Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2010 An Archaeological Model of the Construction of Monks Mound and Implications for the Development of the Cahokian Society (800 - 1400 A.D.) Timothy Schilling Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Schilling, Timothy, "An Archaeological Model of the Construction of Monks Mound and Implications for the Development of the Cahokian Society (800 - 1400 A.D.)" (2010). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 313. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/313 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Anthropology Dissertation Examination Committee: Tristram R. Kidder, Chair David L. Browman Michael D. Frachetti Gayle J. Fritz John E. Kelly Jennifer R. Smtih Gregory Vogel AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF MONKS MOUND AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAHOKIAN SOCIETY (800 – 1400 A.D.) by Timothy Michael Schilling A Dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Science of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 Saint Louis, Missouri Copyright by Timothy Michael Schilling December 2010 Abstract This dissertation presents a model for the development of Cahokian society through the lens of monumental construction. Previous models of Cahokian society have emphasized the accumulation of individual power and domination of the many by a few. Using analogies from the ethnography and ethnohistory of Dhegian Siouan speakers, I argue the Cahokian system likely contained both achieved and ascribed statuses mediated through a worldview that emphasized balance and integration of the whole. In the face of a growing population, this kind of structural organization may have precluded the development of class conflict and, at the same time, permitted the development of large- scale societies. The analysis of monumental construction focuses primarily on the construction of Monks Mound. Through a combination of stratigraphic and chronometric data, the construction of Monks Mound is argued to be a definable and discrete event in the history of Cahokia. In this view, Monks Mound is a ritual vehicle created to integrate a large population. ii Acknowledgements Writing a dissertation and completing graduate school is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences that I have undertaken. In my graduate career, numerous individuals have helped, inspired, or mentored me and need to be acknowledged for their contributions to my professional and personal development. Foremost, among these are T. R. Kidder and John Kelly. T.R. served as my graduate advisor, teacher, and mentor. Without T.R.‘s guidance, graduate school would have been more challenging and less rewarding. John Kelly introduced me to Cahokia archaeology by setting me up with ―a small project‖ on Monks Mound. Little did any of us know how small the project would be. To this list of mentors, I specifically want to highlight Gayle Fritz and David Browman who have directly and indirectly guided this dissertation through comments and conversation. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the outside readers, Jen Smith and Greg Vogel who have given up time at a particularly eventful point in the semester. Overall, I wish to thank the Wash U Department of Anthroplogy and the Wash U community as whole. Wash U is one of the great schools and I am proud to be a part of this community. In particular, Kathleen Cook and the other administrative staff have been particularly helpful with the bureaucratic end of graduate school. Outside of the immediate Wash U community, numerous individuals need to be acknowledged. The folks at Cahokia — especially Mark Esarey and Bill Iseminger — have made Cahokia a world class resource for the state of Illinois and a wonderful place to work. This dissertation is largely based around data collected in 2007. The fieldwork iii portion of the project included over 40 individuals who worked tirelessly in the August heat. There is not room to name them all here, but I wish to thank all of those who helped or came out to visit In this same vein, workers with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Illinois State Museum deserve to be recognized for their inputs in the restoration project. As with any project dealing with a site the scale of Cahokia, this dissertation owes much to the work of earlier researchers. Even though the work presented here is the result of original analysis, it could not have been done without generations of previous research and hard work. iv Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements................................................................................................................iii Chapter I: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Physical Context ........................................................................................................... 7 Description of Monks Mound .................................................................................................. 9 Cultural Context ......................................................................................................... 12 The Emergent Mississippian Period (800 – 1050 A.D.) ........................................................ 17 The Mississippian Period (1050 – 1400 A.D.) ...................................................................... 20 Mound building and Mississippian Social Organization ........................................... 27 Cahokian Social Organization ............................................................................................... 31 The Meaning of Platform Mounds ............................................................................. 35 An Alternative Manner of Organization ................................................................... 38 Chapter II: Research Design .............................................................................................. 49 The Archaeological Background of Monks Mound................................................... 49 The Initial Archaeological Research .......................................................................... 52 The Modern Archaeological Era ................................................................................ 55 Salvage Projects .......................................................................................................... 56 University Based Research ......................................................................................... 57 Conservation and Repair ........................................................................................... 64 Differing Views of the Timing and Construction of Monks Mound ......................... 66 Reed, Bennett, and Porter Model ........................................................................................... 68 Expectations: Reed et al. Model ............................................................................................ 72 Woods Model ........................................................................................................................ 72 Expectations: Woods Model .................................................................................................. 73 Pauketat model ...................................................................................................................... 74 Expectations: Pauketat Model ............................................................................................... 75 The Event Model ................................................................................................................... 76 Monks Mound and the Cahokia Site...................................................................................... 76 Chapter III: 2007 Excavations ........................................................................................... 78 The Northwest Locality .............................................................................................. 80 The East Face Locality ............................................................................................... 85 Stratigraphy................................................................................................................ 89 Face 1..................................................................................................................................... 89 Face 2..................................................................................................................................... 92 Face 3................................................................................................................................... 100 Face 7................................................................................................................................... 114 Face 8..................................................................................................................................