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Thank you We sneak in Oh Every city tour has

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its highlights samos buildings and landmarks famous local cuisine and

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even famous mounds Yep believe it or not this giant

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pile of dirt now known as monks mound was once

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the tourist attraction of a bustling metropolis known as cahokia

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It was located near present day st louis missouri The

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ka hokey a had no written language but inside the

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eighty mounds that still remain archaeologists have found artifacts that

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tells the story of this ancient city and no not

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ancient snapchat stories Back in eleven fifty a d cahokia

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was a diverse city featuring people from many native north

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american tribes Close to fifty thousand people called it home

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sweet home making it the largest city in north america

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and larger even than some european cities Care to take

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a stroll down memory lane There's some kids over there

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playing the great cahokia pastime chunky stones there's some residents

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drinking a beverage made from holly leaves The leaves are

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imported from hundreds of miles away It's called black drink

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and it's got enough caffeine to get you through the

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rest of the tour Maybe starbucks has try brewing this

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stuff Here's a marketplace where people travel from far and

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wide to trade We know because birdman religious tablets like

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this one have been found far from cahokia there's cocchi

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a solar calendar it's very sophisticated and one day archaeologists

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will refer to it as would hinge let's go to

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the piece de resistance of cahokia the mounds Here we

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are monks mound as it once wass it's made up

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of more than fifteen million baskets of soil is over

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one hundred feet tall and covers fourteen acres that makes

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it wider than the pyramids up top You can see

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a temple or perhaps is the house of a government

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official or wealthy local Actually income inequality is a bit

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of a problem here there's a class of wealthy powerful

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people and a large class of slaves called stinkers We

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know not settle and not very nice but don't expect

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an occupy cahokia movement anytime soon That's because like a

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hokey a also practiced human sacrifice and women and slaves

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may have been the biggest set of victims We know

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from bone evidence that at least one wealthy resident was

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buried along with four other men and as well as

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fifty three women who might have been poisoned or strangled

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all of them were buried together in this mound Other

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mounds contained similar burial sites Okay so maybe cahokia was

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a great place to visit but not always a great

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place to live But for hundreds of years it was

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a thriving city Then around the thirteenth century it was

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abandoned and no one ever moved back Archaeologists aren't sure

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what caused the people to abandon cahokia Lack of resource

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is disease war We may never find out perhaps only

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the mountains No for sure Then again maybe not You're 00:02:58.465 --> [endTime] disgusting

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