The city of Decatur, Georgia, was founded in 1823. The place of Decatur has existed for several billion years. Unlike other history books that tell the story of a town beginning with its founding, Native Decatur tells the story of how the place came to be. The story begins over a billion years ago with the creation of the current landscape and explains each era of natural and cultural history as a saga of evolution, tragedy, violence, wonder and hope that led to the settlement of the city. The narrative is supported by more than 75 illustrations, photos, historical maps and exhibits. Today's points of interest and remnants of the past are then specifically identified and explained so that you can visit and appreciate them today.
The Ultimate Guide to Indian Arrowheads! Long considered the Bible of arrowhead collecting, The Official Overstreet Indian Arrowheads Identification and Price Guide is an encyclopedic guide to projectile points found in the contiguous United States, as well as Alaska. Featuring more than 12,000 images of points from 10 distinct geographical regions, readers gain an understanding of arrowhead types, manufacturing, grading, materials and values. A substantial and massive reference unmatched in the marketplace, The Official Overstreet Indian Arrowheads Identification and Price Guide is the most respected book on the subject. • Hands-on reference to everything arrowheads all in one book: arrowhead types, manufacturing, grading materials, values • 12,000 actual size photographs covering hundreds of point types • Special sections on how to grade, identify and catalog your points • Covers arrowheads found from throughout the United States including Alaska
Old Atlanta may conjure images of southern belles and Civil War ruination, but the full story stretches back millennia, even before the first known residents arrived five thousand years ago. From centuries of Native American settlements that ended with the removal of the Creeks to the rough-and-ready pioneer days, the area was rich in history long before it was called Atlanta. Author Mark Pifer unfolds a complex saga, including forgotten details from the struggles of African Americans and new immigrants, while noting modern locations bursting with tales that predate the City in the Forest's rise amid the treetops.
"Southern Footprints celebrates the more than fifty years of research projects carried out by University of South Alabama archaeologists and students as well as staff at the Center for Archaeological Studies in Mobile. Their dynamic work has been public facing through programs and exhibits curated at the University of South Alabama Archaeology Museum. Archaeologists Gregory A. Waselkov, former director of the Center, and Philip J. Carr, current director of the Center, present the "greatest hits" that have transformed knowledge of human history on the Alabama and Mississippi Gulf Coast from the Ice Age until recently. Of the hundreds of archaeological sites, premiere historic sites, such as Old Mobile and Holy Ground, are now archaeological preserves. Essays are arranged chronologically overall and survey the history and archaeology of a wide range of significant sites such as the Gulf Shores canoe canal, Bottle Creek Mounds, Old Mobile, Fort Mims, Spanish Fort, Spring Hill College, and Mobile River Bridge. Waselkov and Carr take care to acknowledge in these stories populations who are typically underdocumented and recognize the contributions of Native Americans and African Americans as uncovered through archaeology. While documenting all material culture and places that have been saved and preserved, they also note the dire impacts of climate change, environmental disasters, development, and neglect and share their urgency to protect these areas of shared history. Copious color photographs showcase the archaeology as it unfolded, often with the help of dedicated volunteers. Southern Footprints will serve as an indispensable reference on the rich Gulf heritage for all to appreciate"--
Synthesizes the archaeology of the Apalachicola-lower Chattahoochee Valley region of northwest Florida, southeast Alabama, and southwest Georgia, from 1,300 years ago to recent times
"Apalachicola Valley Archaeology is a major holistic synthesis of the archaeological record and what is known or speculated about the ancient Apalachicola and lower Chattahoochee Valley region of northwest Florida, southeast Alabama, and southwest Georgia. Volume 1 coverage spans from the time of the first human settlement, around 14,000 years ago, to the Middle Woodland period, ending about AD 700. Author Nancy Marie White had devoted her career to this archaeologically neglected region, and she notes that it is environmentally and culturally different from better-known regions nearby. Early chapters relate the individual ecosystems and the types of typical and unusual material culture, including stone, ceramic, bone, shell, soils, and plants. Other chapters are devoted to the archaeological Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland periods. Topics include migration/settlement, sites, artifacts and material culture, subsistence and lifeways, culture and society, economics, warfare, and rituals. White's prodigious work reveals that Paleoindian habitation was more extensive than once assumed. Archaic sites were widespread, and those societies persisted through the first global warming when the Ice Age ended. Besides new stone technologies, pottery appeared in the Late Archaic period. Extensive inland and coastal settlement is documented. Development of elaborate religious or ritual systems is suggested by Early Woodland times when the first burial mounds appear. Succeeding Middle Woodland societies expanded this mortuary ceremony in about forty mounds. In the Middle Woodland, the complex pottery of the concurrent Swift Creek and the early Weeden Island ceramic series as well as the imported exotic objects show an increased fascination with the ornate and unusual. Native American lifeways continued with gathering-fishing-hunting subsistence systems similar to those of their ancestors. The usefulness of the information to modern society to understand human impacts on environments and vice versa caps the volume"--
