Prehistoric Panopticon: Settlement Visibility at Ancient Cahokia Mounds

Author:

Pierce Daniel E.1ORCID,Matisziw Timothy C.1

Affiliation:

1. University of Missouri–Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA

Abstract

Throughout time, cultures have manipulated the landscape for a variety of reasons, including the promotion of social control. One approach to facilitating this control is through omnipresent surveillance, known as a Panopticon design. Though the Panopticon is more commonly associated with structural design in industrial societies, the large earthen mounds constructed by prehistoric civilizations could have also played a role in maintaining social order. To explore the applicability of the Panopticon concept in a prehistoric context, visibility of the largest manmade earthen mound in the New World, Monks Mound, was modeled in a geographic information system. Results indicate that the terraces on the mound and the powerful individuals residing there would have been visible to most of the population, even when accounting for subsequent landscape modifications. This level of visibility would have projected an omnipresent threat of surveillance, possibly facilitating social order and cohesion among such a large population.

Funder

National Science Foundation

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management,Urban Studies,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous),Geography, Planning and Development,Cultural Studies

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