Whatever form that system took — whether it was a chiefdom in the anthropological sense, a theocratic state, a network of competing elite lineages, or some other form — it was a system that expressed and enforced hierarchy through the physical organization of the urban landscape.

The mounds placed the residences and ritual spaces of the elite visibly above those of everyone else.

The palisade separated the inner core from the outer city.

These were not accidental features.

They were built into the landscape deliberately, as expressions of a social order that required physical anchoring.

The Role of Women in Cahokia’s Society

Archaeological evidence for the roles and status of women in Mississippian society generally, and at Cahokia specifically, has been an area of growing scholarly attention in recent decades, as the field has moved away from interpretations focused primarily on the activities of elite men toward a more comprehensive understanding of the full social structure.

The Mound 72 burial assemblage, which has already been discussed in terms of the beaded burial and the associated sacrificial burials, also contains evidence relevant to women’s roles.