Editing Cahokia (section)

===Development (9th and 10th centuries)===
[[File:Mississippian cultures HRoe 2010.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures. Cahokia is located near the center of this map in the upper part of the Middle Mississippi area.]]
[[File:Pauketat GreaterCahokia CahokiaasUrbanAnomaly.png|thumb|350x350px|Map of Greater Cahokia in the American Bottom by Dr. Timothy Pauketat. ("TLW" designates Terminal Late Woodland)<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last=Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |last2=Alt |first2=Susan M. |last3=Betzenhauser |first3=Alleen M. |last4=Krutchen |first4=Jeffery D. |last5=Benson |first5=Erin M. |date=2023 |title=Cahokia as Urban Anomaly |journal=Journal of Urban Archaeology |volume=7 |pages=253–274}}</ref>]]
In the centuries preceding 1000 CE, [[American Bottom]] populations were living in small settlements of 50 to 100 people that were used for short durations of 5–10 years. At least two of these larger clusters were present at Cahokia, one dating to the mid-7th and 9th centuries.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Stauffer |first=Grant J. |last2=Grooms |first2=Seth B. |last3=Hu |first3=Lorraine W. |last4=Mersmann |first4=Joy |last5=Kidder |first5=Tristram R. |last6=Henry |first6=Edward R. |date=2023 |title=Reimagining the Development of Downtown Cahokia Using Remote Sensing Visualizations from the Western Edge of the Grand Plaza |journal=Land |volume=12 |issue=342}}</ref> Later in time, many began to be constructed along cosmologically organizing principles, emphasizing cardinal directions and distinct sectors of society. By the end of the 10th century, many of these settlements aggregated into larger groups. These larger villages included the earlier cosmogram layouts complete with large central posts, pits, and/or structures.

An extensive nucleated community sprawled across {{Convert|35|–|70|ha}} in Cahokia proper, with its beginnings at the end in the late 900s CE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=John E. |title=Cahokia in Context: Hegemony and Diaspora |last2=Brown |first2=James A. |date=2020 |publisher=University of Florida Press |pages=11–31 |chapter=In the Beginning: Contextualizing Cahokia’s Emergence}}</ref> By this time it seems a few thousand people were living in the American Bottom region. Moundbuilding activity may have occurred at Cahokia proper but certainly did at one site to the north near Horseshoe Lake.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Betzenhauser |first=Alleen |title=Mississippian Beginnings |date=2017 |publisher=University of Florida Press |pages=71–96 |chapter=Cahokia’s Beginnings: Mobility, Urbanization, and the Cahokian Political Landscape}}</ref> These Late Woodland people were farmers but maize's importance at this time was marginal. Its successful introduction occurred around 900 CE. Most of the crops grown at the time were from the [[Eastern Agricultural Complex]] suite, an older and endemic farming tradition.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Fritz |first=Gayle |title=Feeding Cahokia: Early Agriculture in the North American Heartland |date=2019 |publisher=University of Alabama Press}}</ref>