Time's River: Archaeological Syntheses from the Lower Mississippi Valley (A Dan Josselyn Memorial Publication)

Annotation. This volume stands as a key general resource for archaeologists working in the region extending from Louisiana through Mississippi north to Missouri and Kentucky, and it represents an opportunity to influence for decades a large part of the archaeological work to take place in the Southeast. The book responds to a need for a comprehensive archaeological overview of the Lower Mississippi Valley that forms a portion of an interstate corridor spanning nine states that will run from southern Michigan to the Texas-Mexico border. The culturally sensitive Mississippi Delta is one of the richest archaeological areas in North America, and it is crucial that research designs be comprehensive, coordinated, and meet current preservation and future research needs. The authors are well-respected researchers from both within and outside the region with expertise in the full range of topics that comprise American archaeology. They examine matters of method and theory, the application of materials science, geophysics, and other high-tech tools in archaeology that provide for optimum data-recovery. Contributors: Ian Brown, Kevin L. Bruce, Philip J. Carr, Robert C. Dunnell, James Feathers, Gayle J. Fritz, Michael L. Galaty, S. Homes Hogue, H. Edwin Jackson, Jay K. Johnson, Carl P. Lipo, Hector Neff, Evan Peacock, Janet Rafferty, James H. Turner, John R. Underwood, Amy L. Young Introduction: Reconsidering the archaeology of the lower Mississippi River Valley / Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock The Interstate 69 project in Mississippi : generation of an archaeological synthesis / John R. Underwood, James H. Turner, and Kevin L. Bruce Archaeology in the lower Mississippi Valley / Robert C. Dunnell Archaeological things : languages of observation / Robert C. Dunnell Paleoenvironmental modeling in the lower Mississippi River Valley : past and future approaches / Evan Peacock Settlement patterns, occupations, and field methods / Janet Rafferty Prehistoric settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley : a critical review / Carl P. Lipo and Robert C. Dunnell Absolute dating in the Mississippi Delta / James K. Feathers Bioarchaeology in the Mississippi Delta / S. Homes Hogue Through the lens of the lithic analyst : the organization of Mississippi Delta chipped-stone technologies / Philip J. Carr Review of ceramic compositional studies from in and around the Mississippi Valley / Hector Neff Ceramic petrography and the classification of Mississippi's archaeological pottery by fabric : a GIS approach / Michael L. Galaty Faunal research in the Yazoo Basin and lower Mississippi Valley : setting parameters for future research in the I-69 corridor, Mississippi / H. Edwin Jackson Paleoethnobotanical information and issues relevant to the I-69 overview process, northwest Mississippi / Gayle J. Fritz Archaeological remote sensing research in the Yazoo Basin : a history and evaluation / Jay K. Johnson Culture contact along the I-69 corridor : protohistoric and historic use of the northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi / Ian W. Brown Sad song in the Delta : the potential for historical archaeology in the I-69 corridor / Amy L. Young Fording the river : concluding comments / Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock. Serves as a resource for archaeologists working in the region extending from Louisiana through Mississippi north to Missouri and Kentucky. This title examines the matters of method and theory, the application of materials science, geophysics, and other tools in archaeology that provide for better data-recovery.