Cahokia Research Paper

The Mississippi Valley is a land of rich history and what is now the state of Illinois is full of interesting stories from its past. However one of those stories dating back from 700 A.D, tells of a culture named the Cahokia and is shrouded with a mysterious past. The rise and fall of this ancient culture has captured the interest of people around the world. Their gigantic man made mounds and artifacts of a once powerful culture that disappeared without a trace has been one of the largest mysteries of this nation.
The Cohokia’s were an impressive civilization and build on a truly massive scale. At its height around 1050 A.D Cahokia had a population of 15,000 inhabitants. Along with numerous suburbs and agriculture centers that sprawled from the city giving the city a population of 20,000 to 30,000 people. With these numbers, Cahokia would have been one of the largest cities built north of Mexico.
The people of Cahokia knew that there needed to be a system to keep things in order and most importantly to manage corn surpluses. They accomplished this by developing a ranked society. This would include a chief, religious, and an élite class of people to control lower classes. Cahokia soon became a busy city buzzing with activity, with numerous mounds built around the city,
Cahokia’s were known to have a fascination with ornamentation, like beads made from shells thousands of miles away. Items like this were traded so extensively that many times there were used cement alliances from other tribes in surrounding areas. Generosity and gift giving was also a common practice to help boost status and helped climb up the social ladder. Meanwhile Cahokia was in the middle of a trade extensive trade network containing a small hardware industry. Excavations at the Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site reveal that the hardware dwindles as it gets further from the city. This suggests that