SUN SPOTTER NEALE MONKS SERIES

If the 'ceremonial' in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex had as much to do with propitiating practices as it did with dressing for status' then votive offerings and a range of activity traces should be part and parcel of the complex. What is lost by this emphasis on the mortuary domain can be expressed in part by posing a couple of questions. In this paper, we present a revised synthesis of American Bottom archaeobotanical data, explore the revisions in terms of previous interpretations, and outline some ideas for new directions.Д¬ommonplace emphasis on the burial record of the three big sites in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC)-Etowah' Moundville' and Spiro- has the unfortunate effect of deflecting attention from the nonmortuary contexts that relate to the complex and perhaps even frame its expression. Although subsistence must continue to be a central focus of interpretive efforts, plant remains have also proven useful for examining broad issues of prehistoric economics, technology and ritual. Understanding of post-Late Woodland adaptive strategies has benefited generally from the sheer wealth of data, and also from greater attention given to context of that data. The non-continuous model has proven helpful in assessing apparent anomalies or inconsistencies in early prehistoric, Archaic through Middle Woodland, plant use patterns.

SUN SPOTTER NEALE MONKS SERIES

Pre- Late Woodland Period occupations in the American Bottom area, especially, are best understood as a series of pulses rather than products of in situ cultural evolution. However, along with an enhanced appreciation, there is also the realization that some of the previous models of prehistoric cultural continuity were in error. Since that time, our appreciation for the depth and intricacy of prehistoric plant use strategies has grown along with the increasing specificity of new geographic and chronological botanical data. Pioneering syntheses by Sissel Johannessen (19) offered the first insights into rich and complex relationships between prehistoric humans and plants in this region. More than three decades of systematic archaeological research in the American Bottom region of southwestern Illinois have produced a continuous flow of new archaeobotanical information. In the following discussion, we focus on the processes leading to the creation of Cahokia and the American Indian cosmological principles that structure its space. Cahokia (Figure 9.1) is a place that offers just such a window and one that comes from eastern North America, an area that has yet to contribute to a comprehensive picture on the origins of urbanism. But what of those that faltered early and fell short of sustained growth? For any understanding of the processes of urbanism, it is precisely these areas that offer crucial information about the inception of the process. In many cases of pristine development, urbanism was sustained - often for millennia (Marcus and Sabloff 2008 Smith 2003). At the same time, the finding has been generally accepted that cities emerged independently in a number of areas of the world. Only in the last few decades has the definition of urbanism been broadened to accommodate large and socially diversified Amerindian settlements that lack the political apparatus of the state or the stimulus of market-driven economies. This chapter focuses on the processes leading to the creation of this urban space and the American Indian cosmological principles that underlie them.

This built environment is at the heart of a ritual city covering nearly 15 km2and has its roots in the site's late-Emergent Mississippian community. This ritualized core of large earthen platform mounds, large constructed plazas, and massive wooden architecture comprises a landscape encompassing more than 100 ha.

As North America's only pre-Columbian city, Cahokia represents a unique configuration characterized some fifty years after its outset by four quadrilateral plazas centered on Monks Mound.

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