Between A.D. 700 and 950, a major population center of hundreds of mounds and settlements with thousands of native people developed on the floodplain of the Mississippi River opposite present day St. Louis. By A.D. 1100, Cahokia was one of the largest cities in the world with some 40,000 residents that dominated a huge region and spread its influence for hundreds of miles in every direction.
The economic engine that fueled this metropolis was agriculture, and the dominant crop was corn. Or so we thought. In Feeding Cahokia, paleobotanist Gayle Fritz, professor emerita at Washington University in St. Louis, convincingly argues that corn was just one of many domesticated crops grown by the Cahokians. She details the rise of the Eastern Agricultural Complex over some 5,000 years that included squash and gourd, sunflower, marshelder, chenopod, maygrass, erect knotweed, and little barley. These local cultigens fed the early days of Cahokia’s rise, with corn arriving around A.D. 900. Fritz demonstrates that corn did not replace the local plants, and that they continued to play a significant role in the agricultural mix of the community. The discovery and careful excavation of a large pit underneath Mound 51 near central Cahokia produced evidence of feasting including seeds, nuts, and bones, which demonstrated the great variety of the food available between A.D. 1050 and 1100. This diverse food supply allowed the Cahokians to avoid the pitfalls of a single crop economy.
As a result, Fritz maintains, farmers were held in high esteem in the community because of their ability to support such a large population. This workforce of mainly women and their daughters was the backbone of the economy, and, knowing that, the ruling elites gave them considerable influence and decision-making authority.
In Feeding Cahokia, Gayle Fritz has provided new data that leads to new insights about the role of domestic crops and the farmers who grew them in such abundance that they supported as many as 40,000 people. This readable volume brings together years of research and paints a new and enlightened picture of the United States’ greatest ancient city.
