Overview

The fascinating story of a lost city and an unprecedented American civilization located in modern day Illinois near St. Louis While Mayan and Aztec civilizations are widely known and documented, relatively few people are familiar with the largest prehistoric Native American city north of Mexico-a site that expert Timothy Pauketat brings vividly to life in this groundbreaking book. Almost a thousand years ago, a city flourished along the Mississippi River near what is now St. Louis. Built around a sprawling central plaza and known as Cahokia, the site has drawn the attention of generations of archaeologists, whose work produced evidence of complex celestial timepieces, feasts big enough to feed thousands, and disturbing signs of human sacrifice. Drawing on these fascinating finds, Cahokia presents a lively and astonishing narrative of prehistoric America.

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9780143117476

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The book consists of thirteen essays that together constitute a complex and superbly crafted social history of Cahokia. . . . The contributors have written provocative and, for the most part, accessible essays that are both refreshing in their propositions and important in their conclusions. -- Journal of Southern History,

Author Information

Timothy R. Pauketat is an Americanarchaeologistand professor of anthropology at theUniversity of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. After earninga BS inanthropologyand earth sciences fromSouthern Illinois University Edwardsville, he worked as a staff archaeologist at theCenter for American Archaeology. Pauketat is best known for hisresearch onCahokia, the center of the large, regional Mississippian culture that extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and tributaries.

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