Cahokia

Cahokia was a large pre-Columbian city near the Mississippi River, flourishing from about 1050 to 1350. Its earthen mounds, planned spaces, and regional influence made it the largest urban center north of Mexico in its era.

Monks Mound: The largest earthen mound at Cahokia, rising above a broad central plaza. Its scale and position made it the city’s most prominent built landmark.
Maize agriculture in North America: The cultivation of maize across North America, which became a staple food for many societies. Maize farming helped sustain Cahokia’s dense population.
Mound 72: A burial mound at Cahokia containing numerous human remains and elaborate grave goods. Its burials provide unusually direct evidence of hierarchy and ritual practice.
Big Bang of Cahokia: A rapid period of population growth and urban development at Cahokia beginning around 1050. It marks the transformation from a regional settlement landscape into a major city.
Etowah Indian Mounds: A Mississippian archaeological site in Georgia with platform mounds and a surrounding settlement. Comparison shows how Cahokia related to other major centers across the Mississippian world.
Cahokia Woodhenge: A series of timber circles at Cahokia aligned with solar events. Its alignments show how architecture connected observation of the sun with civic space.
Mississippian chiefdom: A regional political system in which hereditary leaders governed communities and organized labor and resources. This model helps explain how leaders could mobilize work at Cahokia.
Cahokia mass burials: Burials at Cahokia in which multiple people were interred together, including in elaborate mortuary settings. These finds raise questions about status, ritual, and coercion in the city.
Lohmann phase: An archaeological period at Cahokia, roughly spanning 1050 to 1100, associated with rapid urban growth. Its chronology captures Cahokia’s early expansion.
Moundville Archaeological Site: A major Mississippian settlement in Alabama, occupied especially between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Its urban and ceremonial landscape provides a regional comparison with Cahokia.

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Pre-Columbian eraBroader topic: Its monumental earthworks reveal a major urban society north of Mesoamerica.