Cahokia - Sand Prairie

  General Description   The Sand Prairie phase is the name given by archaeologists to the period between around 1275 and 1400 CE in the American Bottom region, the portion of the floodplain of the Mississippi now located in southwestern Illinois. ^{[1] [2]} This period is considered the final phase of the Mississippian culture. ^[3] The chronology is not universally agreed upon, however: the dates given by different scholars for the Sand Prairie phase vary. ^[2]
Population and political organization
The Sand Prairie phase was one of decreasing social complexity and depopulation at the site of Cahokia and on the surrounding Middle Mississippi floodplain. ^[4] Already by 1150 CE, archaeological evidence indicates that the political and ceremonial ties binding the site of Cahokia and its elite to its hinterland were weakening, and by 1350, there are very few signs of culturally Mississippian populations left in the American Bottom. ^[5] During the Sand Prairie phase, Mississippians seem to have abandoned the old monumental sites and dispersed out of the river valley into the uplands. ^[6] The evidence for political hierarchies and inherited status distinctions is much weaker than for previous periods, and community activity may have revolved around funerary rites at rural cemeteries. ^[7]
The population of the site of Cahokia and the surrounding Mississippi floodplain reached its lowest point for several centuries during this period. ^{[8] [9]} Concrete population estimates are difficult to find, but archaeologist George Milner has estimated a Sand Prairie-period population density of between one and seven people per square kilometre for a stretch of the Mississippi floodplain just south of Cahokia. ^[8]

[1]: (Kelly et al. 1984, 130) Kelly, John E., Steven J. Ozuk, Douglas K. Jackson, Dale L. McElrath, Fred A. Finney, and Duane Esarey. 1984. "Emergent Mississippian Period." In American Bottom Archaeology: A Summary of the FAI-270 Project Contribution to the Culture History of the Mississippi River Valley, edited by Charles L. Bareis and James W. Porter, 128-57. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2UP556X5.

[2]: (Hall 2000, 13) Hall, Robert L. 2000. "Cahokia Identity and Interaction Models of Cahokia Mississippian." In Cahokia and the Hinterlands: Middle Mississippian Cultures of the Midwest, edited by Thomas E. Emerson and R. Barry Lewis, 3-34. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/WNR98AWH.

[3]: (Milner 1986, 234) Milner, George R. 1986. "Mississippian Period Population Density in a Segment of the Central Mississippi River Valley." American Antiquity 51 (2): 227-38. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/P35FE59S.

[4]: (Emerson 1997, 6, 53) Emerson, Thomas E. 1997. Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/QH7AMQ74.

[5]: (Pauketat and Bernard 2004, 38-39) Pauketat, Timothy, and Nancy Stone Bernard. 2004. Cahokia Mounds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/MH4W8AV5.

[6]: (Emerson 1997, 53) Emerson, Thomas E. 1997. Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/QH7AMQ74.

[7]: (Emerson 1997, 180) Emerson, Thomas E. 1997. Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/QH7AMQ74.

[8]: (Milner 1986, 227) Milner, George R. 1986. "Mississippian Period Population Density in a Segment of the Central Mississippi River Valley." American Antiquity 51 (2): 227-38. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/P35FE59S.

[9]: (Pauketat and Lopinot 1997, 120) Pauketat, Timothy R., and Neal H. Lopinot. 1997. "Cahokian Population Dynamics." In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Timothy R. Pauketat and Thomas E. Emerson, 103-23. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.