Cahokia$s Boom and Bust in the Context of Climate Change. Issue 3 (20th July 2009)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Cahokia$s Boom and Bust in the Context of Climate Change. Issue 3 (20th July 2009)
- Main Title:
- Cahokia$s Boom and Bust in the Context of Climate Change
- Authors:
- Benson, Larry V.
Pauketat, Timothy R.
Cook, Edward R. - Abstract:
- Abstract : During the early Mississippian Lohmann phase (A.D. 1050-1100), the American Bottom experienced a political and economic transformation. This transformation included the abrupt planned construction of central Cahokia, a large-scale influx of people to "downtown Cahokia, " the abandonment of pre-Mississippian village settlements, the reorganization of farming in the Mississippi River floodplain, and the founding of the Richland farming complex in the Illinois uplands. New tree-ring-based records of climate change indicate that this rapid development occurred during one of the wettest 50-year periods during the last millennium. During the next 150 years, a series of persistent droughts occurred in the Cahokian area which may be related to the eventual abandonment of the American Bottom. By A.D. 1150, in the latter part of a severe 15-year drought, the Richland farming complex was mostly abandoned, eliminating an integral part of Cahokia$s agricultural base. At about the same time, a 20, 000-log palisade was erected around Monks Mound and the Grand Plaza, indicating increased social unrest. During this time, people began exiting Cahokia and, by the end of the Stirling phase (A.D. 1200), Cahokia$s population had decreased by about 50 percent and by A.D. 1350, Cahokia and much of the central Mississippi valley had been abandoned.
- Is Part Of:
- American antiquity. Volume 74: Issue 3(2009)
- Journal:
- American antiquity
- Issue:
- Volume 74: Issue 3(2009)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 74, Issue 3 (2009)
- Year:
- 2009
- Volume:
- 74
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2009-0074-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 467
- Page End:
- 483
- Publication Date:
- 2009-07-20
- Subjects:
- North America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals
America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals
Archaeology -- North America -- Periodicals
Archaeology -- America -- Periodicals
Anthropology -- America -- Periodicals
North America -- History -- Periodicals
America -- History -- Periodicals
Periodicals
970 - Journal URLs:
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/all-issues ↗
http://www.jstor.org/journals/00027316.html ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1017/S000273160004871X ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0002-7316
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store
- Ingest File:
- 20407.xml