If the leader of Cahokia — whatever title or specific role that person held — was able to stand at the center of Woodhenge on the morning of the spring equinox and see the sun rise precisely over the designated post, that demonstration was not merely an astronomical observation.

It was a statement of authority: a claim that the ruler was connected to the movements of the sun in ways that ordinary people were not, that the community’s relationship to the cosmos was mediated through its leadership.

This kind of ideological use of astronomical knowledge is documented in many cultures around the world, and the evidence from Cahokia suggests it was part of how the city’s political and religious hierarchy maintained and communicated its authority.

The Copper and the Shell: Art of a Continent