Cahokia: City of the Sun

            There were many large settlements of Mound Builder communities and the largest of these villages was the city of Cahokia. Some archeologists believe Cahokia to be the capital city of the culture. This city was huge, having a population numbering close to 20,000 inhabitants. No other city in the United States would reach that population total until 1800, when New York City reached that level. This is remarkable!

            The Mound Builder culture, of which Cahokia was a part, had its beginnings 3,000 years ago, when groups of early Americans settled along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Archeologists call this first culture the Adena (and also Woodland in some regions). The Adena practiced a form of limited agriculture, along with lots of food gathering, as well as hunting. These people had much free time and went to considerable effort to honor and bury their dead. The Adena people built earthen burial mounds, starting at about 500 BC.

             The Adena people traveled far and wide and soon were trading with the Aztecs in Mexico. An extremely important crop—maize, was brought north and put into the Adena diet. Maize (corn) became increasingly important, and soon dominated over all other forms of food. This Mexican food required considerably more labor than any other crop, but its productivity meant much larger harvests.

            At about 600 BC the Adena culture began to change, mainly due to the influence of maize. Because maize had such high harvest yields, the farmers discarded the other crops and developed a culture totally based upon corn. One immediate result was an extraordinary increase in the population in each village. Population pressure forced changes in belief systems, community organization, and village construction. The end result was a transformation of the culture to one that archeologists call the Hopewell (or the Mississippian outside of Ohio).

            Continued population increases forced the Hopewell to modify their community organization towards more and more complex systems. Ruling families became everlasting; artisans specialized in many different crafts, and other workers became constant travelers. Warriors assumed permanent positions, guarding both the growing towns, as well as the stores of corn. In all, the simple farming villages developed into large towns, often with complicated rules and regulations.

            By about 500 AD this corn-maize based culture had changed so much that archeologists called it by another name, the Ft. Ancient (or the Late Mississippian, depending upon location). Cahokia was now developing into a large city and dominating over all of the other towns. Archeologists believe that Cahokia reached its population and cultural peak at about 1150 AD.

            The success of corn-maize farming provided the economic stimulus to drive Cahokia. There is evidence that the city was led by a religious chieftainship, called the “Great Sun.” He was thought to be the brother of the sun and his commands were unquestionably followed. His family and close relatives formed an elite ruling class. This ruling class controlled all of Cahokia’s activities, and directed specialists—including priests, astronomers, merchants, carpenters, soldiers, and a variety of craftsmen.

            Cahokia’s most dramatic features are its mounds. The citizens of the city built more than 120 mounds, all constructed from massive piles of clay and dirt. The Cahokians dug into the earth with stone tools, carried the earth in baskets, and dumped the material onto ever growing mounds.

Archeologists have defined three types of mounds; ridgetop, conical, and platform. Ridgetop mounds are usually long and linear. These mounds range in size, with one being 310 feet long and 40 feet high, and another being 140 feet long and six feet high. One ridgetop mound contained nearly 300 human skeletons. Conical mounds usually protected the skeletal remains of people with high status. They ranged in diameter from 20 to 200 feet, and some rose as much as 40 feet. Platform mounds were flat on top and were designed as landings on which houses were built. The largest of the platform mounds, called Monks’ Mound by archeologists, covers fourteen acres and rises to a height of 100 feet. This structure is actually taller than the tallest building at Summit.

The people who lived at Cahokia lived together in collections of neighborhoods. Each neighborhood was a grouping of related families. The houses in these communities contained extended families, composed of several generations, and often cousins and aunts and uncles. The houses were constructed of what archeologists call pole and thatch. These structures were built by digging trenches about two feet deep and embedding into these ditches, wood-en poles. Then the Cahokians would tie cross poles to the uprights, and then attach reed-woven mats as walls. The steeply pitched roofs were also of poles and woven mats. A small cooking and heating fire would be maintained in the center of the house.

During much of the year these communities were the centers of a lot of outdoor activity. Almost all year long, except during the cold of winter, the neighbor-hoods bustled with liveliness—children playing games, women grinding corn, hides being skinned made into clothing, fishing, hunting, and farming tasks, commerce, daily teaching of the young, and construction of buildings. However, in the winter, nearly everyone would retreat inside the houses and stay close to heat of the fire, with the old telling stories, both to teach the young, and to entertain everyone who listened.

The farming of corn-maize was the economic basis for life. The cultivation of corn, beans, and squash dominated the work during the summer. The fields had to be prepared by hand-held hoes, seeds planted, and as the plants grew, weeds removed. Then, once the plants began to ripen, guards (usually ten- to twelve-year-old boys or girls) would be placed in the fields to guard the crops from thieving animals. Later, in the fall the plants would be harvested and stored in pottery and baskets.

Cahokia had specialists who were very educated in astronomy and these men tracked the sun’s movement across the horizon. These astronomers directed the construction of a wooden-pole calendar that archeologists call woodhenge. This large circular feature had 72 marker poles that pointed out the spring and fall equinoxes, as well as other important solar sunrise-sunset positions. Woodhenge was used as a ceremonial center, as well as a very precise calendar.

The Cahokians enjoyed much free time and played lots of games. These people played shell guessing games, gambled with dice, wrestled, ran races, played a game similar to La Crosse, and many other pastimes. However, the Cahokians had a tremendous passion for a sport called chunkey. This game was the premier sport for the Cahokians and everyone played it, some obviously better than others did. This contest would pit two players, or teams, against each other. One side would roll a stone; called the chunkey stone while the other side would throw spears towards where it was thought the stone would stop rolling. The winner would be the person whose spear was closest to the chunkey stone. Betting on chunkey was common and sometimes the matches could last all day. The losers sometimes would lose all of their possessions.