Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms
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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
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Reviews for Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms
Robbie Ethridge
author of From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mis sissippian World, 1540–1715
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!
Marvin T. Smith
author of Coosa: The Rise and Fall of a Southeastern Mississippian Chiefdom
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.
from the foreword by Charles M. Hudson