platform, conical, ridge-top, etc.. Each appeared to have had its own meaning and function. In general terms, the city center seems to have been laid out in a diamond-shaped pattern approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) from end to end, while the entire city is 5 mi (8.0 km) across from east to west.

Ancient city[link]

Cahokia was the most important center for the peoples known today as Mississippians. Their settlements ranged across what is now the Midwest, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Cahokia was located in a strategic position near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to the north and the Gulf Coast to the south, trading in such exotic items as copper, Mill Creek chert,^[19] and whelk shells. Mill Creek chert, most notably, was used in the production of hoes, a high demand tool for farmers around Cahokia and other Mississippian centers. Cahokia's control of the manufacture and distribution of these hand tools was an important economic activity that allowed the city to thrive.^[11] Mississippian culture pottery and stone tools in the Cahokian style were found at the Silvernale site near Red Wing, Minnesota, and materials and trade goods from Pennsylvania, the Gulf Coast and Lake Superior have been excavated at Cahokia.

At the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico. Although it was home to only about 1,000 people before c. 1050, its population grew explosively after that date. Archaeologists estimate the city's population at between 6,000 and 40,000 at its peak, with more people living in outlying farming villages that supplied the main urban center. In 1250, its population was about 15,000, comparable to that of London or Paris during the same period.^[20]

If the highest population estimates are correct, Cahokia was larger than any subsequent city in the United States until the 1780s, when Philadelphia's population grew beyond 40,000.^[21]

One of the major problems that large centers like Cahokia faced was keeping a steady supply of food, and waste disposal was also an issue, which made Cahokia an unhealthy place. Being that it was such an unhealthy place to live in, 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 left it abandoned earlier.^[11]

Mound 72[link]

Mound 72

Reconstruction of the Birdman burial in the site's interpretative center

During excavation of Mound 72, a ridge-top burial mound south of Monk's Mound, archaeologists found the remains of a man in his 40s who was probably an important Cahokian ruler. The man was buried on a bed of more than 20,000 marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a falcon,^[22] with the bird's head appearing beneath and beside the man's head, and its wings and tail beneath his arms and legs. The falcon warrior or "birdman" is a common motif in Mississippian culture. This burial clearly had powerful iconographic significance. In addition, a cache of sophisticated, finely worked arrowheads in a variety of different styles and materials was found near the grave of this important man. Separated into four types, each from a different geographical region, the arrowheads demonstrated Cahokia's extensive trade links in North America.

Archeologists recovered more than 250 other skeletons from Mound 72. Scholars believe almost 62 percent of these were sacrificial victims, based on signs of ritual execution, method of burial, and other factors.^[23] The skeletons include:

• Four young males, missing their hands and skulls.

• A mass grave of more than 50 women around 21 years old, with the bodies arranged in two layers separated by matting.

• A mass burial containing 40 men and women who appear to have been violently killed. The suggestion has been made that some of these were buried alive: "From the vertical position of some of the fingers, which appear to have been digging in the sand, it is apparent that not all of the victims were dead when they were interred – that some had been trying to pull themselves out of the mass of bodies."^[24]

The relationship of these burials to the central burial is unclear. It is unlikely that they were all deposited at the same time. Wood in several parts of the mound has been radiocarbon-dated to between 950 and 1000 CE.

Excavations have indicated that Mound 72 was not constructed as a single mound, but rather as a series of smaller mounds. These mounds were reshaped and covered over to give Mound 72 its final ridge-top shape.^[25]

Copper workshop[link]

Mississippian culture repoussé copper plates

Excavations near Mound 34 from 2002–2010 have revealed a copper workshop, although the one of a kind discovery had been previously found in the 1950s by archaeologist Greg Perino but lost for 60 years. It is the only known copper workshop to be found at a Mississippian site.^[26] The area contains the remains of three tree stumps thought to have been used to hold anvil stones. Analysis of copper found during excavations showed that it had been annealed, a technique involving repeatedly heating and cooling the metal as it is worked, such as blacksmiths do with iron.^[26] Artisans worked here to produce religious items, such as long-nosed god maskettes, ceremonial earrings with a symbolic shape, thought to have been used in fictive kinship rituals.^[27][28] Many of the stylistically related Mississippian copper plates such as the Wulfing cache from southeastern Missouri, some of the Etowah plates from Georgia, and many of the Spiro plates from Oklahoma are associated with the Greater Braden Style and are thought to have been made in Cahokia in the 13th century.^{[29][30][31][32]}

Cahokia's decline[link]

Cahokia began to decline after 1300 CE. It was abandoned more than a century before Europeans arrived in North America, in the early 16th century,^[33] and the area around it was largely uninhabited by indigenous tribes.^[34] Scholars have proposed environmental factors, such as over-hunting and deforestation as explanations. The houses, stockade, and residential and industrial fires would have required the annual harvesting of thousands of logs. In addition, climate change could have aggravated effects of erosion due to deforestation, and adversely affected the cultivation of maize, on which the community had depended.

Another possible cause is invasion by outside peoples, though the only evidence of warfare found so far is the wooden stockade and watchtowers that enclosed Cahokia's main ceremonial precinct. Due to the lack of other evidence for warfare, the palisade appears to have been more for ritual or formal separation than for military purposes. Diseases transmitted among the large, dense urban population are another possible cause of decline. Many recent theories propose conquest-induced political collapse as the primary reason for Cahokia’s abandonment.^[35]

Related Mounds[link]

St. Louis as seen from Monks Mound

Until the 19th century a series of similar mounds existed in what is now the city of St. Louis, some 20 km (12 mi) to the south west of the Cahokia site. Most of these mounds were levelled during the construction of St. Louis, as their material was reused in construction projects.

The lone survivor of these mounds is the Sugarloaf Mound, which is located on the west bank of the Mississippi, on the former border between St. Louis and the autonomous city of Carondelet.

The Cahokia Museum and Interpretive Center[link]

Museum and Interpretive Center

The Cahokia Museum and Interpretive Center, which receives up to a million visitors a year, was designed by AAIC Inc. The building which opened in 1989 received the Thomas H. Madigan Award, the St. Louis Construction News & Reviews Readers Choice Award, the Merit Award from the Metal Construction Association and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Brick Manufacturer Association.

See also[link]

• Mississippian culture
• Mississippian stone statuary
• Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
• Chunkey
• American Bottom
• List of Mississippian sites
• List of archaeoastronomical sites sorted by country
• World Heritage Site

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Introductory Bibliography of Published Sources on Cahokia Archeology
• Scholarly Bibliography of Published Sources on Cahokia Archaeology
• Chappell, Sally A. Kitt (2002). Cahokia: Mirror of the Cosmos. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-10136-1. 
• Emerson, Thomas E. (1997). Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama. ISBN 0-8173-0888-1. http://www.uapress.ua.edu/NewSearch2.cfm?id=10615. 
• Emerson, Iseminger; L. Michael Nance, Madeline Winslow, and Marilyn Gass (2001). Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site Nature/Culture Hike Guidebook, 4th revised edition. Collinsville, Illinois: Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. pp. 79 pp. 
• Emerson, Thomas E.; Lewis, R. Barry (1991). Cahokia and the Hinterlands: Middle Mississipian Cultures of the Midwest. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois. ISBN 0-252-06878-5. http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s00/emerson.html. 
• Fowler, Melvin L.; Rose, Jerome; Leest, Barbara Vander; Ahler, Steven R. (1999). The Mound 72 Area: Dedicated and Sacred Space in Early Cahokia. Illinois State Museum Society. ISBN 978-0-89792-157-2. 
• Milner, George R. (2004). The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd.. 
• Mink, Claudia Gellman (1992). Cahokia, City of the Sun: Prehistoric Urban Center in the American Bottom. Collinsville, IL: Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. ISBN 1-881563-00-6. http://www.powellarchaeology.org/BookCatalog/CityOfSun.html. 
• Pauketat, Timothy (1994). The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama. ISBN 0-8173-0728-1. http://www.uapress.ua.edu/NewSearch2.cfm. 
• Pauketat, Timothy R. (2009). Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi. New York: Viking Adult. ISBN 978-0-670-02090-4. 
• Price, Douglas T.; Feinman, Gary M. (2008). Images of the Past (5 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 280–285. ISBN 978-0-07-340520-9. 
• Young, Biloine; Fowler, Melvin L. (2000). Cahokia: The Great Native American Metropolis. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois. ISBN 0-252-06821-1. http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f99/young.html.  full text available at [3]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cahokia

• Cahokia Mounds Homepage and Map of the Site
• "Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Illinois", World Heritage Site, National Park Service
• "Cahokia Mounds", Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
• "Metropolitan Life on the Mississippi", Washington Post, March 12, 1997
• Mississippian Art and Artifacts
• Visitors' perspectives
• Woodhenge and the Cahokia Mounds
• "Cahokia: America’s Lost City", National Geographic Magazine, January 2011
• Cahokia travel guide from Wikitravel

v t e    Mississippian and related cultures List of Mississippian sites Mound builder (people) Timeline of Mississippi valley Middle Mississippian American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Site Cahokia Cloverdale archaeological site Dickson Mounds Emmons Cemetery Site John Roy Site Kuhn Station Site Mitchell Site Monks Mound Orendorf Site Sugarloaf Mound Steed-Kisker culture Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams Site Kincaid Mounds Marshall Site Millstone Bluff Rowlandton Mound Site Towosahgy Turk Site Twin Mounds Site Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel Phase Annis Mound Site Bone Bank Site Caborn-Welborn culture Hovey Lake Murphy Archaeological Site Prather Site Slack Farm Tolu Site Welborn Village Archeological Site Tennessee and Cumberland Beasley Mounds Site Brentwood Library Site Brick Church Mound and Village Site Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Archaeological Site Mound Bottom Sellars Indian Mound Obion Mounds Old Town Archaeological Site Swallow Bluff Island Mounds Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Phase Boyd Mounds Site Campbell Site Chucalissa Eaker Site Menard-Hodges Site Murphy Mound Archeological Site Parkin Site Nodena Phase Nodena Site Tipton Phase Tunica Walls Phase South Appalachian Mississippian Avery Site · Beaverdam Creek Site · Bell Field Mound Site · Bessemer Site · Bussell Island  · Chauga Mound · Chiaha · Chota · Citico · Coosa chiefdom · Dallas Phase · Dyar site · Etowah Mounds · Garden Creek site · Hoojah Branch Site · Irene Mound Site · Jere Shine Site · Joara · Joe Bell Site · King Archaeological Site · Lamar Mounds and Village Site · Lamar Phase · Liddell Archeological Site · Little Egypt · Mabila · Mandeville Site · McMahan Mound Site · Moccasin Bend · Moundville Site · Mouse Creek Phase · Mulberry Site · Muscogee (Creek) · Nacoochee Mound · Nikwasi · Ocmulgee · Pisgah Phase · Punk Rock Shelter · Rembert Mounds · Roods Landing · Rucker's Bottom Site · Savannah Archaeological Site · Shiloh Indian Mounds Site · Sixtoe Mound · Summerour Mound Site · Toqua Site · Town Creek Indian Mound · Waddells Mill Pond Site · Wilbanks Site Fort Walton culture Anhaica · Apalachee · Apalachee Province · Cayson Mound and Village Site · Corbin-Tucker Site 8CA142 · Fort Walton Mound · Lake Jackson Mounds · Leon-Jefferson Culture · Letchworth Mounds · Velda Mound · Yon Mound and Village Site Pensacola culture Bottle Creek Indian Mounds · Dauphin Island · Fort Walton Mound · Hickory Ridge Cemetery Site · Naval Live Oaks Cemetery · Pensacola people Plaquemine Mississippian Anna Site · Emerald Mound Site · Fitzhugh Mounds · Flowery Mound · Foster's Mound · Ghost Site Mounds · Grand Village of the Natchez · Holly Bluff Site · Jaketown Site · Jordan Mounds · Julice Mound · Mangum Mound Site · Mazique Archeological Site · Medora Site · Mott Mounds · Natchez · Pocahontas Mounds · Routh Mounds · Scott Place Mounds · Sims Site · Taensa · Transylvania Mounds · Venable Mound · Winterville Site · Caddoan Mississippian Battle Mound Site · Belcher Mound Site · Bluffton Mound · Caddo · Caddoan Mounds · Gahagan Mounds · Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village · Spiro Mounds Upper Mississippian cultures Oneota Beattie Park Mound Group Blood Run Site Hartley Fort State Preserve Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Site Dodge Site Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village Culture Artwork Emmons mask Long-nosed god maskette Mississippian copper plates (Rogan plates, Spiro plates, Wulfing cache) Mississippian culture pottery Mississippian stone statuary Shell gorget Languages Caddoan languages Central Algonquian languages Cherokee language Mobilian Jargon Muskogean languages Natchez language Siouan languages Timucua language Tunica language Yuchi language Religion Ballgame Black drink Calumet (pipe) Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther Related topics  · Chevron bead · Clarksdale bell · Maize · Mill Creek chert · de Soto Expedition ·

v t e    Pre-Columbian North America Archaeological cultures North American pre-Columbian chronology – Adena – Alachua – Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) – Baytown – Belle Glade – Buttermilk Creek Complex – Caborn-Welborn – Calf Creek – Caloosahatchee – Clovis – Coles Creek – Deptford – Folsom – Fort Ancient – Fort Walton – Fremont – Glades – Glacial Kame – Hopewell (List of Hopewell sites) – Hohokam – Leon-Jefferson – Mississippian (List of Mississippian sites) – Mogollon – Monongahela – Old Cordilleran – Oneota – Paleo-Arctic – Paleo-Indians – Patayan – Plano – Plaquemine – Poverty Point – Prehistoric Southwest – Red Ocher – Santa Rosa-Swift Creek – St. Johns – Steed-Kisker – Tchefuncte – Tocobaga – Troyville Archaeological sites Angel Mounds – Bandelier National Monument – The Bluff Point Stoneworks – Cahokia – Chaco Canyon – Casa Grande – Coso Rock Art District – Eaker – Effigy Mounds National Monument – Etowah Indian Mounds – Eva – Folsom Site – Fort Ancient – Fort Center – Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument – Holly Bluff Site – Hopewell Culture National Historical Park – Kincaid Mounds – Kolomoki – Manitou Cliff Dwellings – Marksville – Meadowcroft Rockshelter – Mesa Verde – Moorehead Circle – Moundville – Mummy Cave – Nodena Site – Ocmulgee National Monument – Old Stone Fort – Parkin Park – Pinson Mounds – Portsmouth Earthworks – Poverty Point – Pueblo Bonito – Rock Eagle – Rock Hawk – Salmon Ruins – Serpent Mound – Spiro Mounds – SunWatch – Taos Pueblo – Toltec Mounds – Town Creek Indian Mound – Winterville Miscellaneous Ballgame – Black drink – Buhl woman – Calumet – Chunkey – Clovis point – Container Revolution – Eastern Agricultural Complex – Eden point – Effigy mound – Falcon dancer – Folsom point – Green Corn Ceremony – Horned Serpent – Kennewick man – Kiva – Metallurgy – Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing – Medicine wheel – Mound builders – N.A.G.P.R.A. – Norse colonization of the Americas – Piasa – Pueblo dwellings – Southeastern Ceremonial Complex – Three Sisters agriculture – Thunderbird – Underwater panther Related: Genetic history · Indigenous Portal of North America · Pre-Columbian era

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