Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms

From approximately AD 900 to 1600, ancient Mississippian culture dominated today’s southeastern United States. These Native American societies, known more popularly as moundbuilders, had populations that numbered in the thousands, produced vast surpluses of food, engaged in longdistance trading, and were ruled by powerful leaders who raised large armies. Mississippian chiefdoms built fortified towns with massive earthen structures used as astrological monuments and burial grounds. The remnants of these cities—scattered throughout the Southeast from Florida north to Wisconsin and as far west as Texas—are still visible and awe-inspiring today. This heavily illustrated guide brings these settlements to life with maps, artists’ reconstructions, photos of artifacts, and historic and modern photos of sites, connecting our archaeological knowledge with what is visible when visiting the sites today. Anthropologist Eric E. Bowne discusses specific structures at each location and highlights noteworthy museums, artifacts, and cultural features. He also provides an introduction to Mississippian culture, offering background on subsistence and settlement practices, political and social organization, warfare, and belief systems that will help readers better understand these complex and remarkable places. Sites include Cahokia, Moundville, Etowah, and many more. A Friends Fund Publication

About the Author :
ERIC E. BOWNE is an associate professor of anthropology at Arkansas Tech University. He is the author of The Westo Indians: Slave Traders of the Early Colonial South.

Review :
Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms will go far in bringing the South’s pre-Columbian past into our historical imaginations. Bowne leads the curious in exploring those places where ancient monuments rise up across the land to remind all that a wondrous and complex world existed before America. He offers a succinct, yet thorough, overview of the Mississippian Period and then lengthy treatments of some select sites. As a guide, it is magnificent; but I predict the book will also have wide appeal in undergraduate courses and as a reference for many scholars and others interested in the precontact Southeast. Eric Bowne has produced an excellent guide to Mississippian archaeological parks in the eastern United States. The book places each site in context, while discussing what can be seen today. This book would be the basis for a great road trip! This guide is primarily intended for people who want to visit archaeological sites and museums where they can see the physical remains, scholarly interpretations, and artistic representations of Mississippian chiefdoms. In clear language and using well-chosen drawings, photographs, and artists' representations, Bowne gives summary descriptions of the more important Mississippian sites, with histories of the research that has been done on them, and with brief narrative accounts of our present understanding of the historical experience of the chiefdoms to which they belonged. For laymen, this book will be a treasured introduction and guidebook to the Ancient South. For undergraduates, it will be a handy introduction to what is by now a vast archaeological and historical literature. And for adventurous high school students, it will open doors of understanding to an unsuspected world.