From Tragedy to Triumph of the Commoners

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists tend to focus on the most visible sites and the elites and leaders who directed their construction, at the expense of understanding the lived experiences of the vast majority who built and supported them. While much of Tim Pauketat’s research centers on Cahokia, North America’s first and largest Indigenous city north of Mexico, he devoted a significant part of his career to researching those sites and people who left less visible marks on its history. Tim’s investigations in the Richland Complex and prodigious use of datasets derived from compliance archaeology broadened perspectives on what it meant to be Cahokian and the significant roles “commoners” played in founding and sustaining the city. Here we reflect on Tim’s influence on our explorations into Cahokian farmsteads and farming communities in the countryside and urban neighborhoods at Cahokia and East St. Louis. The results of this research have contributed to broader discussions of urbanization, community, foodways, and inequality far beyond Illinois.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50862