Research into a millennium of Native American architecture in the SoutheastSome of the most visible expressions of human culture are illustrated architecturally. Unfortunately for archaeologists, the architecture being studied is not always visible and must be inferred from soil inconsistencies or charred remains. This study deals with research into roughly a millennium of Native American architecture in the Southeast and includes research on the variation...

Fourteen experts examine the current state of Central Valley prehistoric research and provide an important touchstone for future archaeological study of the regionThe 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 distribut...

Excavation is traditionally considered the heart of the archaeological enterprise. But it is an activity transformed over the past two decades of increasingly contract-based work. Carmichael and Lafferty lay out the basics of this brand of excavation for the novice reader in this handy, practical guide. After outlining the ethical concerns in archaeological excavation and the history of the endeavor, the authors walk the reader through the steps of contemporary excavation-site identificati...

Designing Experimental Research in Archaeology is a guide for the design of archaeological experiments for both students and scholars. Experimental archaeology provides a unique opportunity to corroborate conclusions with multiple trials of repeatable experiments and can provide data otherwise unavailable to archaeologists without damaging sites, remains, or artifacts.Each chapter addresses a particular classification of material culture-ceramics, stone tools, perishable m...

Field Methods in Archaeology has been the leading source for instructors and students in archaeology courses and field schools for 60 years since it was first authored in 1949 by the legendary Robert Heizer. Left Coast has arranged to put the most recent Seventh Edition back into print after a brief hiatus, making this classic textbook again available to the next generation of archaeology students. This comprehensive guide provides an authoritative overview of the variety of methods used i...

What did New York look like four centuries ago? An extraordinary reconstruction of a wild island from the forests of Times Square to the wetlands downtown.Named a Best Book of the Year by Library Journal , New York Magazine , and San Francisco ChronicleOn September 12, 1609, Henry Hudson first set foot on the land that would become Manhattan. Today, it's difficult to imagine what he saw, but for more than a decade, landscape ecolo...

Flintknapping is an ancient craft enjoying a resurgence of interest among both amateur and professional students of prehistoric cultures. John C. Whitaker's bestselling guide is a detailed handbook on flintknapping, written from the archaeological perspective of interpreting stone tools as well as making them.Flintknapping contains detailed, practical information on making stone tools. Whittaker starts at the beginner level and progresses to discussion of a wide range of t...

In this major, highly illustrated, new study Tim Perttula explores the cultural and social landscape of the Caddo Indian peoples (hayaanuh) for about 1000 years between c. 900 and 1900 AD. There were continual changes in the character and extent of ancestral landscapes, through times of plenty, risk, and hardship, as well as in relationships between different communities of Caddo peoples dispersed or concentrated across the landscape at different points in time. These ancestral peoples, in...

A "superbly written, richly illustrated" guide to the animals who lived 450 million years ago—in the fossil-rich area where Cincinnati, Ohio now stands ( Rocks & Minerals).The region around Cincinnati, Ohio, is known throughout the world for the abundant and beautiful fossils found in limestones and shales that were deposited as sediments on the sea floor during the Ordovician Period, about 450 million years ago—some 250 million years before the dinosaurs l...

Just a week after the Kristallnacht terror in 1938, young Luzie Hatch, a German Jew, fled Berlin to resettle in New York. Her rescuer was an American-born cousin and industrialist, Arnold Hatch. Arnold spoke no German, so Luzie quickly became translator, intermediary, and advocate for family left behind. Soon an unending stream of desperate requests from German relatives made their way to Arnold’s desk.   Luzie Hatch had faithfully preserved her letters both to and from far-flung...

Procedures by which archaeological stone tools have been analyzed have tradition ally operated on an apprenticeship model, whereby a novice acquires competency at the elbow of a grizzled but revered expert in the field. After shuffling through literally thousands of stones and asking hundreds of questions, the neophite even tually reaches a level at which he or she can fly solo, requiring less and less attention from the Master. While this pedagogical model has been frequently tried and te...

The Native American tribes of what is now the Southeastern United States left intriguing relics of their ancient cultural life. Arrowheads, spearpoints, stone tools, and other artifacts are found in newly plowed fields, on hillsides after a fresh rain, or in washed-out creekbeds. These are tangible clues to the anthropology of the Paleo-Indians, and the highly developed Mississippian peoples.This indispensable guide to identifying and understanding such finds is for conscientious a...