Thinking about Archaic hunter-gatherers -- Archaic shell-bearing sites of the southern Ohio Valley -- Locations of shell-bearing sites -- Overexploitation of mollusks -- Demise of the Hypsithermal -- Ohio River Valley shell-bearing sites : villages? -- Ceremonial districts of the southern Ohio Valley -- Archaic rituals at shell-bearing sites -- From Archaic villages to ritual camps : the theoretical landscape
Summary
"In this provocative work, Cheryl Claassen challenges long-standing notions about hunter-gatherer life in the southern Ohio Valley as it unfolded some 8,000 to 3,500 years ago. Focusing on freshwater shell mounds scattered along the Tennessee, Ohio, Green, and Harpeth rivers, Claassen draws on the latest archaeological research to offer penetrating new insights into the sacred world of Archaic peoples. Some of the most striking ideas are that there were no villages in the southern Ohio Valley during the Archaic period, that all of the trading and killing were for ritual purposes, and that body positioning in graves reflects cause of death primarily"--Provided by publisher
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-264) and index
