850 years ago, with a population of some 20,000 people, Cahokia
was one of the great urban centers of the world. A massive stockade enclosed
the heart of the city. Within it's wall were the most important structures and
the most elite neighborhoods.
The neat layout of Cahokia suggests that it was a planned city. From atop Monks Mound, one could view many other mounds arranged around plazas. Pathways connected public markets, community-use buildings, exclusive dwellings, distinct neighborhoods, and a sun calendar circle. The homes of most commoners sat outside the walled district.
The boundaries of Cahokia formed a diamond shape with Monks Mound at its center. The city measured 3 miles east to west, and 2.25 miles north to south. In all, Cahokia was 5.1 square miles.
The Cahokians developed a simple and practical method of building construction and adapted it to all their structures whether large or small, residential, communal, or sacred.
After setting a framework of wooden poles into a two to three-foot deep trench, they filled the trench with dirt and lashed the poles together with saplings. Both the interior and exterior walls of some buildings were covered with cattail or reed mats. The roofs of Cahokian structures were steeply pitched to allow for efficient run-off of rain water.
By far, the most common buildings at Cahokia were single-family dwellings. These probably were windowless and had one doorway. While the homes of the elite were larger and sometimes placed on mounds, excavations have shown that most houses were smaller than 20 by 20 feet.
The Cahokians erected a great number of structures for communal purposes. They included: council lodges and open-air summer houses; elevated granaries and other food-storage buildings; sauna-like sweatlodges; and menstrual huts.
The largest and most impressive buildings at Cahokia were the temples of religion and government, the grandest being the 5000 square foot home of the great chief atop Monks Mound.
Excavations revealed a two-mile-long stockade surrounded the central portion of Cahokia. The wall appears to have been started around 900 BP and then rebuilt three times over a period of 200 years. Each construction required 15,000 to 20,000 oak and hickory logs. The logs were sunk into a trench four to five feet deep. The stockade walls may have been covered with clay, as well, to protect them from fire and moisture.
Excavations have also revealed several huge circles of pits that
once contained enormous red cedar posts. Most scholars believe it was a solar
horizon calendar that enabled the Cahokians to track the sun's movement as a
way of determining important dates.
The most dramatic monuments of the Cahokian culture are its earthen mounds, more than 120 of them existed at Cahokia.
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