This was a multicomponent site that included a 13th century Mississippian charnel house and cemetery and a catastrophically-buried Early Woodland component. The total excavation this cemetery provided additional information on 13th century Mississippian burial practices, health and social organization. The Early Woodland occupation contained extensive midden deposits as well as hearths and pits. These cultural features, along with the grog-tempered ceramics and contracting stem points, formed the basis for the definition of the Florence phase (300-500 B.C.). This phase has its closest connections to contemporaneous cultures in the Mid-south.

Florence Street (11-S-758) Site: Early Woodland and Mississippian Occupations. Vol. 2 (American Bottom Archaeology)

Politics & Social Sciences

Milner, George R.

Emerson, Thomas E.

Jackson, Douglas K

Archaeology

Illinois Transportation

The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America (Ancient Peoples and Places)

Between 3000 BC and the 16th century Native Americans built thousands of mounds, of all shapes and sizes and for a multitude of reasons, in the Eastern Woodlands. One of these, Cahokia by the Mississippi, is the largest prehistoric site in the United States. This interesting well-illustrated study looks back over a century of fascination with these mounds, many of which have now disappeared but have been preserved in old photographs. The focus, however, is on the cultures that built the mounds as burial mounds for thousands of bodies, often sacrificial victims, as platforms or as mounds of refuse built up over millennia, such as the large mound of nothing but shell that was discovered in Florida. Milner looks at how the changing environment and landscape affected populations as well as the movement towards sedentary life and the growth of villages. He also considers the many beautiful objects that have been found in the mounds, from fragile shell carvings to copper animals. Throughout, the study draws on recent archaeological evidence.

History

Americas

Thames and Hudson

Nineteenth-century explorers of the American continent were amazed to find great monuments built of earth in the Eastern Woodlands.
Thousands of these mounds were discovered in the plains and forestssome up to a hundred feet high, some overgrown hillocks, some conical, others flat-topped. Speculation was rife as to the identity of the moundbuilders.
As George Milner shows, research over the past century demonstrates conclusively that Native Americans built these mounds. In a period ranging from 3000 BC to the sixteenth century AD, North American Indians quarried tons of earth to form the monuments, which vary widely in location, size, and purpose. Some contained thousands of burials, others served as platforms for chiefs' residences, and many were low-lying "effigy" mounds in the form of serpents, panthers, and other sacred beasts. Moundbuilding was a key element in society―how people worshiped gods, buried the dead, remembered their ancestors, and respected their leaders―and many beautiful objects have been found inside the mounds, including artifacts of shell, copper, and mica.
The Moundbuilders covers the entire sweep of Eastern Woodlands prehistory, with an emphasis on how societies developed from hunter-gatherers to village farmers and town-dwellers. Great strides have been made in recent research, and many of the most impressive mounds, such as Poverty Point, Cahokia, and Moundville, are described and discussed in detail. This wide-ranging and copiously illustrated book, complete with information on dozens of sites to visit, is the perfect guide to the region for tourists, archaeologists, and students. 153 illustrations, 20 in color

Thames&Hudson

Hailed by Bruce D. Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, as "without question the best available book on the pre-Columbian . . . societies of eastern North America," this wide-ranging and richly illustrated volume covers the entire prehistory of the Eastern Woodlands and the thousands of earthen mounds that can be found there, built between 3100 BCE and 1600 CE.The second edition of The Moundbuilders has been brought fully up-to-date, with the latest research on the peopling of the Americas, including more coverage of pre-Clovis groups, new material on Native American communities in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries CE, and new narratives of migration drawn from ancient and modern DNA. Far-reaching and illustrated throughout, this book is the perfect visual guide to the region for students, tourists, archaeologists, and anyone interested in ancient American history.

The Moundbuilders: Ancient Societies of Eastern North America

First published in 1998 by Smithsonian Institution Press, The Cahokia Chiefdom surveys one of North America’s great archaeological sites that includes more than one hundred earthen mounds constructed between the 11th and 14th centuries. Milner paints a vivid picture of the site and its environs while arguing that the regional system was not as powerful and all-encompassing as commonly thought, but was instead a collection of semi-autonomous districts with far fewer people than previously assumed. This detailed study of Cahokia research history documents environmental conditions that affected prehistoric peoples, such as river channels, flooding, and plant and animal life. In addition, he summarizes evidence of the region’s food, the remains of houses and other buildings, stone tools, ceramics, crafts, population figures, the distribution of power, and labor and economics, including exchange with other societies. The author attributes the region’s growth to a complex interplay of cultural, demographic, and environmental factors, including the advantages of its location and rich resources, and its decline to a reorganization of social relations across the region that involved the emergence of competing centers. This reprint edition features a new preface by the author updating archaeological evidence through 2005.

The Cahokia Chiefdom: The Archaeology of a Mississippian Society

University Press of Florida

CAHOKIA CHIEFDOM (Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry)

Smithsonian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Milner, George R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Milner, George R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Milner, George R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Florence Street (11-S-758) Site: Early Woodland and Mississippian Occupations. Vol. 2 (American Bottom Archaeology)

The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America (Ancient Peoples and Places)

The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America (Ancient Peoples and Places)

The Moundbuilders: Ancient Societies of Eastern North America

The Cahokia Chiefdom: The Archaeology of a Mississippian Society

CAHOKIA CHIEFDOM (Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry)