He has taught history, writing, literature, and philosophy at the college level. And the reason for that is clear: We do see that happening in past societies, and we fear that it is happening in our own. The mysterious disappearance of the people of Cahokia is still discussed by some writers and video producers in the present day. The name "Cahokia" is from an aboriginal people who lived in the area . The great mystery of who the builders had been was amplified by the question of where they had gone. Just because this is how we are, doesnt mean this is how everyone was or is.. Evidence of civil war or at least large-scale social unrest suggests some sort of violent clash c. 1250 CE and although attempts were made to repair the damage done by floods and the earthquake, whatever central authority had maintained order previously seems to have fallen apart; by c. 1350 CE the city had been abandoned. Cahokia, calling it a lost or vanished city, and focus entirely on its disappearance. This makes it seem that the Native American people who lived in Cahokia vanished as well, but that is not the case. Once found near present-day St. Louis in Illinois, Cahokia suddenly declined 600 years ago, and no one knows why. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Great Pyramid of Giza: An ancient Egyptian tomb for the pharoah Khufu. (2021, April 27). Cahokians cut a lot of treesthousands of them were used to build what archaeologists believe were defensive fortificationsbut that doesnt mean they were treating them as fungible goods, or harvesting them in unsustainable ways, the way European-Americans often did. Other burials at Mound 72 include four young men without hands or heads and over 50 young women stacked together in rows. We want people all over the world to learn about history. People have lived in the Cahokia region for thousands of years, but around 1000 CE local people and immigrants from other parts of the continent/other parts of the Mississippi River Valley began to gather there in large numbers. Climate change is a big problem today, but did you know that it was a challenge for people in the past as well? Archaeology is not like physics, where you can set up controlled experiments and get the answers youre looking for, Rankin says.