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Emergence Of Moundbuilders: Archaeology Of Tribal Societies In Southeastern Ohio

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"Native American societies experienced a rich process of cultural innovation in the millennia prior to recorded history. Societies of the Hocking River valley in south eastern Ohio, part of the Ohio River valley, created a tribal organization begining about 2000bc.

This book presents the process of tribal transformation and change in the region based on all available archaeological data from the Hocking River Valley. It begins this sequence of societal change at the Late Archaic period, around 3000 BC, when people lived in nomadic hunting and gathering communities, and ends at the Late prehistoric period, about AD 1450, as communities of settled maize agriculturalists developed. Each chapter details this process based on time-specific data, and accordingly the book chapters are arranged chronologically, moving through time to facilitate the analysis of cultural change.
The overarching theme of each chapter is drawn from anthropology, linking societies from each time period to a broad model considering the emergence and expansion of tribal institutions. Each chapter contributes more data and analysis to document the process through which the descendants of nomadic hunting and gathering societies eventually became sedentary agriculturalists.

Drawing on the work of scholars in archaeology, anthropology, geography, geology, and botany, the collection of papers addresses tribal society formation through such topics as the first pottery made in the valley, aggregate feasting by nomadic groups, the social context for burial of the dead in earthern mounds, the formation of religious ceremonial centres and the earliest adoption of corn.

Suites of regular radiocarbon dates confirm the aerliest use of pottery. Detailed archaeobotabical analyses serve as the basis for dietary and economic reconstructions, x-ray diffracton and x-ray fluorescence are used to identify pottery clay sources. These and other scientific techniques collectively make possible the identification of behaviors and institutions as they were modified through the generations.

All authors have tried to produce chapters that are readable by the interested lay-person yet also appeal to the professional archaeologist."

Contents
The archaeological research history and environmental setting of the Hocking valley
A preliminary GIS analysis of Hocking Valley Archaic and Woodland settlement trends
The Bremen Site: A terminal Late Archaic Period upland occupation in Fairfield County, Ohio
The Walker Site: An Archaic/ Woodland hunting-collecting site in the Hocking Valley
Late Archaic community aggrehation and feasting in the Hocking Valley
Woodland Communities in the Hocking Valley
Woodland Ceremonialism in the Hocking Valley
The Swinehart Village Site: A Late Woodland village in the Upper Hocking valley
The Allen Site: A late prehistoric community in the Hocking River Valley
Late Prehistoric agriculture and land use in the Hocking Valley
The impact of maize on settlement patterns in the Hocking Valley
Tribal Societies in the Hocking Valley

The editors both have wide research experience and are well qualified to edit the book. It is really a book for post graduate anthropology students and researchers, not a first book (but a good second) for the the general public interested in moundbuilder society. A better first one for the general reader would be "The Moundbuilders" 2004 by George R. Milner in the fine tradition of the Thames & Hudson "Ancient people and places" series.

I agree with the "Kiwi Guy" when he calls this a book for post-graduate anthropology students and researchers. Just look at Amazon's "Inside this book - key phrases" to see for yourself. I would have to disagree with his statement that this is a good second book on the subject for the general public, though.

The book might more accurately be titled "Studies in the Archaeology of Ohio's Hocking River Valley", although that is certainly less catchy than the title it has. The editors say "scholarship from various arenas in archaeology is assembled to produce this nearly five-thousand-year narrative in the Hocking Valley." As such, it is an important contribution to the subject: an intensive study of one small portion of the region-wide mound-building tradition known as Adena and of the succeeding tradition known as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere.

The editors also say "the primary goal of this volume was to present our most current data analyzed through modern technologies to better understand the ecological contexts and processual patterns that characterized the formation and expansion of indigenous tribes in the Hocking Valley." In this they have succeeded.

Finally, the editors are to be commended on their commitment to publish and their desire "to produce chapters that are readable by the interested layperson". The topic is a fascinating one and still very much under-appreciated by the American public. If you consider yourself, as I do, an "interested layperson", just borrow the book from your library and focus on the last chapter, which neatly summarizes what the authors have to say.

In my opinion, a much better first or second book on the subject would be Ohio Archaeology, An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures by Bradley T. Lepper, as well as Milner's book previously cited. Another good but brief introduction would be People of the Mounds: Ohio's Hopewell Culture, also by Bradley Lepper, which I found for sale for $2.95 at the Hopewell Culture National Historic Park gift shop and website.