Customer Reviews

Exploration of the Etowah Site in Georgia: The Etowah Papers (Southeastern Classics in Archaeology, Anthropology, and History)

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First published in 1932 by Yale University Press, this current, attractively designed, softcover edition is published by the University Press of Florida as part of its "Southeastern Classics in Archaeology, Anthropology and History." Intended to keep scholarly works originally published in paperback on non-acid free paper -- now rare and hard-to-impossible to find -- available to current students and scholars, this particular volume of the series reproduces what was originally published as the "Etowah Papers."

Along with the Cahokia Site near Saint Louis, Illinois, the Etowah site -- about three miles southwest of Cartersville, Ga. -- is one of the most famous archaeological sites of the Eastern United States. As noted by Jerald T. Milanich, the Series Editor, objects and artifacts found around the ceremonial complex at Etowah are considered to be among the most important found anywhere. Frank T. Schell, Jr. Curator of the Columbus (Ga.) Museum, provides readers with a good Introduction with details regarding the original writers/contributors of the Etowah Papers and the excavations and challenges they faced during their mid-to-late 1920s excavations.

Located near the northern border of Georgia, along the Etowah River, this site is considered to be one of the greatest social, economic and political centers of prehistoric North America. The illustrations of "large repousse copper plates...[with] motif-warriors in bird costumes," among other discoveries from the site, "firmly place [the] Etowah [site] as one of the foremost wellsprings of late prehistoric artistic achievement in North America." Chapters by Moorehead and Nuttall connecting the sites to early Spanish explorers' descriptions of mound complexes and their efforts to connect the Etowah designs and lifestyles with those of Mesoamerica will be of particular interest to current readers.

Contents include, the 56-page section titled: "Notes on the History and Symbolism of the Muskhogeans and the People of Etowah," by Charles C. Willoughby (profusely illustrated with artifact drawings); the 37-page "Description of Excavations," by Warren King Moorehead (includes an extensive variety of maps, drawings and photographs); the 29-page "Study of the Ceramic Art of the Etowans," by Margaret E. Ashley (includes an extensive variety of photographs); a 9-page, illustrated study titled "Some Comparisons Between Etowan, Mexican and Mayan Designs," by Zella Nuttall; and an essay on the "Molluscan Shells from Etowah Mounds," by Frank Collins Baker.

The narrative section is concluded with a section titled "General Observations and Conclusions," and a six-page small-print index.

The accounts of fieldwork and artifact descriptions make this reprint an essential purchase for those interested in Etowah art and iconography. As Schell points out in his Introduction, "This interdisciplinary report on excavations at the Etowah site in the 1920s is truly significant and of great value today. But for the existence of the Etowha Papers, American archaeology would be much the poorer."

Highly recommended for academic and public libraries with an interest in Mesoamerican and Native American Studies.

R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University

It is a classic. It does give you a good look at Arachaeological work in the 20's. Tell's you what was found before development destroyed most of it.