More about the Cahokians

 

A couple of times in my life I happened to drive by the Cahokia mound near St. Louis, Missouri (on the Illinois side). The central mound is so big that you can see it from the interstate. I know it was a Native American mound, and big, and built as the center structure of a fairly large city.  But I didn't know a lot more than that.

Now I do.

Scientists unearth more clues about mystery American civilization that vanished 600 years ago

"Dr Mueller said she now envisions a scenario, not unlike many of today's modern and fast-evolving cities, where new generations sometimes move out to other areas over time for a variety of cultural, familial or economic reasons.

'I don't envision a scene where thousands of people were suddenly streaming out of town,' she said in a press statement.

'People probably just spread out to be near kin or to find different opportunities.'

Cahokia was intentionally built on a flood plain along the Mississippi River, across the river from the modern day city of St Louis, now home to Washington University.

The benefits of this flood plain, according to Dr Mueller, might explain why drought conditions do not appear to have undermined the Cahokian's agricultural projects.

The two researchers also noted that the tribe was a sophisticated society whose food storage systems for grains and other foods would have aided them in riding out most potential droughts."

Monk's Mound (the big one):