Editing Cahokia (section)

=== Historical overview ===
Although some evidence exists of occupation during the [[Late Archaic period]] (around 1200 BCE) in and around the site,<ref>James M. Collins, [https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofcah00coll ''The archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II''], Springfield IL: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (1990) {{ISBN|0-942579-10-0}}</ref> Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 600 CE during the [[Late Woodland period]].  Mound building at this location began with the emergent Mississippian cultural period, around the 9th century CE.<ref>Emerson and Barry, ''Cahokia and the Hinterlands'', 33 & 46</ref> The inhabitants left no written records beyond symbols on pottery, marine shell, copper, wood, and [[Mississippian stone statuary|stone]], but the evidence of elaborately planned community, woodhenge, mounds, and burials later in time reveal a complex and sophisticated society.<ref>Townsend, Sharp, and Bailey {{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref>

Cahokia became the most important center for the [[Mississippian culture]]. This culture was expressed in settlements that ranged along major waterways across what is now the [[Midwest]], [[Eastern United States|Eastern]], and Southeastern United States. Cahokia was located in a strategic position near the confluence of the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]], [[Missouri River|Missouri]], and [[Illinois River|Illinois]] rivers. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the [[Great Lakes]] to the north and the [[Gulf Coast]] to the south, trading in such exotic items as copper, [[Mill Creek chert]],<ref name="ILLINOISAGRI">{{cite web |title=Illinois Agriculture-Technology-Hand tools-Native American Tools |url=http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/agriculture/htmls/technology/hand_tools/tech_hand_na.html |access-date=July 12, 2010}}</ref> shark teeth,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kozuch |first=Laura |title=Zooarchaeology Beyond Human Subsistence |date=2025 |publisher=University of Utah Press |editor-last=Wong |editor-first=Gillian |location=Salt Lake City, UT |chapter=Shark Tooth Artifacts at Cahokia}}</ref> and [[Sinistrofulgur perversum|lightning whelk]] shells.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kozuch |first=Laura |date=2022 |title=Shell Bead Crafting at Greater Cahokia |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/01976931211048205 |journal=North American Archaeologist |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=64–94}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Table<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":13" />
!900–1050 CE
!1050–1100 CE
!1100–1200 CE
!1200–1300 CE
!1300–1600 CE
|-
|'''Archaeological'''
'''Chronology'''
|'''Terminal Late Woodland Period'''
|'''Lohmann Phase'''
|'''Stirling Phase'''
|'''Moorehead Phase'''
|'''Sand Prairie Phase'''
|-
|'''Developments'''
|Villages nucleate and grow in size. [[Eastern Agricultural Complex|Eastern Agricultural Crops]] cultivated. Maize introduced.
|Urbanization and non-local contacts increase. Religious rituals and administrative centers appear. Greater Cahokia precincts and upland villages in the Richland Complex settled.
|Moundbuilding continues. As does religious administration in the hinterlands. A large conflagration in the East St. Louis precinct circa 1160–1170 CE marks the beginning of depopulation.
|Upland villages are depopulated. The entire city's population contracts. Storage pits moved inside residences. Marked change in ceramic styles. Non-local contacts are maintained.
|Population continues to decline. The city is abandoned by 1400 CE with brief [[Oneota]] reoccupation. 
|-
|'''Architectural record'''
|Earliest earthen platforms. Villages organized around central feature as cosmograms. 
|Woodhenge, T-and-L-shaped structures, large circular and rectangular platform mounds, plazas, and causeways. 
|Continued construction of mounds. The first iteration of the central palisade is constructed circa 1175 CE.
|Select mound construction. Termination of certain structures. Large rotundas and T-and-L-shaped structures are no longer constructed. The palisade is rebuilt. 
|Any possible small-scale mound construction ceases before 1400 CE.
|}