Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida

Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida

Author: Jerald T. Milanich

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2018-02-26

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1947372718

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The books in the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series demonstrate the University Press of Florida’s long history of publishing Latin American and Caribbean studies titles that connect in and through Florida, highlighting the connections between the Sunshine State and its neighboring islands. Books in this series show how early explorers found and settled Florida and the Caribbean. They tell the tales of early pioneers, both foreign and domestic. They examine topics critical to the area such as travel, migration, economic opportunity, and tourism. They look at the growth of Florida and the Caribbean and the attendant pressures on the environment, culture, urban development, and the movement of peoples, both forced and voluntary. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series gathers the rich data available in these architectural, archaeological, cultural, and historical works, as well as the travelogues and naturalists’ sketches of the area in prior to the twentieth century, making it accessible for scholars and the general public alike. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program.


New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida

New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida

Author: Neill J. Wallis

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2014-04-29

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0813048974

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Given its pivotal location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, its numerous islands, its abundant flora and fauna, and its subtropical climate, Florida has long been ideal for human habitation. Yet Florida traditionally has been considered peripheral in the study of ancient cultures in North America, despite what it can reveal about social and climate change. The essays in this book resoundingly argue that Florida is in fact a crucial hub of archaeological inquiry. New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida represents the next wave of southeastern archaeology. Contributors use new data to challenge well-worn models of environmental determinism and localized social contact. Indeed, this volume makes a case for considerable interaction and exchange among Native Floridians and the greater Southeastern United States as seen by the variety of objects of distant origin and mound-building traditions that incorporated extraregional concepts. Themes of monumentality, human alterations of landscapes, the natural environment, ritual and mortuary practices, and coastal adaptations demonstrate the diversity, empirical richness, and broader anthropological significance of Florida’s aboriginal past.


Revisiting Mckeithen Weeden Island

Revisiting Mckeithen Weeden Island

Author: Prudence M. Rice

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2023-12-12

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 0817361146

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Reassesses the ancient Indigenous McKeithen site in northern Florida in light of new data, analyses, and theories Revisiting McKeithen Weeden Island further illuminates an Indigenous Late Woodland (ca. AD 200-900) mound-and-village community in northern Florida that was first excavated in the late 1970s. Since then, some artifacts received additional analyses, and the topic of prechiefdom societies has been broadly reconsidered in anthropology and archaeology. These developments allow new perspectives on McKeithen's history and significance. Prudence M. Rice, a Mayanist who began her career at the University of Florida, revisits what is known about McKeithen and recontextualizes the 1970s excavations. Weeden Island and McKeithen are best known through mortuary mounds and mortuary ritual, mainly involving unusual pottery bird effigies. Rice discusses current theoretical trends in studies of ritual and belief systems and their relation to mound-building at McKeithen in early stages of developing societal complexity. Revisiting McKeithen Weeden Island serves as a masterful example of an esteemed archaeologist advancing the field through rethought and updated interpretations of the site and its significance, primarily through its pottery. Rice's case study ultimately also fosters understanding of later Mississippian society and other civilizations around the world at this time period. Archaeologists, anthropologists, and social historians as well as students and avocational readers will welcome Rice's insight.


HISTORIES OF MAIZE

HISTORIES OF MAIZE

Author: John Staller

Publisher: Left Coast Press

Published: 2006-05-15

Total Pages: 706

ISBN-13: 1598744623

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Histories of Maize is the most comprehensive reference source on the botanical, genetic, archaeological, and anthropological aspects of ancient maize published to date.


The People of the Great Circle

The People of the Great Circle

Author: Ted Ehmann

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-12-03

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1683340531

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The European explorers were the first to find the evidence of earlier civilizations who built monumental earthwork mounds, ceremonial complexes and cities in the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. Speculations went wild about who built these incredible centers. This fascination over the mysterious mound building cultures continues to this very day.


Black Drink

Black Drink

Author: Charles M. Hudson

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0820326968

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Until its use declined in the nineteenth century, Indians of the southeastern United States were devoted to a caffeinated beverage commonly known as black drink. Brewed from the parched leaves of the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria), black drink was used socially and ceremonially. In certain ritual purification rites, Indians would regurgitate after drinking the tea. This study details botanical, clinical, spiritual, historical, and material aspects of black drink, including its importance not only to Native Americans, but also to many of their European-American contemporaries.


Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast

Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast

Author: John A. Walthall

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1990-01-30

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0817305521

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This book deals with the prehistory of the region encompassed by the present state of Alabama and spans a period of some 11,000 years—from 9000 B.C. and the earliest documented appearance of human beings in the area to A.D. 1750, when the early European settlements were well established. Only within the last five decades have remains of these prehistoric peoples been scientifically investigated. This volume is the product of intensive archaeological investigations in Alabama by scores of amateur and professional researchers. It represents no end product but rather is an initial step in our ongoing study of Alabama's prehistoric past. The extent of current industrial development and highway construction within Alabama and the damming of more and more rivers and streams underscore the necessity that an unprecedented effort be made to preserve the traces of prehistoric human beings that are destroyed every day by our own progress.


The Woodland Southeast

The Woodland Southeast

Author: David G. Anderson

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2002-05-10

Total Pages: 697

ISBN-13: 0817311378

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This collection presents, for the first time, a much-needed synthesis of the major research themes and findings that characterize the Woodland Period in the southeastern United States. The Woodland Period (ca. 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1000) has been the subject of a great deal of archaeological research over the past 25 years. Researchers have learned that in this approximately 2000-year era the peoples of the Southeast experienced increasing sedentism, population growth, and organizational complexity. At the beginning of the period, people are assumed to have been living in small groups, loosely bound by collective burial rituals. But by the first millennium A.D., some parts of the region had densely packed civic ceremonial centers ruled by hereditary elites. Maize was now the primary food crop. Perhaps most importantly, the ancient animal-focused and hunting-based religion and cosmology were being replaced by solar and warfare iconography, consistent with societies dependent on agriculture, and whose elites were increasingly in competition with one another. This volume synthesizes the research on what happened during this era and how these changes came about while analyzing the period's archaeological record. In gathering the latest research available on the Woodland Period, the editors have included contributions from the full range of specialists working in the field, highlighted major themes, and directed readers to the proper primary sources. Of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, both professional and amateur, this will be a valuable reference work essential to understanding the Woodland Period in the Southeast.