Cahokia Mounds Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- by and +1
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- Strontium Isotope Analysis, Cahokia Mounds

Mound 72 at Cahokia figures prominently into interpretations of early Mississippian sociopolitical development. A previous study utilizing dental morphology concluded that the groups of mostly young adult females interred in four mass graves in Mound 72 were likely not from Cahokia and possibly reflect sacrificial offerings from outside communities. The purpose of this study is to reevaluate these findings using multiple indicators of biological relatedness and place of origin/migration. Biological relatedness in Mound 72 was examined using dental metrics and morphology. Four additional archaeological samples from nearby sites were included to better assess biological variation within Mound 72. Strontium isotope analysis ((87) Sr/(86) Sr) was also conducted on individuals from several burial features in Mound 72 to determine heterogeneity in place of origin. Biodistance studies indicate that individuals in the four mass graves are phenotypically similar to other groups in the region...

- by Kristin Hedman
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- Evolutionary Biology, Archaeology, Anthropology, Migration

The discovery of a previously unknown ridge-top mound during the Illinois State Archaeological Survey’s recent excavations at the East St. Louis Mound Complex reveals that landscape modification, interment of human remains, and carefully engineered layers of soil were integral not only to the mound-building process, but to the making of East St. Louis’ community. Each mound-making act, at East St. Louis and throughout the Mississippian world, represented action imbued with meaning that was intended to make and maintain community at these centers. This paper overviews the events surrounding the construction of Main Street Mound and discusses them in the context of the ridge-top monuments and their use in the Greater Cahokia region.

- by Tamira Brennan
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Ritual, Culture

Cahokia 0 km 1000 N In the mid eleventh century AD, Cahokia emerged as a substantial Mississippian urban centre. To the east, a shrine-complex known as the Emerald Acropolis, marking the beginning of a processional route to the city, also flourished. Excavations and geophysical survey of the monumental landscape around this site suggest that lunar cycles were important in the orientation of structures and settlement layout. They further indicate that water played a significant role in the ritual activities associated with the closure and abandonment of individual structures. The contemporary development of these sites suggests an intrinsic connection between them, and provides early evidence of the importance that the moon and water came to assume in Mississippian culture.

- by Timothy Pauketat and +2
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- Archaeology, Archaeology of Religion, Archaeoastronomy, Mississippian Societies (Archaeology)

Dugan Airfield (11MO718) is a multicomponent pre-Columbian site in the uplands of Monroe County, Illinois, a portion of which was excavated during the Illinois Route 3 Widening and Waterloo Bypass Project. In this paper, I contend that the site's Stirling phase Mississippian component represents a " nodal " settlement based on the presence of elite architecture, feasting debris, and prestige objects and materials. Furthermore, nonlocal pottery vessels, hybrid structures, and the remains of river-dwelling fish from floodplain environments recovered from the site suggest that these feasts brought together and integrated diverse populations from the surrounding region. Overall, Dugan's location along a major transportation corridor, its status as the only nodal settlement in the area, and the " commensal politics " that took place there indicate that the site was crucial in maintaining Cahokia's influence on southern upland populations.

- by Jacob Skousen
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- Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Cahokia Mounds
- by Jacob Skousen and +3
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- Archaeology, North American archaeology, Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Archaeology of Roads

Investigations at the Morrison (11MS1548) site during the 1990s revealed a previously unknown mound center dating to the early Edelhardt phase of the Terminal Late Woodland period (ca. A.D. 1000–1030). Located only 3 km from Monks Mound, the site is significant because it provides evidence suggesting mound and plaza construction occurred immediately preceding the rise of Cahokia as a sociopolitical and religious center. Excavations in 1994 confirmed the presence of one rectangular platform mound and a related residential occupation in close proximity. A hint of a later Lohmann phase (A.D. 1050–1100) revisit to the site, perhaps for commemorative purposes, is suggested by the presence of a white-on-red seed jar fragment.

- by Elizabeth Watts Malouchos and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, North American archaeology

Cahokia’s cultural influence altered patterns of social organization throughout the Midwest, and this complex historical process warrants further interregional research. Ramey Incised jars were cosmograms through which Cahokians attempted to frame relationships among different social groups and the broader cosmos. The exchange, and subsequent emulation, of these ritually charged vessels provided opportunities for hinterland groups to do the same. But did hinterland
Mississippian peoples adopt a Cahokian understanding of the cosmos wholesale or reinterpret it based on local understandings and histories? To address this question, this paper examines variation in Ramey Incised iconographic motifs and design fields from the Lower Illinois River valley, Central Illinois River valley, Apple River valley, and the Aztalan site (47JE1). The data are then statistically compared with Emerson’s
typology from the American Bottom, highlighting ground-level patterns of material variation which can be used to interpret the ways in which
local peoples negotiated the spread of dominant ideologies and religious practices. Analysis of these patterns suggests regional differences in the perceived composition and structure of the cosmos and reveals the power of local worldviews in culture contact scenarios.

Copper, Brown and Dark Nations & People Are Indigenous To North America & Weren't Brought Here As Slaves.

- by Norman McCreary
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- Mesopotamian Archaeology, Mesoamerican Archaeology, Melanin, Mesoamerica

Cahokia was a major Native American city on the east side of the Mississippi River, across from the modern-day city of St. Louis, Missouri. Cahokia flourished from c.1050 AD to c.1250. In this paper archaeoastronomic and ethnohistoric data along with computer simulations are used to explore the idea that the Cahokia site axis and the Rattlesnake Causeway were intentionally aligned to the Milky Way. It is proposed that this alignment accounts for the peculiar 5° offset of the site from the cardinal directions. Following Sarah Baires, it is suggested that Rattlesnake Causeway was a terrestrial metaphor for the Milky Way Path of Souls used by the deceased to cross to the Land of the Dead. Rattlesnake Mound at the end of the Causeway is suggested as a portal to the Path of Souls. According to ethnohistoric accounts, the Land of the Dead was guarded by a Great Serpent-suggested here as visible in the night sky as either the constellation Serpens or that of Scorpius.

- by William F Romain
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- Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy, Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Milky Way

In this chapter I propose that Monks Mound was an axis mundi for the Cahokian world. By ‘Cahokian world’ I mean not only the immediate site of Cahokia, but also the general region over which Cahokia exerted political and religious hegemony. As I will discuss below, I am not the first person to suggest that Monks Mound was an axis mundi. In what
follows, however, new data are presented that further that narrative. These data include recently obtained LiDAR imagery and archaeoastronomic analyses.

- by Brad Koldehoff and +1
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- Public Archaeology, Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), American Bottoms archaeology, Cahokia Mounds
- by Gregory Wilson and +1
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- Lithic Technology, Stone axes (Archaeology), Cahokia Mounds
- by Brad Koldehoff
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- Ritual, Chunkey, Cahokia Mounds

The Mississippian Mace, currently classified as a ceremonial war club, is a common theme in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), more recently described as the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere (MIIS), and seems to be a favored accoutrement of the Morning Star deity. Countless representations exist in shell carvings, petroglyphs, and as three-dimensional stone forms. Despite the proliferation of this motif, scholars
have struggled to assign it ideological meaning. Now, investigations into the relationship between maces and birds, along with examinations of surviving folklore and the historical record, provide insight into this enigmatic symbol of power. Iconographic associations, substitutions, and transformations combine with legend to relate the visual imagery of the
Mississippian mace to the spirit birds.

Much of what is known about the Indigenous city of Cahokia, located in and influential on the North American midcontinent during the eleventh through fourteenth centuries AD, derives from decades of salvage, research, and CRM excavations in the surrounding American Bottom region. We use this robust dataset to explore patterns of building conflagration that suggest these practices of burning were part of pre-Mississippian traditions that were bundled into new Cahokian landscapes during the early consolidation of the city. These bundled practices entangled sources of power that were at once political and religious, thus transforming the practices and meanings associated with terminating building use via fire. Mucho de lo que se conoce sobre la ciudad indígena de Cahokia, ubicada en el medio continente norteamericano durante los siglos XI al XIV dC, deriva de décadas de excavaciones de rescate, investigación y CRM en la región circundante de América. Utilizamos este sólido conjunto de datos para explorar patrones de conflagración de edificios, lo que sugiere que estas prác-ticas de quema fueron parte de las tradiciones pre-Mississippian que se incluyeron en los nuevos paisajes de Cahokian durante la consolidación temprana de la ciudad. Estas prácticas agrupadas enmarañaron fuentes de poder que eran a la vez políticas y religiosas, transformando así las prácticas y los significados asociados con la terminación del uso del edificio a través del fuego.

- by Timothy Pauketat and +1
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- Pottery (Archaeology), Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), New Materialisms, American Bottoms archaeology
- by Brad Koldehoff and +1
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- Ritual, Cahokia Mounds, Bone Hair Pins, Terminal Late Woodland
- by Susan Alt
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- Cahokia Mounds

- by Timothy Pauketat and +2
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- Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Late Woodland and Mississippian societies, Cahokia Mounds
- by Timothy Pauketat and +1
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- Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Native American Anthropology, Cities, Cahokia Mounds

chapter 1 from Medieval Mississippians

- by Susan Alt and +1
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- Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Southeastern Archaeology (Archaeology in North America), Cahokia Mounds

Flotation-recovered plant remains from a series of 11 sod block samples, 7 features,
a limestone concentration, and a mass of organic debris provide
insights into the construction of Monks Mound. The presence of uncarbonized
seeds exclusively of annuals (other than those of perennial elderberry
and wild grape, which probably represent food remains) indicates that the construction
of Monks Mound was relatively continuous. The presence of quillwort
megaspores and other indicators of wetlands provide additional data
on how Monks Mound was constructed and where some borrow and/or
sod blocks were likely obtained to construct at least part of this monument.

- by Timothy Schilling and +1
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- Paleoethnobotany (Anthropology), Archeobotany, Cahokia Mounds, Monks Mound

Population growth in the American Bottom after A.D. 1050 may have outstripped agricultural productivity. It has been suggested that farmers expanded agricultural practices into previously unused upland prairies to expand production. Historic accounts describe the difficulty that early settlers
had with prairie, making this supposition questionable. However, experiments with replica Mill Creek hoes suggest that these tools were capable of converting prairie into farmland.

- by Scott W Hammerstedt and +1
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- Experimental Archaeology, Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Mississippian societies, Cahokia Mounds

Archaeological research at Washington State Park in 1959 and 2017 discovered non-perishable artifacts that provide insights into the age of the petroglyph panels at 23WA1 and 23WA2. Specifically, both Woodland- and Mississippian-period... more

- by Michael Fuller
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- Prehistoric Rock Art, Cahokia Mounds, Osage Indians
- by Tamira Brennan and +1
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- Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Cahokia, Cahokia Mounds, Illinois Archaeology

In the study of the Precolumbian Eastern United States, ceramic typologies classifying temper treatments have been foundational in defining chronologies and culture groups. Specifically in the Midwest region, grog tempering has been typically recognized as a Middle (A.D. 1-400) and Late Woodland (A.D. 400-1000) culture trait and shell tempering as a diagnostic hallmark of the subsequent Mississippian culture (AD 1000-1600). Ceramic analyses from this region often downplay or dismiss observed mixed tempered materials as non-existent or incidental admixtures. This analytical practice often masks the variation of tempering treatments in these assemblages as well as masking the social constructs that inform ceramic production. In this paper, we suggest that identifying and including mixed tempering in analyses and interpretations is key for better understanding the processes of Mississippianization and the material manifestations of being Mississippian. Directly addressing mixed temper treatments, we present ceramic analyses from Late Woodland Yankeetown Phase (A.D. 800-1100) sites in southwestern Indiana and the Late Mississippian Period Common Field site (A.D. 1200-1275) in southeastern Missouri, and reposition mix-tempered technologies as negotiated practices, whereby learned, habitual actions related to the production of pottery are entangled in the historical processes associated with the rise and fall of Mississippian polities.

- by Elizabeth Watts Malouchos and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mississippian Societies (Archaeology), Ceramic Analysis (Archaeology)

In press article describing a previously unknown travelers account of his visits to the Cahokia and St. Louis Mound Groups in the early 1830s.