Cahokia — Largest Pre-Columbian City North of Mexico
Cahokia was the dominant urban centre of the Mississippian culture, which flourished across the river valleys of central North America between approximately 800 and 1600 CE. At its peak (c.1050–1200 CE), Cahokia was home to an estimated 10,000–20,000 people in the urban core, with perhaps 50,000 in the greater metropolitan region — making it the largest city in North America until Philadelphia surpassed it around 1800. The site comprises over 120 earthen mounds arranged around central plazas. Monk's Mound — the principal structure — rises 30 meters above the surrounding plain and covers more ground area (316,000 square meters at its base) than the Great Pyramid of Giza. A wooden palisade surrounded the central precinct. Evidence of ritual activity includes 'Woodhenge' (a series of timber circles used for astronomical alignment) and mass human sacrifice burials. Cahokia was the hub of a Mississippian trade network that distributed copper from the Great Lakes, marine shells from the Gulf Coast, mica from the Appalachians, and flint from across the continent. Its iconographic system — featuring chunkey players, falcon warriors, and cosmic symbols — appeared across the eastern half of North America, indicating cultural influence as well as economic integration. The city's rapid growth around 1050 CE appears to have coincided with the 'Big Bang' of Cahokian urbanism — a sudden nucleation from dispersed population to urban concentration. Archaeologist Timothy Pauketat suggests this represents a religious or political transformation rather than purely economic growth. Abandonment was gradual and multi-causal. Deforestation for construction, agriculture, and fuel degraded the surrounding environment; flooding increased; political authority may have fragmented. By 1350 CE the site was largely abandoned. The descendants of Cahokia's population dispersed into the smaller Mississippian chiefdoms that Europeans encountered after 1500.
- Year: 900 CE
- Category: Social
