The Cahokia Connection

During the Late Prehistoric period, Mississippian people settled across much of eastern North America, and the people who built and occupied Aztalan between ca. A.D. 1100 and 1250 replicated major features of Cahokia, the principal Mississippian site and ceremonial center near present day St. Louis. Cahokia included an extensive stockade, platform and other mounds, a large central plaza, distinct ritual and residential areas, agricultural fields, and a woodhenge used to predict the season solstices and equinoxes. Archaeological research at Aztalan, including analysis of stone tools and pottery, indicates a direct connection with Cahokia, and at least some of Aztalan's residents appear to have come from the Cahokia area, with the Crawfish River providing access to Cahokia by way of the Rock and Mississippi Rivers. Cahokia's features were built on a much larger scale than Aztalan's: Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthen structure north of Mexico, measures about 1000 feet by 800 feet and is 100 feet high, while Aztalan's southwest platform mound is about 180 feet by 130 feet and 16 feet high. That scale reflects population as well, with an estimated 20,000 or more people at Cahokia versus about 300 at Aztalan. In its time, Cahokia rivaled other major world cities in size, technological achievement, trading networks, social complexity, and influence, and Aztalan was one of the northernmost Cahokia-related settlements built and occupied during Cahokia's zenith. Aztalan has been recognized as one of only 2500 federally designated National Historic Landmarks, and UNESCO designated Cahokia a World Heritage Site in 1982 for its international cultural significance.

Aztalan, Wisconsin · United States