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Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi (Penguin Library of American Indian History) Paperback – Illustrated, July 27, 2010

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 346 ratings

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The fascinating story of a lost city and an unprecedented American civilization located in modern day Illinois near St. Louis

While Mayan and Aztec civilizations are widely known and documented, relatively few people are familiar with the largest prehistoric Native American city north of Mexico-a site that expert Timothy Pauketat brings vividly to life in this groundbreaking book. Almost a thousand years ago, a city flourished along the Mississippi River near what is now St. Louis. Built around a sprawling central plaza and known as Cahokia, the site has drawn the attention of generations of archaeologists, whose work produced evidence of complex celestial timepieces, feasts big enough to feed thousands, and disturbing signs of human sacrifice. Drawing on these fascinating finds,
Cahokia presents a lively and astonishing narrative of prehistoric America.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A happy marriage of professional scholarship and childlike enthusiasm." -- Kirkus Reviews


"Page by page, Pauketat compiles the fascinating details of a complex archeological puzzle; explaining the study of cross-cultural goddess worship, cave art, hand tools and games, this volume doubles as a crash-course in the archeological method." -- Publishers Weekly


"In "Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi," Timothy R. Pauketat tells the story of the mounds, from what archeologists have been able to discover about their origins nearly a thousand years ago to their near ­destruction and partially successful preservation in the modern age."-- The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Timothy R. Pauketat is an American archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. After earning a BS in anthropology and earth sciences from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, he worked as a staff archaeologist at the Center for American Archaeology. Pauketat is best known for his research on Cahokia, the center of the large, regional Mississippian culture that extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and tributaries.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Illustrated edition (July 27, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143117475
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143117476
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.6 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 346 ratings

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4.4 out of 5 stars
346 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book informative and engaging. They appreciate the author's brevity and analysis of Native American history, providing a great overview and bringing Cahokia to life. Readers describe the book as readable and a must-read for anyone interested in North America's indigenous peoples.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

27 customers mention "Interest"27 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and informative. They appreciate the well-told non-fiction accounts of archeological enterprises that draw them in like a good mystery. The book covers the history of digs and who discovered what. Readers mention it's an entertaining survey of a unique and misunderstood American treasure.

"...Absolutely fascinating from beginning to end, I stayed up until two or three in the morning two nights because having thought I'd just finish the..." Read more

"...Well-told non-fiction accounts of archeological enterprises can draw in readers much like a good mystery, and Timothy Pauketat displays something of..." Read more

"An interesting account of Cahokia. Archeological information is presented that sheds light on this huge American Indian city...." Read more

"...That said, this book is interesting in its own right, and there is very little overlap between the two. This author is much more expansive...." Read more

17 customers mention "Brevity"17 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides a good overview of the subject and current research. They appreciate the author's analysis and sufficient detail for readers to evaluate the evidence themselves. The book is described as an informative survey, providing a great introduction and an interesting read about the only large-scale city in Pre-Columbian North.

"...He recounts dozens of discoveries, generally in sufficient detail for readers to evaluate for themselves the evidence the archeologists were..." Read more

"...'re interested in Native American history, this book provides a current overview of research and interpretations of findings while also pointing out..." Read more

"This is a good starter book for someone new to the subject of Cahokia. I got this book after listening to the author on a podcast...." Read more

"...which is much less conjectural, more basic, and does a better job in conveying the fundamentals to a general audience...." Read more

12 customers mention "Readability"9 positive3 negative

Customers find the book readable and engaging. They say it's a decent non-academic read and a must-read for anyone curious about North America's indigenous peoples.

"...It is very well written and comprehensive. Written by an expert on the subject...." Read more

"...I found this book easy to read and entertaining. I made my visit to the Cahokia park and found it much improved since my earlier visit...." Read more

"Nice book overall but a boring read in large parts...." Read more

"...Yet, it is easy to read for anyone, even if it is your first exposure to this remarkable pre-Columbian American culture...." Read more

3 customers mention "Characterization"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative and interesting. They appreciate the author's work bringing Cahokia to life through archaeological findings and theories.

"An interesting account of Cahokia. Archeological information is presented that sheds light on this huge American Indian city...." Read more

"...good overview of the history and archaeological finds and theories related to Cahokia...." Read more

"...He uses the information they've learned from digs, and relating Cahokia to other cultures, in a very informative, yet never dull, way...." Read more

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Book was sold as VG, however the endpaper in the back has completely come away from the book, revealing the inside of the spine.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2019
    My family visited Cahokia Mounds two weeks ago, and I read this book in the week before we went, and am I glad I did! Absolutely fascinating from beginning to end, I stayed up until two or three in the morning two nights because having thought I'd just finish the chapter, when I finished and glanced at the first paragraph of the next chapter, it was so interesting that I just couldn't stop. It reminded me of Jared Diamond's books, which have a similar effect on me: every single page is jam-packed with new and interesting information.

    The site itself was disappointing, because no one employed there or in charge of preparing the exhibits in the museum is even aware of the wealth of information which is documented in this book. I mentioned to one woman who had worked there for many years about the many sacrificial victims in Mound 72 (also numerous ones in other locations there), and she denied it, saying that there were only 19 sacrificial victims in one location just south of Monks Mound. ???!!!

    This site is so important that it should get a lot more attention than it has, but unfortunately the site does not give even a glimmer of the civilization which was once there. The museum is very modest and only has a few relics (but four tiny interesting figurines of women with babies and a flute player with a white mask for which I can find no image nor explanation on the Internet), a number of huts with long yellow thatch showing where they lived, and a movie giving the basic facts. Then you can walk around and see the many mounds, climb up Monks Mound for a great view of St. Louis (if you can run across the busy highway without being hit by a car: why is there not a pedestrian bridge for visitors?) See a reconstruction of a number of wooden poles in a large circle near Monks Mound, Woodhenge (get it?), used for astronomical observations and celebrations.

    This is some of what I learned in this ground-breaking book. Cahokia was just a relatively small town until 1054, when a supernova was seen all over the Americas, as depicted on cave walls and pottery in many places. And the Cahokians interpreted that as a sign that they should completely raze their old city and build a new one on the same site. And they did, building a LARGE city with the walls of houses prefabricated off-site and employing everyone in bringing dirt one basket-load at a time to build huge mounds in a very short time. 20,000 people at its peak, the largest city in North America until Philadelphia passed it, but not until 1800. It developed a religion with new aspects which were so appealing that Cahokia sent emissaries out to successfully convert hundreds of other groups of Indians all across the South and Midwest. The Indians in Wisconsin who had built the effigy mounds converted and completely stopped building effigy mounds, instead putting Cahokia-style figures and designs in their art work. The new Cahokia ball game chunkey became mega-popular, and was enthusiastically adopted by hundreds of groups of Indians all across America, each giving it a name linguistically similar to chunkey. The Cahokians engaged in mortuary theater, sacrificing large numbers of victims, usually young women, in performances which there's reason to believe were part of the introduction of new leaders as resuscitations of the old, deceased leaders. At locations where thousands of onlookers could watch the proceedings.

    Mound 72 is the most dramatic location of these rituals, with two leaders buried one on top of the other (the author describes how important the legends of the Hero Twins or Brothers were, one a Thunderbird and the other a trickster, Bead-Spitting alter-ego, and there are depictions on cave walls of a bead-spitting figure: in my Internet search I found a cave image of a figure spitting out a bead, but would have had NO idea of his significance were it not for Pauketat's discussion of him as the evil twin of the Thunderbird hero/god), the upper one on the remains of a thunderbird robe made out of 20,000 shell beads from shells brought from the Gulf of Mexico. With 52 girls between 15 and 25 sacrificed nearby, with a 30 year old female chaperone buried on top of them. And four men nearby, bound at the elbows, their heads and hands cut off. And that wasn't all. There were MANY similar sacrifices made both at Mound 72 and many others. Pauketat believes that the location of 72 was appropriate because it would allow over 10,000 people in the Grand Plaza to be able to see the new leader rise mysteriously from the bundle of bones of the old one, and to see the dozens of girls facing their executioners fall backward into the pit after being clubbed to death, their feet still touching the wall of the pit when they were discovered centuries later.

    Another mound near Monks Mound was used to bury the garbage left by the periodic feasts held for the entire population. 10,000 people, 4,000 deer at a time, hundreds of clay pots with the remains of corn and pumpkin still in them, a million seeds of highly hallucinogenic tobacco smoked by the participants, all for one feast. The remains of eight other feasts were in the same pit, and when it as unearthed, having been oxygen-free for eight hundred years, much was preserved and it smelled really bad when archaeologists explored it.

    I wish that the book had illustrations. When I read about the cave paintings found in Wisconsin in 1974 by a teen-aged boy, clearly Cahokian in style and characters depicted, I went to the Internet to find and print out these images. They were astounding! And the art style was CLEARLY influenced by Mesoamerican art. I have another book about Cahokia with drawings of the burials in Mound 72, sketches of the skeletons, the men with hands and heads cut off to guard the 52 young sacrificed virgins, the two leaders buried on top of each other, the cache of chunkey stones, arrows, chunkey sticks encased in copper sheeting, etc. It would be wonderful it this book included all the maps and illustrations available and referenced in one volume.

    The artifacts found in Cahokia feature male gods and male imagery. Pauketat has a chapter on goddess artifacts found at the sites of farms around Cahokia, where the inhabitants ate very little meat from large animals (unlike at Cahokia), but just frogs, birds, mice, and similar. Also raised a lot of questions.

    This is incredible, and very few know about it. The state of Illinois should give the site millions to make it something everyone in the US learns about in school and everyone in the area should visit it once it had a lot more explanatory exhibits and maybe performances. A chunkey game definitely. Maybe a movie of what they believe the mortuary theater production was like. A restaurant serving Cahokia-style food. A children's area to help children make headdresses and characteristic drawings. A much-better stocked gift shop. Possibly eventually restore Monks Mound at least to what it was at its height, covered with clay, probably black, but some of the other mounds are believed to have been covered with blue or red clay. Rebuild the temple buildings on top. They should have a display showing a replica of what was found in Mound 72 nearby: at the least show the leader buried on the thunderbird cape embroidered with 10,000 shell beads, with his alter ego buried face down underneath him. Show the dozens of chunkey stones, sticks, arrows and other artifacts buried near them. There were hundreds of white-tipped arrows facing north-west (azimuth, the alignment of the rising sun at the solstice, rather than the north-south orientation of all buildings except the ridge-top burial mounds) at the top of the group of artifacts, because white was the color of life and the sky. There were hundreds of multi- or black-tipped arrows (just the heads remained) at the bottom of the group, because black was the color of death and the underworld. Some representation of the servants and girls sacrificed to accompany them to the underworld.

    Pauketat gives a lot of evidence supporting the hypothesis that Cahokia was influenced by Mesoamerican cultures. Only one artifact from Mesoamerica has been found (not at Cahokia), a splinter of obsidian undeniably from Mesoamerica, but the numerous other similarities have to mean there were some who traveled back and forth. Some of the figures in rock art clearly show Aztec influence. The god with the long hooked and upturned nose is so unusual and similar to the Mayan rain god Chaac that I don't think it could have arisen spontaneously. The logo for the site has a hooked nose which I think is a hawk beak.

    The site should have a room about chunkey, with chunkey stones found at the site (exquisitely carved discs with both flat sides concave), replicas of chunkey sticks, explanations of the religious and cultural significance, the wild popularity for betting EVERYTHING on the outcome, what European explorers observed of it, maybe modern players putting on a game for tourists every day like at Xcaret. A room on Mound 72, with displays showing cross-sections of what was uncovered and models of the most interesting finds. A room showing replicas of the some of the garbage and artifacts found in the trash dump mound and what it says about their diet, cooking, and celebrations. A room on the art work of the Mississippians (smoking pipes, figurines, pots, and cave paintings) and the areas which adopted their art styles, including what we have learned about their religion and their legends. Why was it so attractive that so many Indian tribes were converted to it by emissaries sent far and wide? The mounds, and how likely it is that they were influenced by the stone pyramids of Mesoamerica. The numbers they favored were those also favored by the Mesoamericans. 52, for instance, was important in the Aztec calendar. The huge influence this culture had on most of the rest of what is now the US, how and why so many other Indian tribes sought to imitate it. And what happened to it. It just disappeared suddenly, without even any legends which might explain its disappearance among other Indian tribes. Deliberate silencing of something too traumatic to recall? No one knows.

    The friend who went with us said that it seemed as though the site museum were promoting an image of the city as peaceful and happy, no strife, very politically correct. But if the reality is as reality always is, power struggles, warfare, violence, then why not recognize it, depict it, and think about it? This site is North America's Teotihuacán or Tenochtitlán. If everyone else in North and South America was engaged in constant political maneuvering for power, using religious ideology as support, why in the world would the largest city of Indians in all of North America not have had similar dynamics to those in Mesoamerica? There is no doubt that they brought innumerable shells for beads and jewelry from the Gulf of Mexico and east Florida: it seems obvious that there must have been some travelers who made the journey up along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from further south, bringing ideas and stories even if they didn't bring trade goods.

    Pauketat explains that in the '70s and '80s the major paradigm in archeological cultural interpretations was that the particular environment completely controlled all aspects of the cultural groups which lived in it. I think maybe this is what has influenced those who have developed the Interpretation Center at Cahokia Mounds, educated at that time, to focus on replicas of the huts rather than on the many aspects of the culture which we know about which allowed it to become so huge and so influential across most of the US. Aspects which were spiritual, ideological, rooted in beliefs about what shaped the world and gave it meaning, rather than what enabled mere survival.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2009
    Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi (Penguin's Library of American Indian History)
    I am a lay reader and know very little of archeology, but I have a special affinity for Cahokia. In 1967 my friend and I camped at what was then Cahokia Mounds State Park and were able to observe close-up a dig then in progress, with helpful explanations provided by the lone archeologist on-site. It seemed so painstaking, performed with fine instruments and brushes and, in so far as we could see at the time, it uncovered only shards and fragments.

    Back then archeologists still had not grasped much of the significance of the site as it is now understood. At one time they believed it to be a ritual center, occupied only briefly by a few inhabitants. It is now known to have been a major eleventh- and twelfth-century populous urban center supported by surrounding farms, an early example of a government-sponsored urban renewal, a culture that marked a radical transformation in the history of indigenous Americans.

    Well-told non-fiction accounts of archeological enterprises can draw in readers much like a good mystery, and Timothy Pauketat displays something of a novelist's touch here (although do not expect "Indiana Jones"). He recounts dozens of discoveries, generally in sufficient detail for readers to evaluate for themselves the evidence the archeologists were accumulating. Pauketat, himself a noted archeologist of the Cahokia site, clearly admires many of his predecessors and he gives us enough information about several to add an appealing human element to the narrative.

    What most fascinates me is the breadth and detail of what archeologists are able to infer from what they find. Consider some of the more remarkable findings from Cahokia, the skeletal remains of females buried in groups in mounds and showing signs of violence (one such sign being clenched hands and feet, indicating spasms at the time of death). Many of these women seem to have been from someplace else, not Cahokia, based on their dental morphology and bone characteristics. Via isotope studies bioarchelogists can tell something about the women's diet (generally different than that of Cahokians), and they even venture judgments about the women's beauty based on their bone characteristics. These findings form one large piece of a body of evidence that enables the archeologists to conclude that notable features of Cahokian society included human sacrifice, political theater, and social inequality.

    Sometimes the inferences can go too far, beyond the evidence. It seems to me, for example, that Pauketat is not on very solid ground in some of his speculations about the purposes or effects of the ritual sacrifices (although he is careful to present them only as possibilities, not certainties).

    Of course not all of the mysteries of Cahokia are solved, including such major ones as where the people came from, why they disbanded (around the end of the twelfth century), and where they went. Pauketat says that most archeologists believe the Mississipian phenomenon, including Cahokia, was home-grown independent of Mesoamerican culture, but he seems to leave open the possibility of connections.

    I was left wondering, for example, whether advances in skeletal DNA technology might help answer some of the remaining questions about the origins and destiny of the Cahokian people. The story is likely to have further chapters.
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  • X
    5.0 out of 5 stars Essential and pleasant reading
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2019
    For a very reasonable price an efficient seller has sent me a book I would have liked to read many, many years ago. Anyone interested in the history of North America before the first European settlers arrived needs to read this.

    Although every paragraph is stuffed full of information the book is very easy to read. There is nothing complicated or obscure in the way the author provides readers with knowledge. It's the opposite of sitting in a lecture hall while a bored and boring academic mumbles about his opinion on the subject rather than speaking clearly about the facts and their most likely interpretations. The language in this book is clear and uncomplicated, making the interest I found in it leap out of the words. I'm too old to want to work hard to learn!

    Over the ages many snobbish academics have poured their scorn on self-education. When self-education is this well-researched, this complete, and presented as well as this there is no reason to pour scorn on it.

    A great gift for anyone interested in the history of North America, including yourself.
  • Client d'Amazon
    4.0 out of 5 stars Cahokia et les cités Amérindiennes méconnu des Etats Unis
    Reviewed in France on January 22, 2018
    Ce livre est très intéressant et riche d'informations. Il parle d'une part d'histoire méconnu des Etats Unis, avec ces sites archéologiques aux nombreuses pyramides et de ces royaumes Amérindiens, dans la lignée des sites Mexicains, Aztèques, Maya et autres.
    Toutefois, il requiert un bon niveau d'Anglais pour bénéficier de la qualité de cet ouvrage.
    Ce qui est dommage, c'est qu'il manque de photos et d'illustrations pour enrichir cet ouvrage.
  • Dr. D. M. Jones
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2015
    Fine. Everything as expected.