MONDAY MUSINGS: A Fascination Of Cahokia

Over the years we’ve heard a great deal of the Mayans and Aztecs. They were a marvel. But they weren’t the only sophisticated civilizations on the North American continent. We’ve just heard more about them.

Did you know there was a huge metropolis in the Midwest long before Columbus stepped foot on what is known as the United States? It rivals the Mayans and Aztecs in knowledge, finance, commerce, agriculture, and medical practices. Furthermore, this group of people built a mound that took up the space of a pyramid and was at least a hundred feet tall (considering erosion rates, it could have been even taller)? In fact, the base is larger than the Great Pyramid in Egypt and covered fourteen acres. The surrounding town, consisting of at least 120 pyramid styled mounds (massive bases and flat tops), built around the central plaza and mound and boasted a population larger than many cities in Europe?

Cahokia was huge, even by European standards. It’s estimated the nation was made up of about fifty loosely connected communities in the greater area spread out from the main mound (Monks Mound). Surrounding the mound were many well-built houses and many had family gardens. Numerous mounds had official buildings sitting on the top of them; some were homes of the elite. Population is estimated at around 20,000 in the city and probably another 30,000 in the surrounding area.

We think of football fields are huge, but the plaza was roughly the size of 45 football fields. That’s huge and it was enclosed in a wooden stockade (which took approximately 20, 000 logs to make).

What’s truly amazing to me is that the residents built these mounds. Keep in mind they didn’t have horses and wagons to do this. Instead this dirt was hauled by basket carried by men and, no doubt, some slaves were also used. Many tribes had slaves from enemy tribes.

The surrounding area was lush because it was part of the Mississippi bottomland. Rich soil, at least initially, for supporting an advanced agricultural society. It boasted of some good forests but those were cut down for building, especially the wooden wall around the top of the mound. Cahokia also sat at the convergence of the Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi rivers and so there was commerce from trade. Using the rivers trading reached from the gulf area north to the Minnesota area. Who knows, for sure, how far traders went on foot through out the lands surrounding the city. Archaeologists have found goods that indicate the trade routes were quite far reaching. But can you just imagine being on a trade canoe and seeing Cahokia for the first time? It would have been a wondrous sight to see.

Experts say the town only lasted about 300 years and then was abandoned. I imagine as they used up the resources (they weren’t great land managers) and the weather changes had many leaving and heading to smaller, more sustainable, settlements and villages. Many of the Native Americans in the area had similar beliefs and building styles so that would fit.

Cahokia is one of the largest archaeological areas in North America and it’s practically at my doorstep. I want to visit the area again and really look around. Walk up those 150 some steps and stand on Monks Mound and imagine a world of 700 years ago. I want to stand below the mound, in what was once the plaza, and imagine a sunrise cresting that mound and the awe of the populace when they saw the sun ‘being born’ from the top of the mound.

Have any of you visited this area? Or have you visited other archaeological sites?

  

Here’s a 10 minute excerpt from 500 Nations The Cahokia mound builders. Pretty cool.

MONDAY MUSINGS: Looking At The Past

Sorry this posted late, a glitch in the auto-publish feature. It was supposed to post at Midnight and I have been gone all day and just realized it hadn't.

A cup of tea and beauty to think by...

This past weekend I fed my love of history, archaeology, and people. I did quite a bit of comparisons between the peoples of the 1300-1500’s in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. Amazing stuff. Attitudes toward each other and who was superior was astonishing in similarities. The Middle Eastern people looked at the Europeans and savages and uneducated in comparison with their advancements in hygiene and medical practices.

I’m also amused by Europeans view of the Americas as a vast wilderness largely uninhabited and what inhabitants they did encounter were considered savage barbarians. Heathens. Little more evolved than animals compared to the great advancements the Europeans felt they had.

Casqui Parkin Site (artist depiction)

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. North America was far from empty and it’s people far from savages. To give some context in population, England in the 1400’s was about 2 ½ million and topped over 3 million in the 1500’s. The population of Europe was more than 70 million during that time period.  Substantial numbers in what was seen as the ‘civilized world’. Now, let’s look at North America during the same time period—between 2 million and 18 million. Not exactly uninhabited and that’s just North America. If you add South America, the numbers jump to about 100 million.

Artist depiction of Moundville at it's peak about 800 years ago, and built on high terraces and mounds to keep them safe from flooding.

The idea of uneducated savages also comes into question when you look at the homes, cities, written languages, and military power (consider that the Native American armies in southeastern US was able to defeat the military might of Spain’s warriors under De Soto). 

Palenque Ruins

When you look at the political structures, and the religious and medical practices, the people of the Americas were anything but uneducated. Political systems were in place under kings, chieftains and sub-rulers, a body of those who set rules—in some clans/tribes were nations with the equivalent of parliament/congress. These people had their religious temples, educational centers, and their palaces; huge cites that would rival many cities in Europe. They performed surgeries unknown in most of Europe but the Middle East would have understood and applauded. At a time when waste products were being tossed out of the windows in London or Paris to the streets below, when bathing and cleanliness was almost unheard of (another reason Middle East look down on European society) people in the Americas had waste systems, bathing was the norm, drinking water was kept separate and clean. There were sophisticated food storage systems. To give you an idea of how urbane food storage was, in De Soto’s time, he raided an Apalachee town and carried away enough food to feed over 600 men and their horses for over 6 months.

Education was also in place, knowledge of mathematics, knowledge of the stars and their movements were commonplace in parts of the Americas.

I’m not discounting less highly developed tribes, warrior societies, or city-states in either place, but this idea that those native to the Americas were savages, that this continent was empty or up for grabs because of it, is laughable. 

Picture credits: Wikipedia, The Daily Kos, and Moundville Archaeological Museum