Decline of Cahokia (1240s)

Name: Decline of Cahokia (1240s)
Start: 1241
End: 1250

Type Event Region North America Time 1241–1250

By the 1240s, Cahokia, the center of Mississippian culture, had already experienced more than a century of decline: ceremonial activity in the main p…

Timeline

1241–1245Monks Mound and the palisaded enclosure · IllinoisArchaeological strata show that large timber structures around Monks Mound ceased to be maintained, elite residences within the palisade were dismantled or abandoned, large-scale public ceremonial activity decreased markedly, and the city's core functions declined.
1246–1250Mississippi River basin, American Midwest · MidwestResidents migrated to dispersed valley settlements and downstream chiefdoms, ending Cahokia's status as a regional hegemonic center; sites such as Etowah and Spiro took over some trade and symbolic power in the post-Cahokia era.

Sources

Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi — Timothy R. Pauketat (2009)
Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians — Timothy R. Pauketat (2004)