The Moundbuilders
Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America
George R. Milner
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| ‘Without question the best available book on the pre-Columbian Indian societies of eastern North America’ | – Bruce D. Smith,
Smithsonian Institution |
| ‘This beautiful volume is a welcome addition to Thames & Hudson’s Ancient Peoples and Places series …. It is the best book of this sort available today’ | | – Southeastern Archaeology |
| ‘An impressive exposition that includes a number of beautiful artefacts’ | | – The Independent |
Explorers of the American continent were amazed to find great earthen monuments in the Eastern Woodlands. Thousands of these mounds were discovered – one 100 feet high, some overgrown hillocks, some conical, others flat-topped. Speculation was rife as to the identity of these moundbuilders.
Professor Milner is the first to bring all the new evidence together.
Recent research demonstrates conclusively that the mounds were erected by the Native Americans in a period ranging from 3000 BC to the sixteenth century AD. Tons of earth were quarried to form these monuments. Some contained thousands of burials, others served as platforms for chiefs’ residences, and many were ‘effigy’ mounds in the form of serpents, panthers and other sacred beasts. Moundbuilding seems to have been a key element in their society: how they worshipped gods, buried their dead, remembered their ancestors and respected their leaders. Many beautiful objects were 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 these 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.
Copiously illustrated and complete with a gazetteer of sites to visit, this is the perfect guide to the region for the archaeologist, student or traveller.
George R. Milner is Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University.
See all the volumes in the Ancient Peoples and Places series
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|  |  | | | | ISBN 0500284687 | | ISBN-13 978-0500284681 | | | | 24.1 x 15.9 cm | | Paperback | | 224pp | | 153 illustrations, 20 in colour | | First published 2006 | | | | £12.95 | | | |  | | | | 
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