With undeniable evidence that proved that Native Americans, too, built great civilizations – achieving amazing architectural feats and forming complex societies with centralized governments – Cahokia challenged people’s preconceptions of ancient Native Americans. Contrary to popular belief, Native Americans also dealt with overpopulation and overexploitation of their natural resources. With such a massive population, which boomed around 1050 AD, Cahokia needed to produce much more food than they had before. Thanks to modern technology and advancements in archaeology, such as water flotation techniques, archaeologists are able to get better insight into Cahokia’s food production and Cahokian diet.

Cahokia was a highly centralized society conveniently placed in very fertile farmland (Figure 1); around the great urban center, farmers worked hard to feed the demanding population (Seppa, 1997). Cahokian rulers deliberately established the upland and bottomland farming villages. Having both upland and bottomland farming environments proved vital in food production, providing a larger variety of food and enhancing the security of food supply; if one area failed, Cahokians still had another area to draw resources from. For instance, if the bottom fields flooded, the upland fields would still thrive. On the other hand, if there was not enough rain one year, the upland fields would be too dry to sustain crops, but the bottom fields would still hold enough moisture to succeed (Tainter, 2019). 

Before the rise of Cahokia, people depended primarily on diverse plant foods and consumed animals in lesser amounts. However, as the population grew, their dependence on certain foods changed. Fish, which used to be a staple food, went from 77% to 10% in consumption. Mammals, on the other hand, went from 10% to 67% in consumption, which is indicated by the increase in deer remains. The most significant staple food for the Cahokians was maize; originally domesticated in Mexico, it made its way up to the American Southwest where it became more than just a staple food – but a religiously significant crop (Tainter, 2019). Cahokians also shifted from horticulture to mass-producing agriculture. They cultivated goosefoot, amaranth, canary grass, and starchy seeds; they were able to mass produce these by storing seeds in communal granaries (Figure 2), which were uncovered during excavations (Seppa, 1997). 

The end of Cahokia still remains a great mystery, but it seemed to occur around the time when descendants of the upland farmers left their farms in 1150 AD, throwing Cahokia’s government and economy into turmoil (Pauketat, 2009). This goes to show how farmers were the foundation of this grand civilization. As we covered in class, the Cahokians aimed to produce the maximum to survive, which is ultimately unsustainable and is the reason for their end. This parallels overconsumption today, which is one of the biggest problems of society today. We should take our knowledge of this ancient civilization as a warning to what could happen if we continue to overexploit our resources and mass-produce. 

References:

Anwar, Yasmine. January 27, 2020. “New Study Debunks Myth of Cahokia’s Native American Lost Civilization.” Berkeley News. https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/01/27/new-study-debunks-myth-of-cahokias-native-american-lost-civilization.

Everding, Gerry. March 21, 2019. “Women Shaped Cuisine, Culture of Ancient Cahokia.” The Source.https://source.wustl.edu/2019/03/feedingcahokia/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIt%27s%20clear%20that%20the%20vast,the%20society%2C%E2%80%9D%20she%20said. 

Pauketat, Timothy R. 2009. “Digging for the Goddess.” In Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi. pp. 123-128. Penguin Group: Viking Penguin.

Seppa, Nathan. March 12, 1997. “Metropolitan Life on the Mississippi.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march/12/cahokia.htm#:~:text=As%20a%20corn%2Dbased%20economy,grass%20and%20other%20starchy%20seeds. 

Tainter, Joseph A. December 3, 2019. “Cahokia: Urbanization, Metabolism, and Collapse.” Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2019.00006/full.   

Tumblr. “Mike Ruggeri’s Ancient Cahokia.” n.d. https://mikeruggerisancientcahokla.tumblr.com/ 

Further Reading:

Chen, Angus. February 10, 2017. “1,000 Years Ago, Corn Made This Society Big. Then, A Changing Climate Destroyed It.” npr. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/10/513963490/1-000-years-ago-corn-made-this-society-big-then-a-changing-climate-destroyed-the.

Fritz, Gayle J. Feeding Cahokia: Early Agriculture in the North American Heartland. The University of Alabama Press, 2019.

Knox, Pam. March 30, 2019. “How did Cahokian farmers feed such a large city?” UGA Cooperative Extension. https://site.extension.uga.edu/climate/2019/03/how-did-cahokian-farmers-feed-such-a-large-city/.

A legend in her own right, Nefertari has left a significant mark and her burial has provided archaeologists with invaluable information. Queen of Egypt from 1295 BC to 1256 BC (Encyclopedia.com, n.d.), Nefertari was married to Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of ancient Egypt’s 19th Dynasty; she wielded significant power, working alongside her husband in political affairs (Popular Archaeology, 2019). After her death in 1256 BC, her influence lived on through the people of ancient Egypt who honored her with a magnificent tomb located in the Valley of Queens, a burial site for all the wives of pharaohs. 

Nefertari’s tomb was discovered and excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli, an Italian archaeologist, in 1904 (Minerva Magazine, 2021). Though her tomb had been looted of many precious artifacts, there were still a good number of artifacts left behind, including: fragments of a pink granite sarcophagus lid, fragments of gilded wood coffin, wall paintings, well-preserved sandals, parts of a gold bracelet, shabti figurines, an amulet, and two mummified knees (Popular Archaeology, 2019). These artifacts alone show how highly revered Nefertari was, reflecting not only her wealth but powerful influence.

Archaeologists can derive many aspects of ancient Egyptian life, culture, and religion through the artifacts in her tomb. For instance, Nefertari was buried with an djed-pillar amulet with her name inscribed on the back. Made of gilded wood and blue vitreous paste, the amulet represents the spine of Osiris, the god of death and the afterlife; the necklace serves as a symbol of stability and eternal life, important aspects of ancient Egyptian religion (Minerva Magazine, 2021). 

Figure 1. The djed-pillar amulet found in Nefertari’s tomb (Minerva Magazine, 2021). 

Another artifact that tells us more about the afterlife is the Book of the Dead. In ancient Egyptian belief, life continues after death in the afterlife. They developed a set of funerary beliefs and practices to make sure the deceased reached spiritual paradise. The most commonly known practice is mummification, which helps preserve the body. Following this process, the ancient Egyptians put the body in a coffin, which was then placed into a tomb with provisions for the afterlife. One of the provisions was burying the dead with funerary books, which contained spells and utterances to help them reach the afterlife safely. Nefertari was discovered buried with the Book of the Dead, the most well-known Egyptian funerary text (Noma, 2022).

Figure 2. A papyrus page from the Book of the Dead (Britannica, 2023).

Nefertari’s tomb is “Egypt’s best artistic documentations of elite culture and the life and ways of one of its greatest queens” (Popular Archaeology, 2019). We know that burials are used to symbolize and serve the dead, but we often forget that burials are made by the living people; therefore, burials are expressions of the living people’s relationship with others still alive. They reflect people’s thoughts and attitudes toward the deceased; hence, they are not the most accurate representation of who that person was (Renfrew). Nonetheless, burials, like Nefertari’s, are excellent resources to uncover what life, culture, and religion was like during a certain time period. 

Reference List

Britannica. “Book of the Dead: Ancient Egyptian Text.” June 16, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Book-of-the-Dead-ancient-Egyptian-text.

Encyclopedia.com. “Nefertari (c. 1295-1256 BCE).” n.d. https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nefertari-c-1295-1256-bce#:~:text=Nefertari%20(c.-,1295%E2%80%931256%20bce),beauty%2C%20judging%20from%20contemporary%20paintings.

Minerva Magazine. “Nefertari: into the Valley of the Queens.” The Past. January 10, 2021. https://the-past.com/feature/nefertari-into-the-valley-of-the-queens/.

Noma. “Queen Nefertari’s Egypt Highlights Ancient Egyptian Masterpieces.” February 3, 2022. https://noma.org/queen-nefertaris-egypt-highlights-ancient-egyptian-masterpieces/#:~:text=Presented%20in%20six%20sweeping%20sections,around%20death%20and%20the%20afterlife.

Popular Archaeology. “Nefertari’s Tomb.” July 19, 2019. https://populararchaeology.com/article/nefertaris-tomb/.

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul Bahn. 2018.  Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, and Practice. Fourth edition. Thames & Hudson. 

Read More:

Hoon Shin, Dong. “Queen Nefertari, the Royal Spouse of Ramses II: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of the Mummified Remains Found in her Tomb (QV66).” National Library of Medicine. November 30, 2016. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5130223/.

Osirisnet. “Nefertari – QV 66.” n.d. https://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/pharaons/nefertari/e_nefertari_03.htm.