David J Meltzer

"Sometime before 15,000 years ago, a band of hunter-gatherers arrived in Northeast Asia. They continued east, becoming the first people to set foot in the Americas. They soon found themselves in a world rich in plants and animals that became more exotic as they moved south, but also a world still shivering itself out of the coldest depth of the Ice Age. The movement of those first Americans was one of the greatest journeys undertaken by ancient peoples...

Originally published in 1848 as the first major work in the nascent discipline as well as the first publication of the newly established Smithsonian Institution, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley remains today not only a key document in the history of American archaeology but also the primary source of information on hundreds of mounds and earthworks in the eastern United States, most of which have now vanished. Despite adhering to the popular...