Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians

by Timothy R. Pauketat

The ancient capital of Cahokia and a series of lesser population centers developed in the Mississippi valley in North America between the eighth and fifteenth centuries AD, leaving behind an extraordinarily rich archaeological record. Cahokia's gigantic pyramids, finely crafted artifacts, and dense population mark it as the founding city of the Mississippian civilization, formerly known as the 'mound' builders.

As Cahokian ideas and objects were widely sought, a cultural and religious ripple effect spread across the mid-continent and into the South. In its wake, population migrations and social upheavals transformed social life along the ancient Mississippi River. In this important new survey, Timothy Pauketat outlines the development of Mississippian civilization, presenting a wealth of archaeological evidence and advancing our understanding of the American Indians whose influence extended into the founding moments of the United States and lives on today in American archaeology.

Genres: History, Archaeology, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Ancient History, Native Americans

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Tim Pauketat is an archaeologist and professor of Anthropology and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He previously taught at the State University of New York in Buffalo and the University of Oklahoma. Professor Pauketat is interested in the study of ancient religion and urbanism, and has been excavating the pre-Columbian colonies and pilgrimage sites of the Cahokian civilization around St. Louis north into Wisconsin. The author or editor of a dozen scholarly books, Tim also writes for nonprofessional audiences, recently including a book entitled Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi (Penguin, 2010).

Reviews

[Rossdavidh · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was, not far from where I grew up in southern Illinois, but about 900 years prior, a civilization based in Cahokia, Illinois. I use the term "civilization" advisedly, in the original sense of "living in cities", because Cahokia was for its time a quite large settlement. There were also sizeable settlements that appear to have been part of the same culture, nearby at St. Louis and East St. Louis.

As a grade school student, or even a high school student, in southern Illinois, I heard basically nothing about this civilization. This is more than a little odd, because I heard about the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans, and all of them were quite a bit further afield. I think I probably heard more about the Iroquois than I did about the Cahokians, also known as the Mississippians or "Mound Builders". It was like we had a blind spot in our history curriculum.

Part of this surely must be because they built primarily in earth and wood, rather than stone. Their "mounds" (which more accurately could be called "pyramids" or "truncated pyramids"), while sizeable, were earth covered with wood, and that leaves not quite so vivid an impression as does stone after it has been left to decay for half a millenium or more. They also do not appear to have had a written language, although again if they used anything like paper it is questionable whether we would know about it by now. They also lived near the Mississippi River, which is given to occasionally overflowing its banks, and that leaves less to see after centuries than, say, the deserts of Egypt or the ancient homes of the Anasazi.

Nonetheless, it is odd that a city with a population in five digits, at a time when London was barely that big, should receive so little notice, so close to home. I cannot say why I never heard about this growing up. I can say, that I am learning more about it now, and this book is one of the primary reasons why.

Of course, archaeology is in some ways a frustrating topic to read about, because you often have the choice of either mostly unsubstantiated speculation, or else a description so dry and vague as to be unengaging. But, looked at in another light, it is an intriguing mystery. Prior to about 1050 A.D., Cahokia was a small village. Rapidly thereafter, it grew to a population of somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000, depending on whose estimate you believe and how far out you draw the perimeter. Then, after apparently flourishing for about 200 years, spreading its cultural influence (perhaps political and military influence as well) for hundreds of miles around, it dissolved. Some settlements appear to have been burned, others abandoned. What happened? Why the boom, why the bust?

This book will not give you a definitive answer, to either one, but it provides a vivid sketch of what is known. I should probably read some of the author's newer work, as this was written in 2004 and it is a field with active research. There are a goodly number of maps, diagrams, photos, and sketches, to help flesh out what we do know about how these people lived, what they made, and what their settlements looked like. He also does a decent job of telling the story of how the "Mound Builders" were first said to be an extinct people (the Native Americans being too primitive to have done such city building), then ignored (because it was desirable to pave over sites in St. Louis and East St. Louis).

The definitive and comprehensive book on the Mississippian culture is probably still to be written, not least because it will take a few more decades of archaeological work to discover enough to tell a more complete story. What were the broad, flat, open spaces on the tops of the pyramids used for? Sport? Religious ritual? Some combination of the two? Were the culturally similar outposts imitating Cahokia, or colonies of it? Was the decline and fall of the cities of the Mississippian culture due to internal division, climate change, invasion, or some combination of these? We don't know the answers yet, but thanks to people such as the author of this book, we are at least now asking the questions.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pauketat offers an interpretation of the archaeological evidence for the formation and ultimate dissolution of the c. 11th to 15th-century Mississippian society, and its cultural and political core at metropolitan Cahokia. Recommended for anyone with an interest in prehistoric archaeology and/or pre-Columbian North America, though at least a basic familiarity with cultural-anthropological principles would likely make for a more rewarding read.

[Jean-michel Pigeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent livre sur les Mississippiens.