Book Chapters/Articles by Thomas E Emerson
MCJA, 2022
During the Hopewell era, no material was so widely spread or employed across the midcontinent as ... more During the Hopewell era, no material was so widely spread or employed across the midcontinent as copper. Large deposits of copper artifacts in the Ohio Scioto Hopewell mounds, in what are usually deemed as status and ritual contexts, have colored subsequent interpretations of copper utilization during this period. Subsequent research documented copper's distribution across the midcontinent in Hopewell mortuary practices, while focusing on its significance as a distant import from the western Great Lakes. Until regional Illinois habitation copperuse studies were undertaken, in the 1980s and 1990s, mortuary copper dominated discussions of Havana Tradition Hopewell connections. However, examinations of avocational collections and metal-detecting surveys of 82 Havana habitation sites have yielded an array of copper tools and scrap revealing the presence of an extensive copper-working industry. It has become clear that regional Havana Tradition people were involved in the active production of utilitarian copper tools and ornaments, suggesting that the industry was based on local drift copper deposits. This harkens back to earlier regional patterns of copper tool production, while emphasizing the exotic character of the few copper mortuary inclusions-such as ear spools, headplates and breastplates, panpipes, and so forth-thus suggesting two very different systems of copper valuation.
Southeastern Archaeology, 2024
Thomas E. Emerson a, Kristin M. Hedman b and Matthew A. Fort c
aUpper Mississippi Valley Archaeo... more Thomas E. Emerson a, Kristin M. Hedman b and Matthew A. Fort c
aUpper Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Foundation (UMVARF), Western Illinois Archaeological Research Center, Macomb, IL, USA; bIllinois State Archaeological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA; cDepartment of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
ABSTRACT
Efforts were initiated in the mid-1990s to resolve complex questions of context, chronology, and identity of American Indian ancestral sites and individuals in the American Bottom, Illinois. A significant focus was on legacy collections from the Kane Mounds mortuary complex, salvaged in the early 1960s and long interpreted as late Mississippian mortuary mounds related to Cahokia. Drawing on available data from original field records and previously collected analytical evidence, we determined that the mortuary interments at the Kane site were placed in natural bluff-top landforms, not mounds, and that the locale served as a burial location for over a millennium. During this time, people gathered in larger permanent villages, their diet shifted from one based on a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle to one supported by maize agriculture, small groups from the Illinois River Valley emigrated to the area, and mortuary practices became increasingly complex – employing in-the-flesh interments, ossuaries, excarnation, postmortem manipulations of the deceased, and extensive use of fires. The mortuary complex reflects both temporal and geographic diversity as well as the continuity of such ancestral burial places. No depictions of ancestral remains are included in the text. Data presented are derived from legacy sources.
In the early 1960s construction of Interstate 270 was designed to cut through the eastern bluffs of the Missis- sippi River, 15 km to the northeast of downtown Caho- kia, America’s largest precontact urban polity. Fortunately, the recent passage of federal legislation provided some level of protection for historical resources, and planners recognized that the bluff-top construction would likely affect suspected American Indian burials. Consequently, efforts were undertaken by forensic anthropologist F. Jerome Melbye and the Southern Illinois University Museum in Carbondale to examine the affected area.
Initial surveys had reported four possible mounds at Kane, spaced in a north – south line and ranging in height from a “barely perceptible hump to about three meters” (Melbye 1963:3). While the largest of the mounds lies partiall
Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2024
The acknowledged importance of documenting legacy assemblages led to efforts in the mid-1990s to ... more The acknowledged importance of documenting legacy assemblages led to efforts in the mid-1990s to re-examine such collections from Illinois. In some cases this involved applying traditional methods and emerging techniques to address complex questions of context, chronology, and aspects of identity for American Indian ancestral sites and individuals. These efforts included the Kane Mounds mortuary complex salvaged in the early 1960s and long interpreted as a late Mississippian mortuary area related to Cahokia. Drawing on available data from original field and analysis records, past biomolecular analysis, and combined with an evolving understanding of the people and culture history of the American Bottom, we use results from isotopic analyses and radiocarbon AMS chronologies obtained prior to 2018 to disentangle complex multicomponent mortuary settings. These studies revealed the mortuary importance of Kane spanned 1500 years, from as early as 500 BCE into the 14th century CE, a period that saw a major shift in diet with the increased consumption of maize and a population comprised of individuals local to the American Bottom and as well as immigrants. Available biomolecular information and radiocarbon AMS chronologies demonstrate both temporal and geographic diversity within the Kane mortuary complex, as well as continuity in the importance of this mortuary location.
Southeastern Archaeology, 2023
ABSTRACT
The development of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) iconography has been posited t... more ABSTRACT
The development of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) iconography has been posited to have had its origins in pre–AD 1200 Greater Cahokia. The recovery of fragments of an engraved shell cup, a few engraved pottery sherds, and copper residue from Mound 34 at Cahokia as well as two regional rock-art sites are said to confirm that the early Braden art style had a Cahokian heritage. Furthermore, on this basis, the origin, production, and distribution of engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates have been attributed to Cahokian artisans. Here the archaeological context and chronology of this evidence is reexamined and found to be problematic—it does not support Cahokia origins for engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates. The small amount of early Braden materials attributed to Cahokia are better explained as byproducts of the demonstrable presence of early Caddo immigrants and influences in the American Bottom. The skewed distribution and early chronology of Mississippian engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates confirm they are likely products of Spiro-influenced ritual practitioners. The production and accumulation of such ritual paraphernalia at Spiro can most reasonably be attributed to the site’s rise as a sacred place and central locus for regional pilgrimages.
Revealing Greater Cahokia, North America’s First Native City Rediscovery and Large-Scale Excavations of the East St. Louis Precinct, 2018
There’s very little appreciation today that Native
Americans actually lived in and built cities. ... more There’s very little appreciation today that Native
Americans actually lived in and built cities. This
is something we often associate with ancient
Mesopotamia or the classical world of Greece.
Yet Greater Cahokia was built as a huge complex
over many, many square miles. There are
mounds, burials, and houses—but most people
don’t appreciate that. They see the big mounds,
and they don’t realize that this was a thriving city
of 20,000–25,000 people. It is quite an eye-opener
for many to discover that Greater Cahokia actually
was one of the largest urban concentrations
of people anywhere in the world at that time.
This was the lesson we learned from digging
Stonehenge—
that it’s a small part of a much bigger
complex. When I came to visit Cahokia it was
very clear that it was the same thing.
Cahokia is a UNESCO World Heritage site
and was actually inscribed as such in 1982.
That is even before Stonehenge was. It has been
recognized for a long time as being of world
importance, and with World Heritage sites there
is a duty by the state to preserve, protect, and
enhance people’s knowledge about them. Every
effort should be made to actually ensure people
understand and learn about these sites. Also, we
must protect these sites to the very best of our
abilities in the twenty-first century. It is really
important to bring teams of archaeologists, conservators,
planners and politicians together to
develop a proper management plan so Cahokia
can continue to be preserved and appreciated in
the centuries to come.
—Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
Revealing Greater Cahokia, North America's First Native City: Rediscovery and Large-Scale Excavations of the East St. Louis Precinct, 2018
There’s very little appreciation today that Native Americans actually lived in and built cities. ... more There’s very little appreciation today that Native Americans actually lived in and built cities. This is something we often associate with ancient Mesopotamia or the classical world of Greece.
Yet Greater Cahokia was built as a huge complex over many, many square miles. There are mounds, burials, and houses—but most people
don’t appreciate that. They see the big mounds, and they don’t realize that this was a thriving city of 20,000–25,000 people. It is quite an eye-opener for many to discover that Greater Cahokia actually was one of the largest urban concentrations of people anywhere in the world at that time. This was the lesson we learned from digging Stonehenge—that it’s a small part of a much biggercomplex. When I came to visit Cahokia it was very clear that it was the same thing. Cahokia is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was actually inscribed as such in 1982. That is even before Stonehenge was. It has been
recognized for a long time as being of world importance, and with World Heritage sites there is a duty by the state to preserve, protect, and enhance people’s knowledge about them. Every effort should be made to actually ensure people understand and learn about these sites. Also, we must protect these sites to the very best of our abilities in the twenty-first century. It is really important to bring teams of archaeologists, conservators, planners and politicians together to develop a proper management plan so Cahokia can continue to be preserved and appreciated in the centuries to come.
Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology
Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America, edited by Cheyrl Claassen, 2023
The origins and rise of Cahokia as an urban polity have increasingly been attributed to religion ... more The origins and rise of Cahokia as an urban polity have increasingly been attributed to religion by those who study the past. For the most part those religious forces have been ascribed to a disparate set of beliefs, rituals, and practices linked to aspects of world renewal, fertility, or warfare. Meanwhile, the role of people, politics, and ritual practice have sometimes become obscured.
Here, the place of human agents is recentered and the emergence of a formal priesthood, a constructed spiritual landscape, and embedded ritual practices are examined. Within this context, it is possible to explore a phenomenon that some scholars have described as ritual failure. Following observations by Koutrafouri and Sanders (2013) that conflicting definitions of religion and ritual have hampered rather than enhanced their recognition and analyses in the archaeological record, such theoretical debates have been set aside. Here ritual is identified as a set of repetitious behaviors directed toward interactions with powers that are outside regular human control for the purpose of influencing the actions of those powers. Multiple rituals may exist and perform in tandem. They are envisioned as operating within a structured universe, often actualized in a societal landscape. It is these characteristics that make ritual amenable to archaeological recognition, description, and interpretation.
But what of ritual failure – can rituals really “fail”? To some extent, we need to recognize that “failure” might be a slightly inapt but still useful, term in this context. What archaeologists identify is the disruption or discontinuance of recognizable patterned behaviors that are interpreted as ritual (e.g. Koutrafouri and Sanders 2013). Such recognition provides insights that may correlate with economic, political, environmental, or social changes or disruptions. Consequently, herein, ritual is examined as patterned action that is a key variable in interpreting early Cahokian organization. That examination reveals the appearance at about 1000–1050 CE of a distinguishing set of religious paraphernalia that is interpreted as representing a Cahokian cult dedicated to the Earth Mother which collapses at the beginning of the 13th century to be overshadowed by iconography seemingly related to a mythic hero, Red Horn, one aspect of the hemispheric-wide mythic Hero Twins accounts.
Southeastern Archaeology, 2022
Long-nosed god (LNG) maskettes and iconography have traditionally been seen as a pre-Southern Cul... more Long-nosed god (LNG) maskettes and iconography have traditionally been seen as a pre-Southern Cult phenomena, placed variously in the tenth to thirteenth centuries. Researchers have suggested they were employed in political and religious interactions or to facilitate trade, but few have looked in detail at their chronology, context, and distribution. Here, an in-depth review of radiocarbon dates and context raises questions about the place of LNGs in midcontinental Native societies. This reassessment illustrates that LNG images do not predate the appearance of Caddo and Cahokian symbolic emergence and can be first securely documented in the late eleventh century. They clearly are objects that signify personal endowments and are inalienable, following that individual to the grave. Their context and distribution indicate that LNG icons are an integral part of the Caddo religious and political networks but are tangential at Cahokia and take on totally different contextual meanings to the north of Cahokia. This study demonstrates that proposing uniform explanations for LNG ideology and implementation does not correlate with the archaeological evidence. Future studies that account for regional variations in LNG chronology, context, and spatial distribution are needed to begin addressing the roles of these unique objects in Native societies.
While large red stone figurines and pipes were occasionally discovered by early investigators, on... more While large red stone figurines and pipes were occasionally discovered by early investigators, only recently were they recovered in secure archaeological context demonstrating them to be twelfthcentury Cahokian productions geologically sourced to unique flint clay sources near St. Louis. A subset of these are female figures associated with fertility and renewal motifs. Examination of these female figures demonstrates that while they reference similar mythic beings, the figures hold very different positions in local religious and social infrastructure. At Cahokia they are part of a formalized religious cult that is key to that polity's assent while outside of Greater Cahokia, e.g., in the Caddo region, they appear as mortuary inclusions indicating they were inalienable possessions of certain individuals. Furthermore it can be proposed that these outlying figures, transformed to pipes, might have been part of medicine bundles maintained by female bundle keepers involved in curing. The archaeological evidence makes apparent that such religious objects cannot be simply glossed over in terms of their iconic homogeneity or ethnohistoric analogies but must be interpreted in terms of their roles in which they were embedded within the religious, social, and political life of local societies.
American Antiquity, 2021
This study documents the contexts of platform pipe creation, distribution, and disposition at Ill... more This study documents the contexts of platform pipe creation, distribution, and disposition at Illinois Havana Hopewell Tradition (50 BC to AD 200-250) sites to identify regional variation in Hopewell ceremonialism and exchange. We observe that the large deposits of stone pipes buried during communal rituals in the Scioto Valley and the continued influence of the Hopewell Sphere of Interaction have skewed archaeological interpretation. Aside from the several large deposits, pipes are limited in the Scioto Tradition and seldom found in habitation areas. In Illinois, pipe fabrication debris commonly occurs in habitation areas along with numerous examples of pipe repair and maintenance. Local pipestones-often from northern Illinois Sterling deposits-predominate, and exotic imported pipestones are unusual. Pipes are rare inclusions with individual burials as indicators of status, spiritual prowess, achievement, or group membership. The high value placed on pipes as communal sacra in Ohio and their value in Illinois as items of personal influence parallels their common occurrence in Illinois and their unique context in Ohio Hopewell. This study of the contexts of pipe manufacture and deposition reinforces current discussions of such artifact assemblages as important in documenting local variations in political, social, and religious mortuary ceremonialism across the "Hopewellian sphere."
North American Archaeologist, 2020
This paper assesses our current understanding of the native use of the major mid-continental Unit... more This paper assesses our current understanding of the native use of the major mid-continental United States pipestone quarries based on over two decades of research. Our studies indicate that combining chemical and mineralogical techniques such as shortwave infrared spectroscopy (SWIS), thin-section petrography, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have identified pipestones with similar chemical compositions containing distinctive mineralogical suites (often including berthierine, kaolinite, dia-spore, muscovite, and pyrophyllite). This research has identified unique mineral compositions at known quarries such as catlinite, Ohio Feurt Hill, Baraboo, and Barron pipestones, as well as identifying previously unknown quarries of Sterling Illinois pipestone, Cahokia Missouri flint clay, and Portsmouth Ohio Claystone. These discoveries have led to a major shift in interpretations of Cahokian and Hopewell pipe exchange. Further examination of native ethnographic quarry use
Possible Futures For the recent Past A Chronological and Resource-Based Framework for Historic Site Research Design in Illinois, 2020
Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 2017
While we have readily admitted that successive waves of people or ideas could also penetrate to t... more While we have readily admitted that successive waves of people or ideas could also penetrate to the New World, we have been slow to give up the idea that some pilgrim band of elephant hunters laid the foundation of aboriginal American culture.
2015 Presentation given as Recipient of Shanghai Archaeological Forum Field Discovery Award for R... more 2015 Presentation given as Recipient of Shanghai Archaeological Forum Field Discovery Award for Rediscovery and Large-Scale Excavation of Cahokia’s East St. Louis Precinct. Award presented by the Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing in recognition of being one of the top ten most important archaeological field discovery in the world, 2015.
Southeastern Archaeology, Dec 1, 2006
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Book Chapters/Articles by Thomas E Emerson
aUpper Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Foundation (UMVARF), Western Illinois Archaeological Research Center, Macomb, IL, USA; bIllinois State Archaeological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA; cDepartment of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
ABSTRACT
Efforts were initiated in the mid-1990s to resolve complex questions of context, chronology, and identity of American Indian ancestral sites and individuals in the American Bottom, Illinois. A significant focus was on legacy collections from the Kane Mounds mortuary complex, salvaged in the early 1960s and long interpreted as late Mississippian mortuary mounds related to Cahokia. Drawing on available data from original field records and previously collected analytical evidence, we determined that the mortuary interments at the Kane site were placed in natural bluff-top landforms, not mounds, and that the locale served as a burial location for over a millennium. During this time, people gathered in larger permanent villages, their diet shifted from one based on a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle to one supported by maize agriculture, small groups from the Illinois River Valley emigrated to the area, and mortuary practices became increasingly complex – employing in-the-flesh interments, ossuaries, excarnation, postmortem manipulations of the deceased, and extensive use of fires. The mortuary complex reflects both temporal and geographic diversity as well as the continuity of such ancestral burial places. No depictions of ancestral remains are included in the text. Data presented are derived from legacy sources.
In the early 1960s construction of Interstate 270 was designed to cut through the eastern bluffs of the Missis- sippi River, 15 km to the northeast of downtown Caho- kia, America’s largest precontact urban polity. Fortunately, the recent passage of federal legislation provided some level of protection for historical resources, and planners recognized that the bluff-top construction would likely affect suspected American Indian burials. Consequently, efforts were undertaken by forensic anthropologist F. Jerome Melbye and the Southern Illinois University Museum in Carbondale to examine the affected area.
Initial surveys had reported four possible mounds at Kane, spaced in a north – south line and ranging in height from a “barely perceptible hump to about three meters” (Melbye 1963:3). While the largest of the mounds lies partiall
The development of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) iconography has been posited to have had its origins in pre–AD 1200 Greater Cahokia. The recovery of fragments of an engraved shell cup, a few engraved pottery sherds, and copper residue from Mound 34 at Cahokia as well as two regional rock-art sites are said to confirm that the early Braden art style had a Cahokian heritage. Furthermore, on this basis, the origin, production, and distribution of engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates have been attributed to Cahokian artisans. Here the archaeological context and chronology of this evidence is reexamined and found to be problematic—it does not support Cahokia origins for engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates. The small amount of early Braden materials attributed to Cahokia are better explained as byproducts of the demonstrable presence of early Caddo immigrants and influences in the American Bottom. The skewed distribution and early chronology of Mississippian engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates confirm they are likely products of Spiro-influenced ritual practitioners. The production and accumulation of such ritual paraphernalia at Spiro can most reasonably be attributed to the site’s rise as a sacred place and central locus for regional pilgrimages.
Americans actually lived in and built cities. This
is something we often associate with ancient
Mesopotamia or the classical world of Greece.
Yet Greater Cahokia was built as a huge complex
over many, many square miles. There are
mounds, burials, and houses—but most people
don’t appreciate that. They see the big mounds,
and they don’t realize that this was a thriving city
of 20,000–25,000 people. It is quite an eye-opener
for many to discover that Greater Cahokia actually
was one of the largest urban concentrations
of people anywhere in the world at that time.
This was the lesson we learned from digging
Stonehenge—
that it’s a small part of a much bigger
complex. When I came to visit Cahokia it was
very clear that it was the same thing.
Cahokia is a UNESCO World Heritage site
and was actually inscribed as such in 1982.
That is even before Stonehenge was. It has been
recognized for a long time as being of world
importance, and with World Heritage sites there
is a duty by the state to preserve, protect, and
enhance people’s knowledge about them. Every
effort should be made to actually ensure people
understand and learn about these sites. Also, we
must protect these sites to the very best of our
abilities in the twenty-first century. It is really
important to bring teams of archaeologists, conservators,
planners and politicians together to
develop a proper management plan so Cahokia
can continue to be preserved and appreciated in
the centuries to come.
—Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
Yet Greater Cahokia was built as a huge complex over many, many square miles. There are mounds, burials, and houses—but most people
don’t appreciate that. They see the big mounds, and they don’t realize that this was a thriving city of 20,000–25,000 people. It is quite an eye-opener for many to discover that Greater Cahokia actually was one of the largest urban concentrations of people anywhere in the world at that time. This was the lesson we learned from digging Stonehenge—that it’s a small part of a much biggercomplex. When I came to visit Cahokia it was very clear that it was the same thing. Cahokia is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was actually inscribed as such in 1982. That is even before Stonehenge was. It has been
recognized for a long time as being of world importance, and with World Heritage sites there is a duty by the state to preserve, protect, and enhance people’s knowledge about them. Every effort should be made to actually ensure people understand and learn about these sites. Also, we must protect these sites to the very best of our abilities in the twenty-first century. It is really important to bring teams of archaeologists, conservators, planners and politicians together to develop a proper management plan so Cahokia can continue to be preserved and appreciated in the centuries to come.
Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology
Here, the place of human agents is recentered and the emergence of a formal priesthood, a constructed spiritual landscape, and embedded ritual practices are examined. Within this context, it is possible to explore a phenomenon that some scholars have described as ritual failure. Following observations by Koutrafouri and Sanders (2013) that conflicting definitions of religion and ritual have hampered rather than enhanced their recognition and analyses in the archaeological record, such theoretical debates have been set aside. Here ritual is identified as a set of repetitious behaviors directed toward interactions with powers that are outside regular human control for the purpose of influencing the actions of those powers. Multiple rituals may exist and perform in tandem. They are envisioned as operating within a structured universe, often actualized in a societal landscape. It is these characteristics that make ritual amenable to archaeological recognition, description, and interpretation.
But what of ritual failure – can rituals really “fail”? To some extent, we need to recognize that “failure” might be a slightly inapt but still useful, term in this context. What archaeologists identify is the disruption or discontinuance of recognizable patterned behaviors that are interpreted as ritual (e.g. Koutrafouri and Sanders 2013). Such recognition provides insights that may correlate with economic, political, environmental, or social changes or disruptions. Consequently, herein, ritual is examined as patterned action that is a key variable in interpreting early Cahokian organization. That examination reveals the appearance at about 1000–1050 CE of a distinguishing set of religious paraphernalia that is interpreted as representing a Cahokian cult dedicated to the Earth Mother which collapses at the beginning of the 13th century to be overshadowed by iconography seemingly related to a mythic hero, Red Horn, one aspect of the hemispheric-wide mythic Hero Twins accounts.
aUpper Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Foundation (UMVARF), Western Illinois Archaeological Research Center, Macomb, IL, USA; bIllinois State Archaeological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA; cDepartment of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
ABSTRACT
Efforts were initiated in the mid-1990s to resolve complex questions of context, chronology, and identity of American Indian ancestral sites and individuals in the American Bottom, Illinois. A significant focus was on legacy collections from the Kane Mounds mortuary complex, salvaged in the early 1960s and long interpreted as late Mississippian mortuary mounds related to Cahokia. Drawing on available data from original field records and previously collected analytical evidence, we determined that the mortuary interments at the Kane site were placed in natural bluff-top landforms, not mounds, and that the locale served as a burial location for over a millennium. During this time, people gathered in larger permanent villages, their diet shifted from one based on a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle to one supported by maize agriculture, small groups from the Illinois River Valley emigrated to the area, and mortuary practices became increasingly complex – employing in-the-flesh interments, ossuaries, excarnation, postmortem manipulations of the deceased, and extensive use of fires. The mortuary complex reflects both temporal and geographic diversity as well as the continuity of such ancestral burial places. No depictions of ancestral remains are included in the text. Data presented are derived from legacy sources.
In the early 1960s construction of Interstate 270 was designed to cut through the eastern bluffs of the Missis- sippi River, 15 km to the northeast of downtown Caho- kia, America’s largest precontact urban polity. Fortunately, the recent passage of federal legislation provided some level of protection for historical resources, and planners recognized that the bluff-top construction would likely affect suspected American Indian burials. Consequently, efforts were undertaken by forensic anthropologist F. Jerome Melbye and the Southern Illinois University Museum in Carbondale to examine the affected area.
Initial surveys had reported four possible mounds at Kane, spaced in a north – south line and ranging in height from a “barely perceptible hump to about three meters” (Melbye 1963:3). While the largest of the mounds lies partiall
The development of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) iconography has been posited to have had its origins in pre–AD 1200 Greater Cahokia. The recovery of fragments of an engraved shell cup, a few engraved pottery sherds, and copper residue from Mound 34 at Cahokia as well as two regional rock-art sites are said to confirm that the early Braden art style had a Cahokian heritage. Furthermore, on this basis, the origin, production, and distribution of engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates have been attributed to Cahokian artisans. Here the archaeological context and chronology of this evidence is reexamined and found to be problematic—it does not support Cahokia origins for engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates. The small amount of early Braden materials attributed to Cahokia are better explained as byproducts of the demonstrable presence of early Caddo immigrants and influences in the American Bottom. The skewed distribution and early chronology of Mississippian engraved shell cups and copper repoussé plates confirm they are likely products of Spiro-influenced ritual practitioners. The production and accumulation of such ritual paraphernalia at Spiro can most reasonably be attributed to the site’s rise as a sacred place and central locus for regional pilgrimages.
Americans actually lived in and built cities. This
is something we often associate with ancient
Mesopotamia or the classical world of Greece.
Yet Greater Cahokia was built as a huge complex
over many, many square miles. There are
mounds, burials, and houses—but most people
don’t appreciate that. They see the big mounds,
and they don’t realize that this was a thriving city
of 20,000–25,000 people. It is quite an eye-opener
for many to discover that Greater Cahokia actually
was one of the largest urban concentrations
of people anywhere in the world at that time.
This was the lesson we learned from digging
Stonehenge—
that it’s a small part of a much bigger
complex. When I came to visit Cahokia it was
very clear that it was the same thing.
Cahokia is a UNESCO World Heritage site
and was actually inscribed as such in 1982.
That is even before Stonehenge was. It has been
recognized for a long time as being of world
importance, and with World Heritage sites there
is a duty by the state to preserve, protect, and
enhance people’s knowledge about them. Every
effort should be made to actually ensure people
understand and learn about these sites. Also, we
must protect these sites to the very best of our
abilities in the twenty-first century. It is really
important to bring teams of archaeologists, conservators,
planners and politicians together to
develop a proper management plan so Cahokia
can continue to be preserved and appreciated in
the centuries to come.
—Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
Yet Greater Cahokia was built as a huge complex over many, many square miles. There are mounds, burials, and houses—but most people
don’t appreciate that. They see the big mounds, and they don’t realize that this was a thriving city of 20,000–25,000 people. It is quite an eye-opener for many to discover that Greater Cahokia actually was one of the largest urban concentrations of people anywhere in the world at that time. This was the lesson we learned from digging Stonehenge—that it’s a small part of a much biggercomplex. When I came to visit Cahokia it was very clear that it was the same thing. Cahokia is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was actually inscribed as such in 1982. That is even before Stonehenge was. It has been
recognized for a long time as being of world importance, and with World Heritage sites there is a duty by the state to preserve, protect, and enhance people’s knowledge about them. Every effort should be made to actually ensure people understand and learn about these sites. Also, we must protect these sites to the very best of our abilities in the twenty-first century. It is really important to bring teams of archaeologists, conservators, planners and politicians together to develop a proper management plan so Cahokia can continue to be preserved and appreciated in the centuries to come.
Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology
Here, the place of human agents is recentered and the emergence of a formal priesthood, a constructed spiritual landscape, and embedded ritual practices are examined. Within this context, it is possible to explore a phenomenon that some scholars have described as ritual failure. Following observations by Koutrafouri and Sanders (2013) that conflicting definitions of religion and ritual have hampered rather than enhanced their recognition and analyses in the archaeological record, such theoretical debates have been set aside. Here ritual is identified as a set of repetitious behaviors directed toward interactions with powers that are outside regular human control for the purpose of influencing the actions of those powers. Multiple rituals may exist and perform in tandem. They are envisioned as operating within a structured universe, often actualized in a societal landscape. It is these characteristics that make ritual amenable to archaeological recognition, description, and interpretation.
But what of ritual failure – can rituals really “fail”? To some extent, we need to recognize that “failure” might be a slightly inapt but still useful, term in this context. What archaeologists identify is the disruption or discontinuance of recognizable patterned behaviors that are interpreted as ritual (e.g. Koutrafouri and Sanders 2013). Such recognition provides insights that may correlate with economic, political, environmental, or social changes or disruptions. Consequently, herein, ritual is examined as patterned action that is a key variable in interpreting early Cahokian organization. That examination reveals the appearance at about 1000–1050 CE of a distinguishing set of religious paraphernalia that is interpreted as representing a Cahokian cult dedicated to the Earth Mother which collapses at the beginning of the 13th century to be overshadowed by iconography seemingly related to a mythic hero, Red Horn, one aspect of the hemispheric-wide mythic Hero Twins accounts.
The settlement data utilized includes many small rural sites previously identified as farmsteads. This reanalysis demonstrates that many of these sites were nodal centers with specialized political, religious, and economic functions and were integrated into a centralized Cahokian administrative organization. These nodal sites were centers for rural dispersed villages. The distribution of these villages across the landscape is shown to be influenced by changing floodplain hydrologic and physiographic factors.
Cahokian political control is manifested in the countryside by specialized sites characterized by civic-ceremonial nodes, large storage units, ritual sweat lodges, communal men's and council houses, while ideological power is reflected in temple- mortuary complexes containing burials, temples, priest houses and communal cemeteries. These settlements are accompanied by "artifacts of power" such as figurines, ritual vessels, and sacred plants that are part of a Cahokian fertility cult containing fertility-related symbolism similar to the historic Busk. The consolidation of this symbolism into a rural cult marks the expropriation of the cosmos as part of the increasing power of the Cahokia rulers.
This research shows that functional and chronological variation among small rural settlements correlates with the rise and fall of Cahokian power. During the height of Cahokian centralized power, i.e., the Lohmann and Stirling phases, the countryside was organized under elite officials responsible for the production and mobilization of food staples to support the central elite. When Cahokian power declines this rural organizational structure disappears.
This study emphasizes the importance of both political and ideological control by emerging Cahokian elites. Furthermore it demonstrates, for the first time, that the elite creation of an organized rural support population practicing an intensified form of agriculture was necessary for the maintenance of that society. This research indicates Cahokian complexity differs significantly from previously studied Eastern Woodlands chiefdoms.
In March 2013, an international conference held at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale brought together scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present and synthesize new data and approaches to understanding the collapse and reorganization of complex societies. No restrictions were imposed regarding chronological periods, geographical regions or material specialties, resulting in a wide-ranging potential for comparative analysis. This publication is the outcome of that meeting. It is not organized merely as a collection of diverse case studies, but rather a collaborative effort incorporating various data sets to evaluate and expand on theoretical approaches to this important subject. The works contained within this volume are organized into five sections: the first sets the stage with introductory papers by the editor and distinguished contributor, Joseph Tainter; the second contains works by distinguished scholars approaching collapse and reorganization from new theoretical perspectives; the third presents critical archaeological analyses of the effectiveness of Resilience Theory as a heuristic tool for modeling these phenomena; the fourth section presents long-term adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric societies to cope with stresses and avoid collapse; the final section highlights new research on post-decline contexts in a variety of temporal and geographic ranges and relates these data to the more comprehensive works on the subject.