The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

by David Graeber

In the centuries following the decline of the Hopewell centres, roughly from AD 400 to 800, we start to see a series of familiar developments. First, some groups begin adopting maize as a staple crop and growing it in river valleys along the Mississippi floodplain. Second, actual armed conflict becomes more frequent. In at least some places, this led to populations living for longer periods around their local earthworks. Especially in the Mississippi valley and on adjacent bluffs, a pattern emerged of small towns centred on earthen pyramids and plazas, some fortified, often surrounded by extensive stretches of no-man’s-land. A few came to resemble tiny kingdoms. Eventually this situation led to a veritable urban explosion with its epicentre at the site of Cahokia, which was soon to become the greatest city in the Americas north of Mexico. Cahokia lies in an extensive floodplain along the Mississippi known as the American Bottom.