Cahokia Mounds

Visiting Cahokia was a new experience for me. I grew up in the American Southwest with Anasazi ruins in the canyons, on the mesas and literally in the backyard of my childhood home. Ancient pottery could be found abundantly on the desert floor, and occasionally an arrowhead. They pecked out images on rocks of big horned sheep and divine figures.
 
Cahokia, on the other hand, was on a lush marshland near the Mississippi River. Nothing above the surface now exists to prove their existence, other than several dozen mounds covered in grass. Some are large while others a mere lift in the ground.
 

Human effigy pipe.

Yet a grand civilization once existed here. In it's prime, archeologists surmise that Cahokia was the largest settlement in the Americas north of Mexico, with estimates ranging from 5,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. It became a central hub, which once covered nearly six square miles.
 
Cahokia is located east of modern-day St. Louis, in the state of Illinois. The skyline of the Gateway City can be seen from the top of Monks Mound. Jenelle and I took a detour from our trip and spent a couple hours poking around the site.
 
So, who were the Cahokian people? They were part of the Mississippian Culture, which is a catch-all term to include several societies with similar behavior and beliefs along the Mississippi River. Some of these behaviors included the building of platform mounds around a central plaza. 
 

Monks Mound.

By far the most imposing earthwork at Cahokia is Monks Mound. The base covers an area of over 14 acres and it is 100 feet high. Nearly 22 million cubic feet of dirt make up the mound, and it is conjectured that they were carried in baskets. Construction of the mound began around 950 AD and was enlarged several times until roughly 1250 AD.
 
Excavations of the upper level show evidence of a structure. Archeologists believe this probably served as a temple, and a residence for the chief leader. This interpretation is aided by historical accounts of the Natchez, who are the cultural heirs of the Mississippians.
 

Looking south from Monks mound.

Also of interest is an account of Hernanado de Soto, probably the first European to venture into this area. Sometime between 1539 and 1547, he visited several towns and villages of Native Americans. Although Cahokia was no longer functioning, many of their traditions may have continued. De Soto's men spoke of Indian villages dominated by man-made hills.
 
He records: “Then on top of these places they construct flat surfaces which are capable of holding ten, twelve, fifteen or twenty dwellings of the lord and his family and the people of his service, who vary according to the power and grandeur of the state.”
 

Profile view of Monks Mound.

Monks Mound was not—as far as we know—a burial mound.  Only small portions have been excavated. That's not to say, however, that it hasn't been used from time to time to bury the dead.
 
In the 1730's a group of French missionaries built a chapel on the west end of the mound. Several of them were buried near the chapel. A century later Amos Hill built his farm on the third terrace of the mound. He is buried on the northwest corner of the fourth terrace.
 
It is called Monks Mound because a group of French Trappist Monks lived on a nearby mound from 1809 to 1813 and used “Monks Mound” to plant gardens and grow fruit trees.
 

Mound 72.

Certainly not the most eye-catching earthwork at Cahokia, but probably the most fascinating is Mound 72. To the untrained eye, Mound 72 appears to be nothing more than a small rise in the ground. Yet excavations have proved it to be a mass burial site. Located less than a mile south of Monks Mound, it was created in stages and contains several “sub” mounds which were eventually covered over to create a single heap.
 
Roughly 272 people have been interred at Mound 72, many of the bodies mutilated. One pit within the mound contains the remains of 24 women. Another portion includes the bodies of four young men laid out, arms interlocking, with the hands and skulls cut off. Another pit near the four men holds the skeletons of 53 women between the ages of 15 and 30, most showing evidence of strangulation. They are stacked in two layers, separated by matting.
 

One of the "Twin Mounds."

Yet another pit within Mound 72 contains the corpses of 39 men and women, all of whom succumbed to a violent death. Fractured skulls and jawsbones, decapitations and arrowheads in the back all point toward a malicious end. Some, it is speculated, were buried alive, as their hands and bodies are postured in such a manner that appears they are trying to crawl out of the pit. Atop this pit are 15 elites, laid on litters of cedar poles and cane matting.
 
Also buried in Mound 72 is another elite personage now known as the Birdman. He was laid on an elevated platform with his feet facing northwest, resting on a bed of over 20,000 marine-shell disc beads in the shape of a falcon. Below him was another man buried face-down. The Birdman was buried with an extensive collection of minerals, arrowheads, a copper-covered chunkey stick, and several chunkey stones. Chunkey was a game played by the Cahokian people. These grave-goods had been collected from a variety of places across the eastern United States.
 

Tablet of a Birdman, found during excavations at Monks Mound.

From what I understand, about two-thirds of Mound 72 has been excavated and that is how we know so much. The bodies were found under ground-level. The dirt above ground-level served as a monument. Although all the excavated dirt was replaced to resemble the original mound, all the bodies have been removed and are at a museum or University somewhere in Illinois. (All this was according to a professor there giving college students a tour. I find it interesting that if you were to do the same thing as a private citizen, you would be facing jail time and labeled as a grave-robber.)
 
Our visit to Cahokia lasted a couple hours, but I could have spent much longer had we not needed to catch an afternoon flight. There are several more mounds on the site, as well as walking trails. The museum is very helpful, recreating many scenes of what Cahokia may have looked like during its prime. Many artifacts are on display, including pottery and several effigies.
 

Artist's recreation of Cahokia, with "Woodhenge" in the foreground.

Cahokia began to decline around 1250 to 1300 AD. There is a great deal of speculation and mystery surrounding their disappearance. Did they over-exploit their resources? Was there conflict from within, or without? Could disease have decimated the population? Whatever the reason, within a couple hundred years, Cahokia was a ghost town.
 
For me, this comes full circle. The Anasazi disappeared around the exact same time. There is also a great deal of mystery associated with their disappearance. Most likely, they left because of drought. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the southwest, their dwellings upon the cliffs were also nothing more than ghost towns. ♠

St. Louis, Missouri as seen from the top of Monks Mound.