Ancient Cahokia

On our way out West, taking the glorious Southern Route, we decided to stop at an archaeological site that is today mostly covered by the illustrious St. Louis. I took an entire seminar on Cahokia, where we read various views on the population of the city, the social, political and economic organization of the city, in attempts to determine if it was or was not a “civilization” (to take the technical anthropological definition of the controversial word). It was an exercise in archaeological interpretation more than a study of Cahokia, but I have wanted to see it ever since.

My Mom gave me the idea, as they were off on a cross-country journey of their own (taking the Northern Route, the losers). So we decided to follow suit, because as an anthropologist I can hardly skip what was the largest city in North America until the 1800s.

What it amounted to was a large mound, Monk’s Mound, once surrounded by a large fort-like wall, and still surrounded by several smaller mounds, each signifying either boundary markers or home sites. These aren’t mounds like those in Ft. Ancient or Serpent Mound; no one is buried in the mounds in Cahokia (on purpose). Instead they are monuments to what some call a highly stratified chiefdom and others (while calling the former group racist) say that it could have been nothing less than a kingdom. The rather heated and ugly argument between one Tim Pauketat and one George Milner come to mind (anthropologists are so catty, aren’t they?). Some estimate the population at less than 8000, some at almost 40,000. I tend to waiver toward the 8000 mark, as so far the evidence for estimating 40,000 is sensationalized and over-simplified. I won’t go into it.

Regardless, it was pretty cool to be able to climb up and over these mounds, to think that 1000 years ago, this was a bustling metropolis unlike anything North America had ever seen (not counting, of course, those areas in Mexico and the rest of Central America). The top of Monk’s Mound even had a pretty nice view of St. Louis. Apparently, a farmer a while back though so, too, and built his entire farm on this prime piece of real estate. Opportunists. Farming pretty much destroys most archaeological evidence, so how the top of the mound REALLY looks is a mystery, but not any less cool.

We were in a bit of a hurry, as we had decided to see a Royals’ game in Kansas City to commemorate Jonmikel’s love of baseball, so we strolled quickly as I gave my own interpretive tour of the site, and then we were On the Road Again, as it were.