Overview

Drawing on over fifty years of research and study, archaeologist Jon L. Gibson comes to well-founded yet bold conclusions about the Archaic mounds in the Lower Mississippi Valley and the peoples who made them. Examining topics ranging from the architectural incorporation of cosmic cycles and standard measures to traditional native myths and magical beliefs, Archaic Earthworks of the Lower Mississippi Valley is the definitive study of the history and ethos of a much-debated era.

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9780807172032

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Reviews

This book is a genre all its own. Renowned archaeologist and raconteur Jon L. Gibson blends travel adventure, science-mystery, autobiography, the history of science, and fantasy in a pleasurable narration of the discoveries in America's oldest earthen mounds. Gibson recounts the first cultural dark age that descended upon the Americas over three thousand years ago, as well as the construction and exaltation of giant pyramids at Poverty Point, revealing a social and emotional divide in the spiritual community, the beginnings of egoism and pursuit of personal power, and the end of social harmony.--John E. Clark, professor of anthropology, Brigham Young University, and former director of New World Archaeological Foundation Written with an engaging blend of scholarship and humor, Archaic Earthworks of the Lower Mississippi Valley provides a wonderful overview of research and thinking on the antiquity of monumental construction and mound building in the region, now known to be far older than archaeologists thought only a generation or so ago. Gibson tells things, as he has always done, exactly as he sees them. This volume reflects archaeology, history, and (auto)biography at the highest level, from the perspective of one of the foremost figures participating in and shaping the discoveries recounted herein.--David G. Anderson, professor of anthropology, University of Tennessee, and coauthor of Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology: From Colonization to Complexity

Author Information

Jon L. Gibson is the author of The Ancient Mounds of Poverty Point: Place of Rings and coeditor of Signs of Power: The Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast, among other works. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in 2014.

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