Further Reading.

Description:
More than a millennium ago, the Weeden Island culture flourished across the northern half of Florida and adjacent portions of the Alabama and Georgia coastal plain. For more than a century, archaeologists have marveled over the extraordinary animal effigy pottery vessels left behind by these pre-Columbian peoples in their mounds and villages.

In this volume the authors draw on north Florida archaeological excavations and site surveys to unlock the secrets of the Weeden Island culture and its magnificent ceramics. In particular, investigations at the McKeithen site, a multi-mound village site, provide information used to place the culture within the evolutionary framework of native societies in the southeastern United States. New radiocarbon dates from that site establish a firm chronological framework for Weeden Island developments.

The authors examine the role of mound-building vis-à-vis social and village organization and provide definitive assessments about the crafting of Weeden Island ceramics and the ritual and social significance of animal effigy figurines and other pottery. From a wealth of past and present field investigations and from modern laboratory analyses, conclusions are offered about Weeden Island lifeways, social structure, and sociopolitical stability.

Archaeology of Northern Florida provides a much-needed and valuable synthesis of the Weeden Island culture, one that fundamentally alters how we view the pre-Columbian Southeast. It will be of interest to professional archaeologists, students, and that large segment of the general public that enjoys learning about the past around us.

About the Authors:
The authors, with more than a half-century of professional experience among them, have carried out archaeological investigations across the United States. Jerald T. Milanich is the author or editor of twelve books and monographs, including:

Famous Florida Sites (UPF, 1999)
Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present (UPF,1998)
Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe (UPF, 1999)
Tacachale: Essays on the Indians of Florida and Southeastern Georgia during the Historic Period (with Samuel Proctor, UPF, 1978, reprinted 1994),
Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida (UPF, 1994), and
Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida (with Charles Hudson, UPF, 1993)

The last two of which received the Rembert Patrick Award from the Florida Historical Society.

Reviews:
•Readable, informative, and simply indispensable to anyone with a serious interest in Eastern North America’s prehistory.
--American Antiquity

•Will be the fundamental reference on the archeology of the north Florida area [and] the Woodland period. . . . Provides a fascinating and informative picture of how modern archaeological studies are performed and how the ideas of researchers can evolve in the face of new data. I highly recommend it.
--John F. Scarry, Florida Historical Quarterly

Other Information:
1997. 224 pp. 7 X 9.
75 b&w photographs, 37 tables, references, index
ISBN 0-8130-1538-3

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Title:
A World Engraved: Archaeology of the Swift Creek Culture

Editors:
Mark Williams and Daniel T. Elliott

Contributors:
David G. Anderson, Keith H. Ashley, Judith A. Bense, David W. Chase, Daniel T. Elliott, Jennifer Freer Harris, B. Calvin Jones, Alan Marsh, Daniel T. Penton, Rebecca Saunders, Betty A. Smith, Frankie Snow, Karl T. Steinen, Keith Stephenson, James B. Stoltman, Louis D. Tesar, Mark Williams

All information on this book taken from the
University of Alabama Press web site at:
http://www.uapress.ua.edu/authors/WillEll.html

Description:
This major summary of the current state of archaeological research on the Swift Creek culture is the first comprehensive collection ever published concerning the Swift Creek people.

The Swift Creek people, centered in Georgia and surrounding states from A.D. 100 to 700, are best known from their pottery, which was decorated before firing with beautiful paddle-stamped designs--some of the most intricate and fascinating in the world.

Comprehensive in scope, this volume details the discovery of this culture, summarizes what is known about it at the present time, and shows how continued improvements in the collection and analysis of archaeological data are advancing our knowledge of this extinct society.

Although they know nothing of Swift Creek language and little about its society, archaeologists have collected valuable information about the economic strategies of Swift Creek inhabitants. What archaeologists know best, however, is that the Swift Creek people were some of the best wood carvers the world has seen, and their pottery will stand as their lasting legacy for all time. This book presents and preserves their legacy.

About the Authors:
Mark Williams is Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Daniel T. Elliott is Secretary of the Lamar Institute, Inc.

Review:
•An important theme running through the volume is the examination of social interaction using analyses of the stamps used to decorate Swift Creek pots. These studies make us rethink our notions of social boundaries and interactions and the scope of individual movements in the Woodland period. . . . As a summary of current knowledge of the Swift Creek culture, A World Engraved has no rivals. It should have a well-deserved place on the shelves of every archaeologist working in the region.
--John Scarry, UNC-Chapel Hill

Other Information:
November
344 pages, 6 x 9, illustrated
ISBN 0-8173-0912-8

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