Cahokia: The Great Native American Metropoli

Noted archaeologist Melvin L. Fowler has teamed up with writer Bilione Whiting Young to give us the first major popular account of Cahokia, the largest and most complex pre-Columbian city north of Mexico. For 300 years Cahokia flourished on the Mississippi River flood- plain east of St. Louis. Its population surpassed 10,000. A 15-foot palisade wall with bastions surrounded the ceremonial center, and an elaborate observatory kept track of the seasons. Monks Mound, the largest in North America, towers over the site (see American Archaeology, Winter 2000-01). Fowler first arrived at Cahokia as a young archaeologist and for the next 50 years his career was entwined with the great site. He tells how it was nearly destroyed by the sprawl of St. Louis, and how a series of investigations have begun to unravel its great size and complexity. Much of this engaging volume is a first- hand account of 50 years of research by pioneers in Mississippian archaeology. The great discoveries at Cahokia come alive along with the people who made them. Fowler and Young provide a wonderfully human account of site preservation and scientific revelation. —Mark Michel