An Italian-American Archaelogical Project in an Ancient Native American Metropolis
Presentation
Professor Davide Domenici presents The Cahokia Project: An Effort Toward the Integration of Different Scientific Traditions, a research project started in 2011 in the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (IL), and one of the most important archaeological sites in the United States, National Historic Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The research project is an Italian-American joint effort, based on a research agreement signed beteween the Departments of Palaeography and Medieval Studies of Bologna University (Italy) and the Department of Anthropology of Washington University in St. Louis (MO). The project, directed by Davide Domenici, Maurizio Tosi and John Kelly, is funded by the abovementioned academic institutions, as well as by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Carisbo Foundation (Bologna, Italy).
Cahokia was the largest and most significant settlement of the Mississippian Culture, a Native American cultural sphere formed by various independent polities that, from aprox. 1050 CE until the arrival of the first Europeans, flourished along the Mississippi River Valley and in most of the so-called Eastern Woodlands.
Cahokia was born around 600 CE as a group of agricultural villages in an area very rich of resources known as the American Bottom, below the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Around 1050 Cahokia was in full blossom. At that time, the core of the site was spatially reorganized with the construction of four large communal spaces known as plazas and of huge earthen mounds that functioned as bases of temples, chiefs’ houses and tombs. Monks Mound, at the very center of the city, was periodically enlarged reaching a volume of 813,545 yd3, being today the largest earthen mound ever built north of Mexico. From 1050 to 1300, Cahokia – housing a total population of aproximately 15,000 individuals – was the capital of what was probably the most powerful tribe of ancient Native America. Large circles of wooden poles, known as woodhenges, were used as astronomical observatories, while the city’s workshops produced engraved shell cups and gorgets, copper plates and stone figurines that influenced the artistic styles the Eastern Coast of the States for many centuries. Sampkles of this production have been preserved as sacred relics in native sites as far as Spiro (OK). The magnificence of Cahokia’s rulers is reflected in the astonishing funerary assemblage of Mound 72, where a chief’s burial was accompanied by lavish offerings and many grave goods and burials. Due to its political relevance, Cahokia was probably a multiethnic city, but some elements suggest that an important part of its population belonged to the Siouan linguistic family, most probably related with actual Dhegiha Sioux Nations such as the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Kansa, and Quapaw. At the very time of Cahokia’s peak a huge stockade was built to enclose the center of the city. This is possibly an evidence of an internal struggle among factions that, on the long run, might have led to Cahokia’s decline and to its final desertion at the end of 14th century. Nevertheless, Cahokia’s cultural achievements survived the city itself, and many cultural features originated in Cahokia persisted well into historical times.
Despite almost a century of archaeological investigations at Cahokia, many aspects of its ancient life remain poorly understood. Some of the main still open questions regard its political organization: how did the chiefs of a non-State polity managed to control huge amounts of resources and labour? Was their power linked to the organization of important ceremonial events such as astronomical rites, public feasts or games of chunkey (a ritual game played with a stone circle and a wooden stick)? Were they perceived as impersonators of mythological heroes such as the Siouan Red Horn-Venus or the falcon-like Thunderbirds represented in Mississippian iconography?
To better understand Cahokia political organization, it is important to investigate in detail the public buildings erected in its monumental center. The Italian-American archaeological project is thus working in Cahokia’s West Plaza, where a complex series of public buildings, first discovered during salvage excavations directed by Warren Wittry in 1962, was built over the centuries. The current project is aimed both at excavating parts of these buildings in order to ascertain their forms and functions, and at a detailed review of W. Wittry’s excavation data. To reach this aim, the Italian research team is employing advanced techniques of excavation recording such as ortophotomapping, and a Geographical Information System in order to efficiently manage the archaeological data retrieved in all the excavations carried out in Cahokia’s West Plaza so far. If the technological and methodological aspect is the main contribution of the Italian part of the research team, the American one provides a detailed knowledge of Mississippian archaeology as well as the fruits of a long-established American tradition of anthropological reflection on forms of ancient socio-political complexity that are radically different from those usually studied in the Old World. The joint effort is thus aimed both at increasing our knowledge of a marvellous ancient Native American metropolis and at productively integrating different scientific traditions.
(Davide Domenici)
Italian archaeological, anthropological and ethnological missions abroad
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has being supporting Italian archaeological, anthropological and ethnological missions abroad for a long time. These missions are not only highly scientific and academic activities of significant importance, but also a precious training instrument for the locals, who will be able to learn technologies used in archaeology, restoration and historic conservation in Italy, which is recognized internationally for its level of excellence.
These missions also represents our commitment to make an active contribution to the intercultural dialogue and development policies in many countries and geographic areas, near and far.
Archaeological, anthropological and ethnological studies range from prehistoric times to the Middle Age. In addition to the traditional sector of the Greco–Roman world, research fields also include other historic periods and geographic contexts in the Near, Middle and Far East, Africa and the Americas.
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Davide Domenici
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DAVIDE DOMENICI
Davide Domenici is Assistant Professor in Demo-ethno-anthropological disciplines at the Department of Paleography and Medieval of the University of Bologna, where he teaches courses of Native American Civilizations and Historical Anthropology. Between 2006 and 2011 he taught the course of Mesoamerican Archaeology I at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and since 2005, he has also being teaching the courses of Native American Cuisines and Methods and Sources for the Anthropology of Food at the University of Barcelona (Spain).
As an archaeologist, he worked in Nazca (Peru, 1986-1990), Easter Island (Chile, 1991-1992) and Teotihuacan (Mexico 1993-1994). Between 1998 and 2010 he co-directed, together with Thomas A. Lee Whiting, the Río La Venta Archaeological Project (Chiapas, Mexico), and since 2011 he is being co-directing, together with Maurizio Tosi and John Kelly, the Cahokia Archaeological Project at Cahokia (Illinois, USA).
He is a member of the research group involved in the project Non-Invasive Scientific Analysis on Pre-Hispanic Mexican Codices carried out in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence SMAArt at the University of Perugia (Scientific Methodologies Applied to Archaeology and Art) and with the Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali (INSTM).
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Embassy of Italy/Italian Cultural Institute
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In collaboration with the Department of Palaeography and Medieval Studies, University of Bologna