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Large accumulations of ancient shells on coastlines and riverbanks were long considered the result of garbage disposal during repeated food gatherings by early inhabitants of the southeastern United States. In this volume, Asa R. Randall presents the first new theoretical framework for examining such middens since Ripley Bullen’s seminal work sixty years ago. He convincingly posits that these ancient “garbage dumps” were actually burial mounds, ceremonial gathering places, and often habitation spaces central to the histories and social geography of the hunter-gatherer societies who built them. Synthesizing more than 150 years of shell mound investigations and modern remote sensing data...
"Makes the case that the everyday should and does matter in archaeology. The content is fresh, the approaches are varied, and the case is convincing."--Adam King, editor of Archaeology in South Carolina: Exploring the Hidden Heritage of the Palmetto State Focusing on the daily concerns and routine events of people in the past, Investigating the Ordinary argues for a paradigm shift in the way southeastern archaeologists operate. Instead of dividing archaeological work by time periods or artifact types, the essays in this volume unite separate areas of research through the theme of the everyday. Ordinary activities studied here range from flint-knapping to ceremonial crafting, from subsistence to social gatherings, and from the Paleoindian period to the nineteenth century. Contributors demonstrate that attention to everyday life can help researchers avoid overemphasizing data and jargon and instead discover connections between the people of different eras. This approach will also inspire archaeologists with ways to engage the public with their work and with the deep history of the southeastern United States.
"A research tour de force that seamlessly melds archaeology, geology, ecology, environmental history, and a contemporary conservation ethic. Not only is this volume a must read for scholars interested in Florida’s past, but it is one that deserves to be read by anyone interested in Florida’s threatened environments."—T. R. Kidder, Director of the Washington University in St. Louis Geoarchaeology Lab "O'Donoughue writes thoughtfully and poetically about Florida’s geological history and long-term patterns of environmental change and cultural adaptation. A compelling case for the relevance of archaeology to current environmental concerns."—Christopher B. Rodning, coeditor of Fort San ...
These perspectives are applied to a broad range of archeological contexts stretching across the Southeast and spanning more than 7,000 years of the region's pre-Columbian history. New data suggest that several of this region's most pivotal historical developments, such as the founding of Cahokia, the transformation of Moundville from urban center to vacated necropolis, and the construction of Poverty Point's Mound A, were not protracted incremental processes, but rather watershed moments that significantly altered the long-term trajectories of indigenous Southeastern societies. In addition to exceptional occurrences that impacted entire communities or peoples, Southeastern archaeologists are increasingly recognizing the historical importance of localized, everyday events, such as building a house, crafting a pot, or depositing shell.
Presenting the most current research and thinking on prehistoric archaeology in the Southeast, this volume reexamines some of Florida’s most important Paleoindian sites and discusses emerging technologies and methods that are necessary knowledge for archaeologists working in the region today. Using new analytical methods, contributors explore fresh perspectives on sites including Old Vero, Guest Mammoth, Page-Ladson, and Ray Hole Spring. They discuss the role of hydrology—rivers, springs, and coastal plain drainages—in the history of Florida’s earliest inhabitants. They address both the research challenges and the unique preservation capacity of the state’s many underwater sites, suggesting solutions for analyzing corroded lithic artifacts and submerged midden deposits. Looking towards future research, archaeologists discuss strategies for finding additional pre-Clovis and Clovis-era sites offshore on the southeastern continental shelf. The search is important, these essays show, because Florida’s prehistoric sites hold critical data for the debate over the nature and timing of the first human colonization of the Western Hemisphere.
Broadening our understanding of southeastern hunter-gatherers who lived between 4600 and 3500 BP, Zackary Gilmore presents evidence that the Late Archaic community of Silver Glen--one of Florida’s most elaborate shell mound complexes--integrated people and places from throughout Florida by staging large-scale feasts and other public events. Gilmore analyzes the composition and style of pottery at the site, revealing that many of the large, elaborately decorated vessels from the shell mounds were imports with nonlocal origins. His findings indicate that the people of Silver Glen frequently hosted large-scale gatherings that helped to create a sense of community among culturally diverse groups with homelands separated by hundreds of kilometers. The history of Florida’s Late Archaic hunter-gatherers is shown here to be much more dynamic than traditionally thought.
The years AD 1500–1700 were a time of dramatic change for the indigenous inhabitants of southeastern North America, yet Native histories during this era have been difficult to reconstruct due to a scarcity of written records before the eighteenth century. Using archaeology to enhance our knowledge of the period, Contact, Colonialism, and Native Communities in the Southeastern United States presents new research on the ways Native societies responded to early contact with Europeans. Featuring sites from Kentucky to Mississippi to Florida, these case studies investigate how indigenous groups were affected by the expeditions of explorers such as Hernando de Soto, Pánfilo de Narváez, and Jua...
Founded primarily on town, church, and charter records, Wheeler's History of Stonington is a harmonious blend of history and genealogy. The work is divided into two main sections: the "History of Stonington" and the "Genealogical Register of Stonington Families." Commencing with a survey of the founders and early settlements, with a glance at the original town patents, the first section deals at length with the history of Stonington in the various wars and includes lists of officers and men developed from the most reliable sources. The genealogies in the second section generally begin with the immigrant ancestor and continue through six or seven generations in the direct line of descent, providing a progression of names and dates of birth and marriage, with incidental references to places of residence, land holdings, and probated estates. Even though the genealogies are arranged in alphabetical order by family name and therefore are easily accessible, all names cited therein are included in the index, which has more than 12,000 entries.
Essential overview of American Indian societies during the Archaic period across central North America.
This volume uses case studies to capture the recent emphasis on history in archaeological reconstructions of America’s deep past. Previously, archaeologists studying “prehistoric” America focused on long-term evolutionary change, imagining ancient societies like living organisms slowly adapting to environmental challenges. Contributors to this volume demonstrate how today’s researchers are incorporating a new awareness that the precolonial era was also shaped by people responding to historical trends and forces. Essays in this volume delve into sites across what is now the United States Southeast—the St. Johns River Valley, the Gulf Coast, Greater Cahokia, Fort Ancient, the souther...