Rebroadcast: What Doomed Cahokia?
Reginald Hardwick/Illinois Newsroom
Editor's Note: This segment originally aired in May 2021.
Cahokia, an ancient city located just north of St. Louis, was built by Native Americans more than 1,000 years before European colonizers arrived. It’s unclear why Cahokia was gradually abandoned by its original inhabitants — it’s one of the great archeological mysteries. New research, though, is shedding some light on that.
The 21st was joined by an archeologist and a professor to talk more about misconceptions, indegenous agriculture and its connections to contemporary sustainability and “ecocide.”
Guests:
Caitlin Rankin, Ph D, Archeologist at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Jane Mt. Pleasant, Professor Emeritus in the school of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University
Why did the mound builders of Cahokia eventually abandon their great city? Recent archaeological research rejects one popular theory https://t.co/AaDrcOWwAU
— NYT Science (@NYTScience) May 3, 2021
Prepared for web by Zainab Qureshi
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