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5.0 out of 5 stars
Archaeology and Ancient History of Native North Carolinians, March 16, 2000
This review is from: Time before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina (Hardcover)
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BRIEF REVIEW
TIME BEFORE HISTORY outlines what archaeologists know about native peoples in North Carolina from its earliest settlement some 12,000 years ago until the 18th century AD. Thorough and authoritative, well-written, well-illustrated, and at times provocative, this enjoyable book will serve as a significant reference and foundation for North Carolina archaeology for years to come. It makes a valuable scholarly contribution, and it is eminently accessible to any readers interested in native peoples of North America.
LONGER REVIEW
TIME BEFORE HISTORY reviews what archaeologists know about the ancient history of native North Carolina from the original settlement of its Appalachian mountain ranges, its Piedmont region, and its coastal provinces some twelve thousand years ago until the encounters between native peoples and European American explorers, traders, soldiers, and settlers from the 1500s through much of the 1700s. The photos of artifacts and scenes from archaeological fieldwork complement well its chapters about native cultures during different periods of the past. Maps and other line drawings are good contributions to the book. Certainly, the book will appeal to archaeologists and historians interested in native peoples of eastern North America. Meanwhile, its lively prose is accessible to any other readers interested in the culture and history of native peoples in North Carolina.
The first chapter outlines the major characteristics of architecture and other artifacts from North Carolina during different periods of the past, as they are currently understood by archaeologists. The authors then trace the history of North Carolina archaeology, from the late 19th century to current problems and prospects for the practice of prehistoric archaeology here at the end of the 20th century.
The second chapter reconstructs the lives of the groups to which archaeologists refer as Paleoindian people, the mobile bands of hunters and gatherers who settled North Carolina between 9500 and 7900 BC, and whose presence here is reflected primarily by certain kinds of stone spearheads. Just when the original North American settlers arrived and what their lives were like are currently very hot topics in archaeology, but it is clear that ten thousand years ago, native North Carolinians were living in colder and drier woodland environments than are here today.
The third chapter reviews what archaeologists know about what is called the Archaic period, from 8000 to 1000 BC, at the end of which native people began making clay pottery and began experimenting with gardening. During these centuries native North Carolinians tied their seasonal movements ever more closely to the seasonal cycles of the rich mast woodlands in which they lived, as the Eastern Woodlands of this continent became more and more like their current natural form.
The following chapters concentrate on the western, central, and eastern parts of North Carolina, respectively. These chapters trace native cultural history from the end of the Archaic period through the first several centuries of encounter and interaction between native groups and European colonists. A chapter about the southern Appalachians in western North Carolina traces the formation of carefully planned towns and villages of farming communities and the history of public architecture in the region, from earth lodges to earthen mounds to wooden council houses. A chapter about the Piedmont region of central North Carolina describes changes in the placement of settlements across the landscape due to farming practices and perhaps competition for choice farmland, and it describes the spatial layout of palisaded villages with houses and graves arranged around communal spaces. A chapter about the coast and coastal plain in eastern North Carolina concentrates on pottery traditions and the composition of shell heaps found at some sites, which preserve clues about architecture, mortuary practices, and foodways of coastal groups. Each of these chapters describes major archaeological sites and offers many written references for interested readers and specialists to pursue further if they would like.
The last chapter of the book outlines major trends in cultural persistence and change in native North Carolina during early interactions between Europeans and native peoples. Spanish explorers traveled through western North Carolina in the 1500s, several years before the English began their attempts to build colonies along the Middle Atlantic coast. English colonists were actively trading with native groups in central North Carolina in the 1600s, and this web of exchange and interaction spread to southern Appalachia and the Cherokee by the end of that century. Native groups of the Piedmont were ravaged by disease and cultural devastation due to the slave and deerskin trades in the 1600s, and they had become bound together as multiethnic communities much affected by the European presence at the dawn of the 1700s. European colonists along the coast battled the embittered Tuscarora in the early 1700s, and colonial militias conducted several raiding expeditions against the Cherokee in the middle and late 1700s. The history of these tumultuous years is best understood with an appreciation for the rich diversity and ancient history of native peoples in North Carolina before the arrival of different kinds of European colonists.
Written descriptions by early European American colonists of native North Carolinians are certainly valuable evidence about the history and culture of these native communities. TIME BEFORE HISTORY is unique for its comprehensive treatment of what archaeologists know about their history and culture for the ten thousand years before anything was written about them. The authors wrote the book to make such a summary available, and to offer their own interpretations of current archaeological evidence. They encourage further study and welcome perspectives other than their own interpretations, some of which chart new paths for archaeological study in different parts of the state.
The title is meant to underscore the richness of cultural traditions in what is now known as North Carolina long before anything was actually written about its many different native peoples. This very readable book is eminently accessible to any reader interested in native North Carolinians, and it will serve as a touchstone for further archaeological study in this part of North America for years to come.
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