Located on the banks of the Mississippi River, the abandoned city of Cahokia was once a bustling metropolis, the largest and most cosmopolitan center north of Mexico, home to the indigenous culture of the Mississippi.
Today nobody knows what happened to him. Tens of thousands of its inhabitants are said to have simply 'disappeared', leaving behind a giant earth mound spanning 13 square kilometers.
By the mid-1300s, long before white settlers arrived on the continent, the city was largely abandoned.
A fresh analysis of ancient human remains is changing history.
It was discovered that the Cahokia area was briefly abandoned. By the time Columbus landed on the shores of America, the metropolis that was in present-day Illinois was already inhabited, and by 1650 its population had grown to a whole new high.
“The history of Cahokia was much more complex, and our study uses innovative and unusual evidence to show it,” says anthropologist A.J. White of the University of California, Berkeley.
Over the years, archaeological research has identified several factors contributing to the extinction of civilization, including conflict, population displacement, flooding, drought, climate change and overexploitation of resources.
'Crops can be very resilient in the face of climate change, but resilience does not necessarily mean there is no change. There may be cultural reorganization or decisions to relocate or migrate, 'explained anthropologist Sissel Schroeder.
The study was published in American Antiquity.
Sources: Photo: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
