Includes original scholarship on a wide array of current archaeological research across the US South. Essays explore the effects of climate on early cultures in Mississippi; reveal the production and distribution of stone effigy beads; explore small, enigmatic sites in the hill country of northern Mississippi; and describe a mound group in Chickasaw County built by early agriculturalists.

Cutting-edge scholarship about archaeology in the southeastern United StatesContributors: 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 Twaroski, and Richard A. WeinsteinThis volume includes original scholarship on a wide array of current 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 new 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 new doors on the prehistory and history of Mississippi.PATRICIA GALLOWAY, Austin, Texas, teaches in the School of Information at the University of Texas-Austin. She worked at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where she managed archaeological publications, was the first IT manager, and created the state electronic records program. EVAN PEACOCK, Starkville, Mississippi, is an evolutionary archaeologist in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Mississippi Archaeology Q & A (University Press of Mississippi).