#cahokia — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

💧🌏 Greg Cocks @[email protected] · 2026-07-15 · 02:54 UTC

Ancient Urbanism on the Mississippi - The Geography of Cahokia
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https://americangeo.substack.com/p/the-ags-globe-ancient-urbanism-on <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2019.00006 <-- shared paper
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https://libarts.source.colostate.edu/north-americas-first-city-20000-people-in-1050-c-e/ <-- shared technical article
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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/131030-cahokia-native-american-flood-mystery-archaeology-pollen <-- shared technical media article
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia <-- shared wiki page
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H/T @American Geographical Society
“When people think of pre-Columbian cities in the Americas before European colonization, examples such as Tenochtitlan, Chichen Itza, or Cusco usually come to mind. However, few know that there is another pre-Columbian city located in the present-day United States: Cahokia. Known for its impressive mounds, Cahokia in the 12th century CE was the largest metropolitan area and the most complex political system in North America north of Mexico.
Cahokia was a dynamic urban center with large-scale cultural influence. That cultural influence is called the term “Mississippian.” The Mississippian culture in the Eastern Woodlands depended on an area of high natural and agricultural productivity, and absorbed much of the rural population in the development of Cahokia, transforming their labor from agriculture to public works. Archaeologists use “Mississippian” to refer to people who were part of a cultural tradition whose maximal expression occurred at Cahokia, and that was widespread across major portions of the Mississippi River valley, the Southeastern U.S., and beyond toward the Gulf Coast and as far north/northwest as Wisconsin and South Dakota. Cahokia had religious, political, and cultural exchanges over this vast area.
At its peak, the population of Cahokia was believed to be roughly between 10,000 and 40,000 people, rivaling the size of many European cities at the time. As it collapsed, its population reoccupied the countryside, and later, left the region. The ability to study the full course of a city’s life from development to collapse and abandonment is rare, and studying Cahokia reveals important insights on early urban life at the hub of a vast riverine trade network spanning North America. Despite the ancient city’s prominence in the Eastern Woodlands area during the Mississippian Period (900 - 1600 CE), much has yet to be uncovered about this settlement…”
#water #hydrology #ancienthistory #AGSGlobe #Mississippian #Urbanism #Mississippi #Geography #Cahokia #FirstNation #preColumbian #Missouri #mounds #archaeology #NorthAmerica #urban #city #foodsecurity #watersecurity #metropolitan #ancient #culture #spatialanalysis
@AmericanGeographicalSociety

#water #hydrology #ancienthistory #agsglobe #mississippian #urbanism

💧🌏 Greg Cocks @GregCocks · 2026-07-15 · 02:54 UTC

Ancient Urbanism on the Mississippi - The Geography of Cahokia
--
https://americangeo.substack.com/p/the-ags-globe-ancient-urbanism-on <-- shared technical article
--
https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2019.00006 <-- shared paper
--
https://libarts.source.colostate.edu/north-americas-first-city-20000-people-in-1050-c-e/ <-- shared technical article
--
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/131030-cahokia-native-american-flood-mystery-archaeology-pollen <-- shared technical media article
--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia <-- shared wiki page
--
H/T @American Geographical Society
“When people think of pre-Columbian cities in the Americas before European colonization, examples such as Tenochtitlan, Chichen Itza, or Cusco usually come to mind. However, few know that there is another pre-Columbian city located in the present-day United States: Cahokia. Known for its impressive mounds, Cahokia in the 12th century CE was the largest metropolitan area and the most complex political system in North America north of Mexico.
Cahokia was a dynamic urban center with large-scale cultural influence. That cultural influence is called the term “Mississippian.” The Mississippian culture in the Eastern Woodlands depended on an area of high natural and agricultural productivity, and absorbed much of the rural population in the development of Cahokia, transforming their labor from agriculture to public works. Archaeologists use “Mississippian” to refer to people who were part of a cultural tradition whose maximal expression occurred at Cahokia, and that was widespread across major portions of the Mississippi River valley, the Southeastern U.S., and beyond toward the Gulf Coast and as far north/northwest as Wisconsin and South Dakota. Cahokia had religious, political, and cultural exchanges over this vast area.
At its peak, the population of Cahokia was believed to be roughly between 10,000 and 40,000 people, rivaling the size of many European cities at the time. As it collapsed, its population reoccupied the countryside, and later, left the region. The ability to study the full course of a city’s life from development to collapse and abandonment is rare, and studying Cahokia reveals important insights on early urban life at the hub of a vast riverine trade network spanning North America. Despite the ancient city’s prominence in the Eastern Woodlands area during the Mississippian Period (900 - 1600 CE), much has yet to be uncovered about this settlement…”
#water #hydrology #ancienthistory #AGSGlobe #Mississippian #Urbanism #Mississippi #Geography #Cahokia #FirstNation #preColumbian #Missouri #mounds #archaeology #NorthAmerica #urban #city #foodsecurity #watersecurity #metropolitan #ancient #culture #spatialanalysis
@AmericanGeographicalSociety

#water #hydrology #ancienthistory #agsglobe #mississippian #urbanism