[jbattle]

To be fair, Cahokia was (if I remember right) the only large city for literally 1000 miles. If anything that impresses me all the more - these people may have spontaneously invented the idea of urbanism. I believe there were widespread trade networks, I'm not clear how many ideas were transmitted from mesoamerica to the mississippian culture

[brandmeyer]

Also, Cahokia was abandoned hundreds of years prior to European contact.