Why Was Cahokia “The Lost City”?
Cahokia was an ancient Native American city. By the time Europeans reached Cahokia in the 17th century, all that remained were ruins. The people of Cahokia were of Mississippian culture. The city created a myriad of tools and also large mounds which were used for religious purposes; this included the promise of continual good harvests. Since there were no animals to domesticate in the Americas, these large mounds had to be made by hand.
The city grew to its peak during the 11th and 12th centuries. For agriculture, they cultivated corn, squash and beans. At its peak, the city housed up to 40,000 people. For comparison, Paris at the same time had a population of 35,000 and London 15,000. Large mounds were most likely large gathering points for people of the Mississippian Culture. The people of Cahokia created the largest mound, the Monk Mound, and this caused more and more people of Mississippian Culture to gather around the area.
However, eventually, the city disappeared. This was most likely because it was abandoned at some point, because of a combination of religious as well as natural factors. Much of the information about the city’s disappearance is muddied due to a lack of records, which is and is the reason Cahokia is sometimes called a ‘lost city’. The priests were the leading class of the city and were responsible for good harvests and the well-being of the people. They did this by conducting religious rituals. Sometime in the 13th or 14th century, the people of Cahokia diverted water from one stream to bring more water to their city. This new diverted waterway also made it easier to transport logs, an innovation which unfortunately increased deforestation. Without the cover of the trees, rainfall led to flooding and damaged crops. The priests, who were seen as responsible to pray to the gods for the well-being of the people, were blamed, causing civil unrest that led to the abandonment of the city.
https://daily.jstor.org/the-mysterious-pre-columbian-settlement-of-cahokia/
