The First Highways · Episode 9 of 12 · 22 min
Cahokia: The Metropolis on the River
Near modern St. Louis stood a city larger than contemporary London, hub of a continental network. Gulf shell came upriver, Great Lakes copper was worked into regalia, and the game of chunkey spread a shared ritual world. Metal sourcing shows that Great Lakes copper never reached Mesoamerica, so these networks were vast but had real edges.
Who's who
- Timothy Pauketatarchaeologist who framed c. 1050 as Cahokia's Big Bang
- Laura Kozucharchaeologist who traced lightning whelk shell to the Gulf
- Dorothy Hosler+2 more episodesarchaeometallurgist who showed West Mexican metallurgy used local ores and southern techniques
Where it happens
- Cahokia, Illinois+2 more episodesMississippian city and mound complex near St. Louis
- Monks Mound, Illinoislargest pre-Columbian earthwork north of Mexico
- Mound 72, Cahokiamortuary mound with beaded burial and mass graves
- Lake Superior basinsource of native copper
Timeline
- c. 1050 CECahokia is rapidly reorganized into a planned city
- c. 1050-1200 CEpeak Cahokia, larger than contemporary London
- c. 1150-1200 CEpalisade built around the central precinct
- c. 1350-1400 CECahokia is largely depopulated as people disperse
Still debated
Peak population estimates range widely, though the London comparison holds. Historians also debate Pauketat's view of a single movement founding the city, and what Mound 72's mass female graves mean.
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