18/11/2025
Cahokia is a very powerful place.
When excavations began at Cahokia’s Mound 72 in 1967, archaeologists expected a simple burial mound. Instead, they uncovered one of the most astonishing and unsettling discoveries in ancient North America. Unlike the surrounding earthen monuments, Mound 72 sat at a strange angle—misaligned with the rest of Cahokia’s grid. That clue, small as it seemed, pointed to an older ritual landscape buried beneath later constructions.
At the heart of the mound lay a single elite male, resting on a bed of nearly 49,000 shell beads. They weren’t scattered—they were arranged deliberately, forming the unmistakable outline of a falcon or eagle, wings outstretched, talons poised. This figure is now known as the Birdman burial, a symbol deeply tied to power, warfare, and the sacred in Mississippian cosmology.
But the story did not end with one man.
As archaeologists dug deeper, they found hundreds of graves, including multiple mass burial pits. One of the most striking contained the remains of 53 young women, arranged two layers deep, all between the ages of 15 and 30. They had been placed carefully, not tossed aside—yet analysis showed they were likely sacrificial victims.
Across the mound, more than 272 individuals were recovered. Over 60% had been sacrificed, offering a rare, sobering window into the rituals and social hierarchy of Cahokia around 1000–1200 CE. These weren’t random acts of violence. They were ceremonial, symbolic, and tied to a belief system where offerings—both precious objects and human lives—were woven into the fabric of spiritual and political power.
Cahokia was once the largest city north of Mesoamerica, a metropolis of tens of thousands. Mound 72 shows that its leaders wielded immense authority, and that ritual spectacle shaped the lives—and deaths—of many.
