At its height between AD 1050 and 1275, the city of Cahokia was the largest settlement of the Mississippian culture, acting as an important trade center and pilgrimage site. While the influence of Cahokian culture on the development of monumental architecture, maize-based subsistence practices, and economic complexity throughout North America is undisputed, new research in this volume reveals a landscape of influence of the regions that had and may not have had a relationship with Cahokia.
Contributors find evidence for Cahokia’s hegemony―its social, cultural, ideological, and economic influence―in artifacts, burial practices, and religious iconography uncovered at far-flung sites across the Eastern Woodlands. Case studies include Kinkaid in the Ohio River Valley, Schild in the Illinois River Valley, Shiloh in Tennessee, and Aztalan in Wisconsin. These essays also show how, with Cahokia’s abandonment, the diaspora occurred via the Mississippi River and extended the culture’s impact southward.
Cahokia in Context demonstrates that the city’s cultural developments during its heyday and the impact of its demise produced profound and lasting effects on many regional cultures. This close look at Cahokia’s influence offers new insights into the movement of people and ideas in prehistoric America, and it honors the final contributions of Charles McNutt, one of the most respected scholars in southeastern archaeology.
Contributors: Charles H. McNutt | Ryan M. Parish | Eric S. Albertson | Susan M. Alt | David G. Anderson | Thaddeus Bissett | Steven L. Boles | Tamira K. Brennan | James Brown | C. Andrew Buchner | John M. Connnaway | Richard A. Weinstein | David H. Dye | Jeffrey Girard | Dale R. Henning | John H. House | Marvin D. Jeter | Jay Johnson | John E. Kelly | Adam King | Vernon James Knight | Andrew M. Mickelson | Corin C.O. Pursell | John D. Richards | Ronald C. Schirmer | Robert V. Sharp | Kevin E. Smith | J. Grant Stauffer | Richard A. Weinstein |Douglas C. Wells
Author(s): Charles H. McNutt, Ryan Parish
Series: Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 518
City: Gainesville
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
CONTENTS
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
PART I. HEARTLAND: THE AMERICAN BOTTOM AND LOWER OHIO VALLEY
1. In the Beginning: Contextualizing Cahokia’s Emergence
2. The Implications of the Religious Foundations at Cahokia
3. Tracking Cahokians through Material Culture
4. Kincaid Mounds and the Cahokian Decline
PART II. THE NORTH: THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
5. Aztalan and the Northern Tier of a Cahokia Hinterland
6. Cahokia and the Northwest Quarter
PART III. THE WEST: THE MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
7. Cahokia Connections in Northeastern Arkansas
8. Possible Cahokian Contacts in Eastern and Southeastern Arkansas
9. Interactions between the Caddo and Cahokia Regions
10. Cahokian Exports to Spiro
11. The Mississippian Period in Western Tennessee
12. Carson and Cahokia
PART IV. THE SOUTH: THE SOUTHEASTERN INTERIOR
13. Mississippian Origins as Viewed from the Shiloh Indian Mound Group, Western Tennessee
14. Cahokia-Moundville Interaction: An Update
15. Cahokians and the Circulation of Ritual Goods in the Middle Cumberland Region
16. The Cahokian Diaspora, Etowah, and South Appalachian Mississippian
PART V. THE COAST: THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY AND GULF
17. Vestiges of the Brayden Corridor: From Cahokia to Lake Jackson
18. The Cahokia Connection at the Lake Providence Mounds, Louisiana
19. Conclusion
References
List of Contributors
Index
