Just read about the scale of the Cahokia mounds and my mind is blown

I was looking through a book on North American archaeology and found out the main mound at Cahokia (in Illinois) is over 100 feet tall. That's as big as a 10-story building, and they moved all that dirt with baskets. The city had a bigger population than London in 1250 AD, which is wild to think about for a place in the Midwest. It really makes you question the old idea that nothing 'big' happened here before Europeans showed up. Has anyone else visited the site and felt that same shock from seeing it in person?

3 comments

3 Comments

kelly63812d ago

Understand the awe, but that comparison to London feels off. London was a major world city with global trade and stone buildings, while Cahokia was a big regional center made of earth and wood. The scale is impressive for sure, but it didn't have the same lasting influence or complex systems. Seeing the mounds is cool, but it doesn't rewrite the whole story of the continent for me. It was a big town that eventually got smaller and people moved on.

bennett.evan12d ago

Ever think it was just empty plains before?

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reed.skyler12d ago

Yeah @bennett.evan, makes you wonder what else we're totally missing... like what if their whole farming setup was way more advanced than we give credit for, managing floods and soil in ways we just don't see in the dirt now. That kind of knowledge disappearing would change a lot.