Cahokia's shell bead crafters and maize producers: A re-examination of the data

Abstract

Cahokia, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was the largest earthen mound center in North America. Although marine shell beads and maize may seem unrelated, they are important in examining the timing and causes of Cahokia community coalescence and dissolution. The population rose rapidly around CE 1000 and both marine shell bead use and consumption of nixtamalized maize began at CE 900–1000. Shell beads were emplaced in great numbers with human burials between CE 1050 and 1150, but far fewer beads were made after that. Huge numbers of beads, bead crafting labor inputs and workshop areas were large, emphasizing bead significance. Lightning whelk shell emplacements are revealed to be associated with shell bead crafters. Based on data from a ceramic type called stumpware, I hypothesize that the use of nixtamalized maize declined quickly after CE 1100. Droughts beginning at the same time may have resulted in dietary stress. Data on burial groupings—both with and without shell artifacts—in Mound 72 and Wilson Mound are examined. I suggest that matriarchal, elite bead crafting kin groups were interred in both mounds, providing evidence of elite bead crafting kin groups, and that around CE 1150 a rebellion ended elite producers of materials goods. Internecine conflict is also evidenced by the burning of a maize processing compound between CE 1160 and 1170 as well as palisade constructions. Cahokia was mostly abandoned by CE 1250 and it is likely that female maize producers and marine shell bead crafting kin groups were integral to both the founding and eventual fall of Greater Cahokia.