Book Critique Of Cahokia
Mason Walsh
Professor Dennis Kellogg
ANT 100 A
14 October 2016
Cahokia: Book Critique In his book Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi, Pauketat gives insight into the 1,000 year old midwestern city of Cahokia, and how it became such a big city in such an ancient time.
Pauketat by setting the scene for how big cahokia really was. Most of the pyramids at Cahokia were within a five mile radius, which were designed in reference to the “four sacred directions and the upper and lower worlds”. (2) Roughly ten thousand people lived in the main five square mile zone, with another twenty to thirty thousand living in farming settlements and towns for fifty miles in every direction. Cahokia could be referred to as a capital city, due to it being a major settlement in the eleventh century. For quite a while, Pauketat describes the possibilities for how Cahokia may have been constructed in the first place. Archaeologists and anthropologists struggle to understand the simple question of why Cahokia existed. The book describes the …show more content…
Not knowing why the supernova was suddenly there, it would make sense that the Cahokians had mixed feelings about it. Many of them may have seen the supernova as a sign from god, or some superior being, and interpreted it as such. This supernova influenced life during this time through new forms of pottery, and new styles of buildings. Roughly during this time of the supernova, New Cahokia was constructed, and it makes sense to believe that the construction of Cahokia resulted from the sudden influence of the supernova. The old town was basically buried, and New Cahokia was four to five times larger, covering three to five square miles, so big that some parts of the site have yet to be probed by archaeologists. Unfortunately, a thousand years has taken its toll on cahokia, although there are still many noticeable archaeological
Professor Dennis Kellogg
ANT 100 A
14 October 2016
Cahokia: Book Critique In his book Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi, Pauketat gives insight into the 1,000 year old midwestern city of Cahokia, and how it became such a big city in such an ancient time.
Pauketat by setting the scene for how big cahokia really was. Most of the pyramids at Cahokia were within a five mile radius, which were designed in reference to the “four sacred directions and the upper and lower worlds”. (2) Roughly ten thousand people lived in the main five square mile zone, with another twenty to thirty thousand living in farming settlements and towns for fifty miles in every direction. Cahokia could be referred to as a capital city, due to it being a major settlement in the eleventh century. For quite a while, Pauketat describes the possibilities for how Cahokia may have been constructed in the first place. Archaeologists and anthropologists struggle to understand the simple question of why Cahokia existed. The book describes the …show more content…
Not knowing why the supernova was suddenly there, it would make sense that the Cahokians had mixed feelings about it. Many of them may have seen the supernova as a sign from god, or some superior being, and interpreted it as such. This supernova influenced life during this time through new forms of pottery, and new styles of buildings. Roughly during this time of the supernova, New Cahokia was constructed, and it makes sense to believe that the construction of Cahokia resulted from the sudden influence of the supernova. The old town was basically buried, and New Cahokia was four to five times larger, covering three to five square miles, so big that some parts of the site have yet to be probed by archaeologists. Unfortunately, a thousand years has taken its toll on cahokia, although there are still many noticeable archaeological