Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigating Behavioral practices at the Mississippian Site of Cahokia

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the guidance of Dr. Timothy R. Pauketat, Sarah E. Baires will conduct archaeological excavation of a raised walkway, or processional avenue, and analysis of artifacts, notes, and maps from three previously excavated ridge-top burial mounds at the site of Cahokia a pre-Columbian Native American city located in the American Bottom near the confluence of the Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Ms. Baires proposes to investigate the relationship between formal burial practices, new religious beliefs, and the rise of an urban society in the Cahokia region between the years of AD 1050 - 1200. This research will test the hypothesis that mortuary practices, as a religious activity, play a central role in reinforcing the social organization of this complex society. This hypothesis will be tested through (1) archaeological excavations into a possible raised walkway connecting one of the largest ridge-top burial mounds at the site with Cahokia's central public plaza, and (2) the analysis of three ridge-top mound mortuaries. Ms. Baires will visit three museums, the Illinois State Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology to study the as yet unanalyzed collections of human remains and artifacts from three burial mounds located at Cahokia. Sites such as Cahokia provide insight into the forces which originally gave rise to complex societies such as our own and help to trace the underlying developmental processes. They set a wide range of societies which characterize the extant world in a broader chronological context. Excavations into the raised walkway, which connects public space to burial grounds, will provide new information on how Native persons in Illinois gathered, moved, and buried their dead. The analysis of human remains from three ridge-top burial mounds will provide demographic data on those buried in the mounds. Death is often tied to concepts of the afterworld, ancestors, and religious beliefs. These aspects of religion and death appear to be a human universal, a way in which people make sense of the world around them and their place in it, and a way in which politicians achieve positions of authority. By using the archaeological evidence of religious mortuary practices, where certain people are buried in politically powerful ways, Ms. Baires will contribute to a larger understanding of how religion and politics influence each other. This research will engage three subfields of Anthropology, physical, socio-cultural, and archaeology, focusing not only on the scientific components of the research but also on the direct relationships among complex societies, mortuary practice, and religious belief. Excavations into the raised walkway, or processional avenue, will take place on Cahokia Mounds property, engaging both community members and archaeologists visiting and working at the site. The project will involve interested community members through presentations of the excavation results at the annual public Cahokia Conference and Illinois Association for Advancement of Archaeology Conference, the annual Midwestern Archaeological Conference, Southeastern Archaeological Conference, and the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. Two public lectures at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois will provide additional ways for community education and participation. And finally, an informational pamphlet will be authored by Baires and distributed to interested Native and non-Native communities through the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site Interpretive Center.