18/02/2025
Greater Cahokia
In the last 50 years, more and more the people of Illinois have become aware that the state has one of the premier ancient sites in North America. Cahokia, by far the largest center of the Mississippian (1000 – 1500 A.D.) Culture, sits on the Mississippi River floodplain a bit over 6 miles east of the waterfront of the bustling city of St. Louis. From the initial steps of its preservation (starting almost 100 years ago) until now, archaeologists have tried to understand the scale and meaning of the thousand-year-old center.
Mississippian Culture extends over hundreds of miles across the mid-continent. But, just as no other Mississippian mound approaches the scale of Monks Mound at Cahokia, none of the other Mississippian centers are anywhere near the size and grandeur of Cahokia – in fact, many of the most prominent Mississippian centers across the country would fit inside the Grand Plaza at Cahokia Mounds.
In the last 20 years archaeologists have begun talking more and more about “Greater Cahokia.” What does Greater Cahokia mean? When was it at its peak? And what can the history of Greater Cahokia tell us about the decline and end of the Cahokian center by 1300 A.D., even while the broader Mississippian Culture was still spreading and growing? Several posts on the subject will help answer these questions.
This map shows our latest understanding of Greater Cahokia – a 1000-year-old metropolitan area miles across and composed of major precincts – each with their own grand plazas and their own histories distinct from Cahokia Mounds proper. Starting in the west, there was a major mound center that stood just north of downtown in the city of St. Louis. This large Mississippian mound center is the reason that St. Louis was known as “Mound City,” but the site was almost entirely destroyed before the Civil War. What do we know about it? Across the river on the Illinois shore of the Mississippi River stood another major mound center called the East St. Louis Mound Group. It too has been nearly erased by a modern city.
A road connecting these precincts with “downtown” Cahokia was lined with more mounds and villages as well. Imagine taking a six-mile journey from the center of the St. Louis Mounds, across the river, and along this causeway - walking from one incredible, pyramid-studded precinct to the next, and finally entering the Grand Plaza of Cahokia itself. The image only grows more stupendous when one understands that still more major towns with their own mounds radiated out from Greater Cahokia across this region. Seeing the Cahokian culture in this light brings an understanding of how much more there is to learn about this Illinois treasure.
Image-map of Greater Cahokia, courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey
