Of Caves and Shell Mounds - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817308059 ISBN 13: 9780817308056

Publisher: University Alabama Press, 1996

Synopsis

Ancient human groups in the Eastern Woodlands of North America were long viewed as homogeneous and stable hunter-gatherers, changing little until the late prehistoric period when Mesoamerican influences were thought to have stimulated important economic and social developments. The authors in this volume offer new, contrary evidence to dispute this earlier assumption, and their studies demonstrate the vigor and complexity of prehistoric peoples in the North American Midwest and Midsouth. These peoples gathered at favored places along midcontinental streams to harvest mussels and other wild foods and to inter their dead in the shell mounds that had resulted from their riverside activities. They created a highly successful, pre-maize agricultural system beginning more than 4,000 years ago, established far-flung trade networks, and explored and mined the world's longest cave—the Mammoth Cave System in Kentucky.
 

Contributors include:
Kenneth C. Carstens, Cheryl Ann Munson, Guy Prentice, Kenneth B. Tankersley, Philip J. DiBlasi, Mary C. Kennedy, Jan Marie Hemberger, Gail E. Wagner, Christine K. Hensley, Valerie A. Haskins, Nicholas P. Herrmann, Mary Lucas Powell, Cheryl Claassen, David H. Dye, and Patty Jo Watson
 

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Ancient human groups in the Eastern Woodlands of North America were long viewed as homogeneous and stable hunter-gathers, changing little until the late pre-historic period when Mesoamerican influences were thought to have stimulated important economic and social developments. The authors in this volume offer new contrary evidence to dispute this earlier assumption.

About the Author:

Kenneth C. Carstens is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Murray State University Anthropology Program and Archaeology Service Center. Patty Jo Watson is Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0817308059
• ISBN 13: 9780817308056
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232
• Editor: Carstens Kenneth C., Watson Professor Patty Jo