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This meticulously researched reference work documents the role of women who contributed to the development of Americanist archaeology from 1865 to 1940. Between the Civil War and World War II, many women went into anthropology and archaeology, fields that, at the beginning of this period, welcomed and made room for amateurs of both genders. But over time, the increasingly professional structure of these fields diminished or even obscured the contributions of women due to their lack of access to prestigious academic employment and publishing opportunities. As a result, a woman archaeologist during this period often published her research under her husband's name or as a junior author with her...
In August 1753, four colonists and their boat crew set out on a potentially dangerous passage of "discovery and observations" along Georgia's barrier islands from Savannah southward as far as the St. Johns River in Spanish-held Florida. Journal of a Visit to the Georgia Islands is a record of that trip, and although unsigned, internal evidence points directly to prominent Georgia entrepreneur Jonathan Bryan (1708-1788) as the author. His companions were the famous cartographer William G. De Brahm and South Carolina planters William Simmons and John Williamson. Traveling by day, hunting for food and camping on shore at night, the brave little band endured a battering by stormy seas and undoub...
Robert Stafford of Cumberland Island offers a rare glimpse into the life and times of a nineteenth-century planter on one of Georgia's Sea Islands. Born poor, Robert Stafford (1790-1877) became the leading planter on his native Cumberland Island. Specializing in the highly valued long staple variety of cotton, he claimed among his assets more than 8,000 acres and 350 slaves. Mary R. Bullard recounts Stafford's life in the context of how events from the Federalist period to the Civil War to Reconstruction affected Sea Island planters. As she discusses Stafford's associations with other planters, his business dealings (which included banking and railroad investments), and the day-to-day operat...
Final report of the 1970-1974 research conducted in the Salama Valley, Baja Verapaz, and adjacent areas of the highlands of Guatemala. The volume presents the results of the first comprehensive study of northern highland preclassic occupation and cultural development in light of the question of highland-lowland interaction and its role in the growth of Maya civilization.
Stone temples rising above the rainforest canopy and elaborate hieroglyphs carved onto stone monuments give silent testimony to the high culture of the Maya ancestors of the indigenous peoples of Central America. They have inspired generations of archaeologists, professional and avocational, to take to the field in search of the past. One such archaeologist is Heather McKillop, who in 1979 first visited the coast of Belize in search of a little-known aspect of ancient Maya life: the sea trade that helped move salt, obsidian, coral, and other goods around the interior of the empire. In 1982, she began bringing volunteers and students to the islands off the coast of Port Honduras, Belize. Sinc...
Presents a biography of the archeologist and artist, covering her archeological expeditions to study the Mayas.
The white-tailed deer had a prominent status in Maya civilization; it was the most important wild-animal food source at many inland Maya sites and also functioned as a major ceremonial symbol. Offering an in-depth semantic analysis of this imagery, The Beast Between considers iconography, hieroglyphic texts, mythological discourses, and ritual narratives to translate the significance and meaning of the vibrant metaphors expressed in a variety of artifacts depicting deer and hunting. Charting the progression of deer as a key component of the Maya diet, especially for elites, to the coupling of deer and maize in the Maya worldview, The Beast Between reveals a close and long-term interdependence. Not only are deer depicted naturalistically in hunting and ritual scenes, but they are also ascribed with human attributes. This rich imagery reflects the many ways in which deer hunting was linked to status, sexuality, and war as part of a deeper process to ensure the regeneration of both agriculture and ancestry. Drawing on methodologies of art history, archaeology, and ethnology, this illuminating work is poised to become a key resource for multiple fields.
For centuries scholars have pondered and speculated over the uses of the chipped stone implements uncovered at archaeological sites. Recently a number of researchers have attempted to determine prehistoric tool function through experimentation and through observation of the few remaining human groups who still retain this knowledge. Learning how stone tools were made and used in the past can tell us a great deal about ancient economic systems, exchange networks, and the social and political structure of prehistoric societies. Suzanne M. Lewenstein used the artifacts from Cerros, an important Late Preclassic (200 BC–AD 200) Mayan site in northern Belize, to study stone tool function. Throug...