Ancient poop reveals what happened after the fall of Cahokia:
Tens of thousands of people once lived in Cahokia, the city at the heart of the mound-building Mississippian culture (which dominated the midwestern and southeastern United States from 700 to 1500 CE). And then, around 1450, they all left. Now, sediment cores from nearby Horseshoe Lake suggest that the area didn't stay deserted for long.
The study looked for the chemical signature of ancient human feces, which washed into nearby Horseshoe Lake over the centuries along with layers of soil, pollen, and other material. When bacteria in your gut break down cholesterol, they produce a chemical called coprostanol, which can survive in soil for hundreds or even thousands of years. More coprostanol in the soil means more people living (and pooping) in the area around the lake.
[...] "A lot of discussions around Cahokia stop around 1400 [CE], around when Cahokia is said to have been abandoned," White told Ars in a 2019 interview. "I think we're kind of adding sort of a new layer to the story in that area."
[...] For about a century after the city's demise, the surrounding region looked like a ghost town, according to the sediment cores. Then, around 1500 CE, more coprostanol started washing into the lake again—people were back. But they were living in a very different landscape than the old Cahokians; these layers of sediment contain more pollen from trees and grasses, suggesting that woods and prairie had started to reclaim the former maize fields.
[...] White says the coprostanol study provides an important example of indigenous people's resilience and persistence in the face of social upheaval and environmental challenges. "Throughout the history of archaeological research, Native American disappearance has been emphasized more than Native American persistence," he and his colleagues wrote. That's especially true at Cahokia, where so much attention has focused on the city's abandonment.
A.J. White. Looking Beyond Cahokia’s Famous Population Decline; American Antiquity, 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2019.103.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @06:59AM (1 child)
Toldja archeology is full of shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @12:54PM
I wonder what ancient poop smells like. Does it smell like roses?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @07:30AM
I'm guessing it was a poop. Else how would they know? Righht? Where's my $2.5m grant? Damn scientists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @07:45AM (6 children)
Like usual.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @08:03AM (5 children)
U sure weren't them bears that shat upon those ruins?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday February 05 2020, @09:06AM (4 children)
Weren't bears, this was prairie and bears only shit in the woods.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @09:52AM (2 children)
If there's nobody to see them, they shit everywhere.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday February 05 2020, @09:56AM (1 child)
But do they make a sound?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @06:20PM
Nobody does know, 'cause nobody saw 'em.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 06 2020, @01:49AM
Nahhh, you got it backwards...the Pope shits in the woods. Bears are Catholic.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @08:27AM
Connection reset by some moron with a backhoe
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 05 2020, @02:15PM (4 children)
It's not surprising the Cahokia site was re-populated. It's excellent. The farmland is incredibly rich, with good access to water and aquatic resources at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Further, it sits in a good-sized cirque.
From the top of Monk's Mound you can see really far, too. Today you can see St. Louis many miles away and far up and down the rivers. It's easy to observe the approach of enemies.
At the height of the Mississippian period at Cahokia they brought trade goods in from across the entire North American continent. They have found obsidian from Yellowstone, copper from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and shells from Florida. So they had all the markers for long-term successful civilization. Yet so far they haven't found any archaeological evidence to suggest they collapsed because of warfare or natural calamity. My private theory is they died out because of diseases introduced to North America from the Vikings at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1000 AD, and it took that long for them to work their way over from Newfoundland. But there's no evidence for that either.
It's a tantalizing mystery.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Wednesday February 05 2020, @04:31PM (1 child)
I grew up in the village of Cahokia; the ancient city and burial grounds are miles away. I modded you informative, but you mentioned the height of Monk's Mound. It is indeed tall and you can see for miles today, but not when it was "new". It was a burial ground, and as such I doubt the natives would have walked up it, on the graves of their ancestors. Plus, it was covered in trees until the late twentieth century. Not much vantage from a grove of trees.
I remember when they cut all the trees down from the mound. Scuttlebutt around the area had it that the ancients put a curse on anyone who walked on it "as long as the trees stand" and the curse was behind the trees being taken down. This was, of course, nonsense, but it was (and probably still is) believed by many.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 07 2020, @11:19AM
Thanks for that. Interesting place to grow up, sort of like the American version of the Giza plateau.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Wednesday February 05 2020, @04:40PM (1 child)
I really have no idea, but could the resettlement around 1500 be influenced by the influx of the first Europeans?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday February 06 2020, @02:15AM
Not unless the Europeans brought a time machine.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.