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Outgrowth of a symposium at the 2006 Society for American Archaeology meetings in San Juan, and of a seminar at the Amerind Foundation. Cf. pref.
Consisting of 18 earthen mounds and numerous additional habitation areas dating to A.D. 12501550, the Bottle Creek site was first professionally investigated in 1932 when David L. DeJarnette of the Alabama Museum of Natural History began work there to determine if the site had a cultural reipconnected to the north by a river system. This volume builds on earlier investigations to present extensive recent data from major excavations conducted from 1991 to 1994 and supported in part by an NEH grant. Ten anthropologists examine various aspects of the site, including mound architecture, prehistoric diet, pottery classification, vessel forms, textiles used to make pottery impressions, a microlithic stone tool industry, water travel, the persistence of mound use into historic times, and the position of Bottle Creek in the protohistoric world.
Loren's In Contact offers a fascinating synthesis of current knowledge of the contact period between Europeans and Native peoples in the American Eastern woodlands.
Writing the history of American archaeology, especially concerning eighteenth- and nineteenth-century arguments, is not always as straightforward as it might seem. Archaeology’s trajectory from an avocation to a semi-profession to a specialized profession, rather than being a linear progression, was an untidy organic process that emerged from the intellectual tradition of antiquarianism. It then closely allied itself with the natural sciences throughout the nineteenth century, especially with geology and the debate about the origins and identity of the indigenous mound-building cultures of the eastern United States. In his reexamination of the eclectic interests and equally varied settings...
Within the general structure-and-process theme of this compendium, the authors have focused on either intrasite problems (those dealing with the formation and structure of a site, type of site, or type of feature) or intersite problems (those dealing with behavioral organization and process as developed from comparative site data). These papers, from a broad range of specialists, present a comprehensive study of southeastern archaeology.
The study of ancient architecture reveals much about the social constructs and culture of the architects, builders, and inhabitants of the structures, but few studies bridge the gap between architecture and archaeology. This comprehensive examination of sites in the Ohio Valley, going as far north as Ontario, integrates structural engineering and wood science technology into the toolkit of archaeologists. Presenting the most current research on structures from pre-European contact, Building the Past allows archaeologists to expand their interpretations from simply describing postmold patterns to more fully envisioning the complex architecture of critical locations like Hopewell, Moorehead Circle, and Brown’s Bottom.
Anthropologists have long been fascinated with the Seminoles and have often remarked upon their ability to adapt to new circumstances while preserving the core features of their traditional culture. This study traces the emergence of these qualities in the late prehistoric and early historic period in the Southeast and demonstrates their influence on the course of Seminole culture history.
Isle Royale and the counties that line the northwest coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula are called Copper Country because of the rich deposits of native copper there. In the nineteenth century, explorers and miners discovered evidence of prehistoric copper mining in this region. They used those "ancient diggings" as a guide to establishing their own, much larger mines, and in the process, destroyed the archaeological record left by the prehistoric miners. Using mining reports, newspaper accounts, personal letters, and other sources, this book reconstructs what these nineteenth-century discoverers found, how they interpreted the material remains of prehistoric activity, and what they did wit...
In 1879 Edwin Curtiss set out for the St. Francis River region of Arkansas. By the time Curtiss completed his 56 days of fieldwork, he had sent nearly 1,000 pottery vessels to the Peabody Museum. House brings us a lively account of the work of the 19th-century fieldworker, the Native culture he explored, and the rich legacies left by both.
Studies in Archeology: Mississippian Settlement Patterns explains the cultural organization of many of the prehistoric societies in the Eastern United States during the last 1000 years of their existence. This book emphasizes the difference between the central core of Mississippian societies and those peripheral societies that preceded its development. Readers are advised to begin the examination of this compilation by reading Chapter 16 first, followed by Chapters 8 to 13 and 15, in order to understand the variations of patterning among societies that are commonly regarded as nascent or developed Mississippian. The rest of the chapters analyze cultural groups on the West, North, and Northeast that are not Mississippian societies, including a discussion of late prehistoric societies that are in some ways divergent but are sometimes regarded as Mississippian. This publication is valuable to archeologists, historians, and researchers conducting work on Mississippian societies.