Cahokia

Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi

By: Timothy Pauketat

Narrated by: George Wilson

Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Professor Timothy R. Pauketat illuminates the riveting discovery of the largest pre-Columbian city on U.S. soil. Once a flourishing metropolis of 20,000 people in 1050, Cahokia had rotted away by 1400. Its earthen mounds near modern-day St. Louis reveal “woodhenges” and evidence of large-scale human sacrifice.

©2009 Timothy R. Pauketat (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

probably better in hard copy

Slow starting, but once you get beyond the introductory chapters that basically are a rehash, newer archaeological evidence (very late 20th century) is included about this site plus a guess at Cahokia's longer term influence. This is one of the rare audible books where I suffered through the reading. It was plodding and based on its phrasing, sounded like the author was not familiar with the contents in advance. If the hard copy contains illustrations and maps, definitely that would be the way to go on this one.

Dry and tedious

Narration is very dry and flat as is the content. I love anything historical and have listened to many audio books and great courses. The author repeats the same details and descriptions over and over without providing any new information or insight.

Ancient North American Civilization

Timothy Pauketat is a professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Illinois, and is one of the leading experts on the ancient metropolis of Cahokia. This is the quintessential guide to understanding the rise and fall of the ostensible capital city of the Mississippian Empire. Professor Pauketat describes the culture and history of the city from what archaeological research has been able to discern. As of this review, no Mississippian writing system has been discovered. Thus, not much is known concretely except what can be traced backward from modern Anthropological study, Study of historical text from European contact, and Archaeological discovery. Though this book was published in 2009 and their have been discoveries that shed new light on what we know, Professor Pauketat has laid a firm foundation with which to engage in Ancient North American Civilization scholarship.

short

The book was bit short but overall illuminating. The author essentially has to focus on a select few findings but does well in expounding these to the fullest.

Cahokia Review

This book has a high level of complexity and did not really have a natural flow to the storyline. If you are a high school student, like myself, I only recommend reading if necessary. I think this book is more suited for history majors.