Native American city that rivalled medieval London
Archaeology reveals that a millennium ago, North America was home to thriving urban centres as large and sophisticated as those of medieval Europe. But how and why did these rise, flourish and decline?
James Osborne
Published: November 29, 2025 at 11:20 AM
A thousand years ago, the land that is now the United States looked very different from the version many might imagine. Instead of a sparsely populated wilderness dotted with small villages, much of North America was home to dense agricultural regions and large urban centres, with cities as complex and politically powerful as those of medieval Europe.
This picture has long been obscured by the absence of preserved stone ruins, and has created an inaccurate perception of what the Native Nations of the United States looked like a millennium ago. But, thanks to the work of archaeology, anthropology and Indigenous oral history, the reality is gradually emerging.
Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, historian Kathleen DuVal, author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, explains that the centuries around AD 1000 marked “the height of urbanisation in Native North America.”
These places weren’t anomalies. They sat at the heart of political systems, trade routes and agricultural networks that shaped life across the continent.
So why, when Europeans arrived centuries later, had these cities vanished?
More:
https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/native-american-city-cahokia-rivalled-london/