Cahokia is the largest archaeological site in the United States. It was the most influential urban settlement in the Mississippian culture as well as the center of a political and trade network of communities around the Mississippi River. The name “Cahokia” referes to the Indian subtribe of the Illiniwek who originally lived 10 miles from there and were transferred to the mounds site by the French colonists in 1735, despite the fact that they didn´t build them.
The site has a large concentration of mounds (around 120 earthen mounds) in differents sizes, from a few metters tall to the thithy metters high Monks Mound. The shapes are also quite varieted, the most common is rectangular and flat topped to support structures with diferent uses (religious, political or residential) and also might have had additional terraces. Other shapes are ridgetop and conical, which were supposed to mark distinctive locations or served as burial, like in others Mississipians sites.
The center is dominated by the Grand Plaza, at the north end Monks Mound is surrounded by three plazas in all the cardinal directions. The “Central Ceremonial Precinct” was fortified by a palisade around the year 1100, wich had to be rebuilt four times. The palisade might not only had been built for defensive reasons but also had social functions, since the urban area is extended outside the stockade, so perhaps the elite people inhabited the residences within those walls.
The largest construction, the Monks Mound, occupates 6 ha in a central position in the city. It´s rectangular shaped, with a base of 330 metters long and 216 metters wide, and has its longer side in north-south direction. It is possible that its name is due to the Trappists monks who lived at the site from 1810 to 1813. The soil of the mound, which consists of sand, clay and loams, was carried in baskets by the Indians from the Cahokian Creek bottom to shaped to the present size.
To the west of the Monks Mound were found remains of a timber circle known as “Woodenge” as reference to the Britain´s megalithic structure of “Stonehenge”. This perfect circle of 125 metters of diameter marked solstices and equinoxes.
The inhabitans of Cahokia must have been semi-sedentary agriculturists. Despite the lack of evidence to classify the city’s political and social structure, the organization of the site and the constructions found reflect a political complexity. It has been estimated that the city had a population of 20.000 in 1250 A.D. Cahokia was abandoned around 1300 for reasons that are still not entirely clear. It is possible that the residents may have consumed most of the local resources and had to face the consecuences of destruction.
The structure of Woodhenge was discovered accidentally in the early 1960’s during the development of an interstate highway. The remnants of wooden posts were found to form a calendar like circle. The wooden remnants were made of Cedar, which might have been considered a ceremonial wood due to it being the only evergreen tree in the area, it’s properties of being resistant insects, and aromatic. The reconstruction was done with cedar wooden posts in keeping with the original materials. The first post was put up on the fashion that it is thought that the native Indians would have used. The remaining posts were put in using a back hoe, as the presenter joked he was sure the Natives would have used if it had been available.
Warren Wittry (1973) and subsequent excavators believe that the archaeological evidence suggests that five or more circles of similar radius with varying post spacing were created in succession at the “Woodhenge” site over the years. The dates of the earliest construction phase, circle 1, are unclear. This circle consisted of 24 posts with a radius of 117 ft. Circle 2, was 410 feet across and likely consisted of 36 posts. The third circle was constructed in approximately 970 C.E. With 48 posts, it is the most completely excavated to date. The fourth circle, partially excavated, would have had 60 posts. The last circle constructed by the original inhabitants was constructed after 1200 C.E and prior to 1400 C.E. This “circle” comprised only 12, or possible 13 posts, along only the eastern “sunrise arc”. Had this been completed circle, it would have consisted of 72 posts. It has been suggested that the construction of only the sunrise arc might indicate that red cedar trees had become scarce. After 1400 C.E the site was abandoned. Since Wittry’s discovery of the Woodhenge circles, a sixth circle was built in 1985. This new circle, though is a reconstruction of circle 3, with the same radius, position and number of posts as the original. This new circle is used to preserve and demonstrate the Native American Skywatching traditions and techniques at Cahokia. At solstice and equinox events, visitors can gather to “hear an explanation of the discovery, form and function of this ancient post circle monument used as a calendar by the Mississippians”.
Mississippian “sun-priests” made their observations from a “back-sight” which consisted of a large observation-post that protruded from a raised platform in the center of the Woodhenge circle. The posts on the circumference of the circle represented various “fore-sights”. One post would serve as a seasonal marker for the summer solstice. On the morning of the solstice, the observational back-sight post, the solstice post and the sunrise would be in perfect alignment. A second post would be aligned to the winter solstice. A middle post equidistant from the solstice posts would mark both the spring and autumn equinoxes. These four posts used in conjunction would be used as seasonal markers. Other posts may have aligned to the helical rising of various stars or planets and may have marked “special festival dates related to the agricultural cycle.”
During the winter equinox presentation the speaker indicated that The Cahokia State Historic Site would eventually like to acquire the adjacent properties next to Woodhenge to increase the aesthetic appeal of the locations. He also indicated that state budget cuts have recently (in the past couple of years) cut the open hours of the indoor exhibits from 7 to 5 days a week. The budget may have been affected in other ways, although he did not mention it in his presentation
Monks mound was about a mile from Woodhenge and had steps going to the top of the mound and had several informational markers among the route and at the top of the mound. The condition of the monument was good and well maintained. The event was well attended even though the weather was gloomy and the hour early .
The field of Cognitive Archaeology, which strives to gain a more complete understanding of human thought through the material remains of past cultures, obtains clues to the attitudes of the individual to concepts such as communication, religion, art, and agriculture through sites like Cahokia. The Mounds and Woodhenge reconstruction at Cahokia offer important insights to the skywatching traditions and techniques of the Mississippian Culture which can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of Native American cosmologies. We are beginning to discover that the Woodhenge circle at Cahokia is not unique among ancient American civilizations with the discovery of the Moorehead Circle at Fort Ancient, Ohio in 2005, and the newly discovered circle at the Kolomoki site in Georgia. Perhaps future archaeological surveys may uncover additional circles at sites like the Hopewell Mound City group, Serpent Mound, or lost sites throughout Eastern North America. A comparative study of these observatories could lead to hither-to-unknown evidence of shared rituals, cosmologies, and calendars. This course of study can best succeed, though, if the site of Cahokia, the regional cultural center of the Ancient Mississippian society, and its observatory, are preserved and maintained for future comparative analysis.
*completed as part of a group submission for the online course 'Recovering the Humankind's Past and Saving the Universal Heritage' , Sapienza University of Rome, entitled 'Preserving Native American Skywatching Traditions and Techniques at Cahokia'.
References
English, Thomas H., ‘The Cahokia Indian Mounds: A Plea for Their Preservation’ Geographical Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apr., 1921), pp. 207-211
Holt, Julie Zimmermann, ‘Rethinking the Ramey State: Was Cahokia the Center of a Theater State?’ American Antiquity, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Apr., 2009), pp. 231-254
Pauketat, Timothy R., ‘Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi (Penguin Library of American Indian History)’, Penguin Books; Reprint edition (2010)
Thomas, Cyrus, ‘Cahokia or Monk's Mound’, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1907), pp. 362-365
Williamson, Ray A., Living the Sky: The Cosmos of the American Indian (Houghton Mifflin,1984)
Wittry, Warren L., ‘The American Woodhenge’, Explorations into Cahokia Archaeaology, ed. Melvin L. Fowler (Illinois Achaeology Survery Bulletin 7, 1973)
‘Prehistoric City Had Indian Woodhenge', The Science News-Letter, Vol. 86, No. 6 (Aug. 8, 1964), p. 86
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, < http://cahokiamounds.org/> accessed 8th December, 2014
NOTES:
Photo and Video by Robin Hussey taken on 21st December 2014
Mound 72 Woodhenge image by Heironymous Rowe used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.