11/18/2025
Cahokia Archaeological Society meeting and presentation, Thursday, Nov, 20. Business meeting at 5:30, presentation (below) at 6:30, live and on FacebookLive.
Title: Cahokian Agriculture and the Sleeping Crops of Eastern North America, by Christina Youngpeter, PhD Candidate at Washington University, St. Louis, and first recipient of a CAS scholarship for her research.
Abstract: Cahokians (1050-1400 C.E.) practiced intensive agriculture with a biodiverse suite of crops, a subset of which are called the sleeping crops (previously lost crops). Cahokian agricultural management practices have been discussed in other studies based on data from ethnographic sources and intensive paleoethnobotanical analyses. Previous growth experiments have been undertaken with these plants, but none have directly considered the effects of varying water availability. To directly investigate the agricultural management practices of Cahokians, I am conducting a pilot study by growing goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri), a sleeping crop, under controlled greenhouse settings and studying the effects of water availability upon the plants. Impending work will demonstrate the effect of water availability upon plant yield and stable isotope values. This work sets the stage for investigations during my dissertation research of goosefoot’s sister crops, including sumpweed (Iva annua), erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum), little barley (Hordeum pusillum), and maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana). This study establishes the relationship between stable isotope values and water availability, giving meaning to the testing of archaeological stable isotope values, especially in times of past climate change. These data will better inform future paleoethnobotanical studies of Cahokians’ agricultural management of the sleeping crops.
Short Bio: Christina is a trained paleoethnobotanist researching ancient agricultural practices in eastern North America. Before coming to WashU for graduate school, she graduated with her B.A. from the University of Cincinnati, then spent some time working in public archaeology and CRM, all of which have shaped her approach to her work. Her M.A. was completed in 2024 at WashU. For her dissertation, Christina is conducting growth experiments, paleoethnobotanical analyses, and isotopic research with the sleeping crops of the Eastern Agricultural Complex. This work is focusing on the region surrounding Cahokia, eastern North America’s first Indigenous city. Christina is interested in the effects, if any, that a changing climate may have had on the agricultural practices of the city’s farmers. She hopes that, while shedding light on the past, this work will be helpful for reawakening a sleeping food system in partnership with the Indigenous communities whose ancestors first worked with these crops.
