Stumped: An Examination of Cahokia's Wood-Overexploitation Hypothesis

This study analyzed wood use in Cahokia to determine if average post mold diameter and structure feature area supported the Wood-Overexploitation Hypothesis. The hypothesis suggests that Indigenous Mississippian Period inhabitants of the American Bottom overexploited the local environmental resources, resulting in changed uses of wood. Statistical testing was used to analyze how these two elements (post mold diameter and structure feature area) significantly changed across the Woodland and Mississippian Periods. The study revealed a spike in post mold diameters in the Emergent Mississippian Period, followed by post mold diameters from the Middle and Late Mississippian Periods decreasing and reverting back to the preferenced size of post mold diameter seen in the Late Woodland Period (~9 to 10 cm). While these changes in post mold diameters across time would support the Wood-Overexploitation Hypothesis, this paired with the increase in structure feature area from the Woodland into Mississippian Periods suggest evidence of wood use does not support this hypothesis. Together, the two elements suggest the inhabitants of the American Bottom were learning to construct structures larger than previously seen, and these large structure construction techniques improved after the Emergent Mississippian Period.