Anta Montet-White analyzes chipped stone tools from more than 30 Woodland and Hopewell sites in the Illinois Valley, including Steuben, Weaver, Havana, Klunk, and Snyders. Contains more than 65 drawings and photographs of various tools, including preforms, projectile points, celts, and hoes.
Archaeologists across the Midwest have pooled their data and perspectives to produce this indispensable volume on the Native cultures of the Late Woodland period (approximately A.D. 300?1000). Sandwiched between the well-known Hopewellian and Mississippian eras of monumental mound construction, theøLate Woodland period has received insufficient attention from archaeologists, who have frequently characterized it as consisting of relatively drab artifact assemblages. The close connections between this period and subsequent Mississippian and Fort Ancient societies, however, make it especially valuable for cross-cultural researchers. Understanding the cultural processes at work during the Late Woodland period will yield important clues about the long-term forces that stimulate and enhance social inequality. Late Woodland Societies is notable for its comprehensive geographic coverage; exhaustive presentation and discussion of sites, artifacts, and prehistoric cultural practices; and critical summaries of interpretive perspectives and trends in scholarship. The vast amount of information and theory brought together, examined, and synthesized by the contributors produces a detailed, coherent, and systematic picture of Late Woodland lifestyles across the Midwest. The Late Woodland can now be seen as a dynamic time in its own right and instrumental to the emergence of complex late prehistoric cultures across the Midwest and Southeast.
The archaeological focus on a single geographical area offers an opportunity to present projectile point typology as a microtechnology even though some of the types have widespread distributions. The area of the Middle Potomac River Valley presents a physical artefact collection for a view of prehistory. This volume, which includes several hundred images of the investigation, artefacts and archaeological research compiled and recorded from over 30 years of work in the area, includes: -an overview of the Middle Potomac River Valley archaeology including the peoples and sites; -new data and interpretations for the lithic technology of the area; and -classification and typology of artefacts including the usage of projectile point, axe, celt, drill, and knife implements. This work will be of great interest to prehistory archaeologists, especially those working in the Middle Atlantic region of the United States.
This newest addition to the American Bottom Archaeology series reports on the Dash Reeves site, an extensive Middle Woodland habitation site that represents a major floodplain village and locality for the production of stone tools. The village area consists of clusters of pits and a dense refuse heap containing hundreds of diagnostic Middle Woodlands artifacts: an extensive collection of lamellar blades and blade cores, projectile points, Hill Lake ceramics, a diversity of flake, blade, and core tools, and several exotic Hopewell-like pieces, including earspool and human figurine fragments. Inhabited between 150 A.D. and 300 A.D., during the Hill Lake phase, Dash Reeves appears to have been an important locus of interaction with peoples far to the south. The production of blades at Dash Reeves, especially those made of local colorful red and blue Ste. Genevieve cherts, possibly served as the focal point of a far-reaching blade-exchange system in the Midwest. America, the American Bottom Archaeology series documents the excavation of sites affected by the construction of Interstate Highway 270 on the Mississippi River floodplain in Illinois counties across the river from St. Louis. The series is cosponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Illinois Department of Transportation. Volumes on individual sites are supplemented by a summary volume on the FAI-270 Project's contribution to the culture history of the Mississippi River Valley.
The Prehistory of Missouri is a fascinating examination of the objects that were made, used, and discarded or lost by Missouri's prehistoric inhabitants over a period of more than eleven thousand years. Missouri's numerous vegetation zones and its diverse topography encompassed extreme variations, forcing prehistoric populations to seek a wide range of adaptations to the natural environment. As a result, Missouri's archaeological record is highly complex, and it has not been fully understood despite the vast amount of fieldwork that has been conducted within the state's borders. In this groundbreaking account, Michael J. O'Brien and W. Raymond Wood explore the array of artifacts that have been found in Missouri, pinpointing minute variations in form. They have documented the ranges in age and distribution of the individual forms, explaining why certain forms persisted while others quickly disappeared. Organized by chronological periods such as Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian, the book provides a comprehensive survey of what is currently known about Missouri's prehistoric peoples, often revealing how they made their living in an ever-changing world. The authors have applied rigorous standards of archaeological inquiry. Their main objective--demonstrating that the archaeological record of Missouri can be explained in scientific terms--is accomplished. With more than 235 line drawings and photographs, including 23 color photos, The Prehistory of Missouri will appeal to anyone interested in archaeology, particularly in the artifacts and the dates of their manufacture, as well as those interested in the dichotomy between interpretation and explanation. Intended for the amateur as well as the professional archaeologist, this book is sure to be the new standard reference on Missouri's prehistory, fulfilling current needs that extend beyond those met by Carl Chapman's earlier classic, The Archaeology of Missouri.
Fourteen experts examine the current state of Central Valley prehistoric research and provide an important touchstone for future archaeological study of the region The Mississippi Valley region has long played a critical role in the development of American archaeology and continues to be widely known for the major research of the early 1950s. To bring the archaeological record up to date, fourteen Central Valley experts address diverse topics including the distribution of artifacts across the landscape, internal configurations of large fortified settlements, human-bone chemistry, and ceramic technology. The authors demonstrate that much is to be learned from the rich and varied archaeological record of the region and that the methods and techniques used to study the record have changed dramatically over the past half century. Operating at the cutting edge of current research strategies, these archaeologists provide a fresh look at old problems in central Mississippi Valley research.
This volume reports on a series of multidisciplinary projects involving the Archaic period of the American Midwest. A period of innovation and technical achievement, the articles focus on changes in environmental, social, and economic factors operating in this period, and the adaptation of the hunter gatherer peoples living at this time.
"This religious, symbolic, social, and ecological interpretation of one of the most fascinating archaeological records of the prehistoric world of Native Americans cannot help but stimulate discussion and debate."--Jacket.
