How old is this arrowhead? Is there really gold in that Indian mound? What tribe left all these artifacts behind? Can the government take my artifact collection away? For more than twenty years, Evan Peacock, an archaeologist at Mississippi State University, has been fielding and answering questions such as these from the public. In Mississippi Archaeology Q & A, he gathers those answers in one place to give landowners, history buffs, arrowhead hunters, and students new to archaeology an invaluable handbook of dos and don'ts. Peacock writes for the lay reader, supplies humorous anecdotes from his years in the field, and never scolds. Instead he respectfully introduces the neophyte to the wonders of the remarkable prehistoric and historic remains throughout the Magnolia State. Rather than pursuing a hobby in a destructive manner, in-formed artifact collectors can and do contribute to the field. This book offers solid suggestions on how enthusiasts can play a helpful role. Mississippi Archaeology Q & A explains the basic methods that archaeologists use to find, explore, and interpret ancient sites. In a clear and straightforward manner, Peacock divulges what he has learned about landowners' rights and other legal issues. The guide describes many important archaeological sites in Mississippi and adjacent states and the different kinds of artifacts commonly found in the region. For people who wish to protect a site or for those who would like to sell a site or obtain a tax break for its preservation, this guide contains critical information. While the book focuses closely on Native American artifacts, it also thoroughly treats the full range of Mississippi's historical treasures from the remnants of pioneer settlers to Civil War curios.

"James Theler and Robert Boszhardt provide an overview of the Driftless region of the Upper Mississippi River Valley - roughly from Dubuque, Iowa, to Red Wing, Minnesota, but framed within a somewhat larger area extending from the Rock Island Rapids at the modern Moline-Rock Island area to the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis-St. Paul. The book concludes with useful catalogs of the animal remains and rock art found in the valley as well as a list of archaeological sites and museums to visit."--BOOK JACKET.

Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley describes an archeological reconstruction of the preceding 11,000 years of an extraordinarily rich environment centered within the largest river system north of the Amazon. This book focuses on the lowlands of the Mississippi Valley from just north of the Ohio River to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Organized into 13 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the territory between the Ohio and Arkansas rivers. This text then attempts to humanize the archeological interpretations by reference to social organization, settlement system, economy, religion, and politics. Other chapters focus on understanding the nature of change through time in the Central Mississippi Valley. This book discusses as well the difference between an old braided stream surface and the younger meander belt system. The final chapter deals with the investigation of prehistoric Indian remains. This book is a valuable resource for archeologists, zoologists, and scientific hobbyists.

Documents prehistoric human occupation along the lower reaches of the Mississippi River A Dan Josselyn Memorial Publication The Lower Mississippi Survey was initiated in 1939 as a joint undertaking of three institutions: the School of Geology at Louisiana State University, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, and the Peabody Museum at Harvard. Fieldwork began in 1940 but was halted during the war years. When fieldwork resumed in 1946, James Ford had joined the American Museum of Natural History, which assumed co-sponsorship from LSU. The purpose of the Lower Mississippi Survey (LMS)—a term used to identify both the fieldwork and the resultant volume—was to investigate the northern two-thirds of the alluvial valley of the lower Mississippi River, roughly from the mouth of the Ohio River to Vicksburg. This area covers about 350 miles and had been long regarded as one of the principal hot spots in eastern North American archaeology. Phillips, Ford, and Griffin surveyed over 12,000 square miles, identified 382 archaeological sites, and analyzed over 350,000 potsherds in order to define ceramic typologies and establish a number of cultural periods. The commitment of these scholars to developing a coherent understanding of the archaeology of the area, as well as their mutual respect for one another, enabled the publication of what is now commonly considered the bible of southeastern archaeology. Originally published in 1951 as volume 25 of the Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, this work has been long out of print. Because Stephen Williams served for 35 years as director of the LMS at Harvard, succeeding Phillips, and was closely associated with the authors during their lifetimes, his new introduction offers a broad overview of the work’s influence and value, placing it in a contemporary context.

Contributions by Keith A. Baca, Jeffrey P. Brain, Samuel O. Brookes, Ian W. Brown, Philip J. Carr, Jessica Crawford, Patricia Galloway, Alison M. Hadley, Christopher T. Hays, Edward R. Henry, Cliff Jenkins, Jay K. Johnson, Evan Peacock, Janet Rafferty, Maria Schleidt, Mary Evelyn Starr, James B. Stoltman, Andrew M. Triplett, Melissa H. Twaroski, and Richard A. Weinstein This volume includes original scholarship on a wide array of archaeological research across the South. One essay explores the effects of climate on early cultures in Mississippi. Contributors reveal the production and distribution of stone effigy beads, which were centered in southwest Mississippi some 5,000 years ago, and trace contact between different parts of the prehistoric Southeast as seen in the distribution of clay cooking balls. Researchers explore small, enigmatic sites in the hill country of northern Mississippi now marked by scatters of broken pottery and a large, seemingly isolated "platform" mound in Calhoun County. Pieces describe a mound group in Chickasaw County built by early agriculturalists who subsequently abandoned the area and a similar prehistoric abandonment event in Winston and Choctaw Counties. A large pottery collection from the famous Anna Mounds site in Adams County, excavations at a Chickasaw Indian site in Lee County, camps and works of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the pine hill country of southern Mississippi, and the history of logging in the Mississippi Delta all yield abundant, new understandings of the past. Overview papers include a retrospective on archaeology in the National Forests of north Mississippi, a look at a number of mound sites in the lower Mississippi Delta, and a study of how communities of learning in field archaeology are built, with prominent archaeologist Samuel O. Brookes's achievements as a focal point. History buffs, artifact enthusiasts, students, and professionals all will find something of interest in this book, which opens doors on the prehistory and history of Mississippi.