Cahokia and the Hinterlands

Covering topics as diverse as economic modeling, craft specialization, settlement patterns, agricultural and subsistence systems, and the development of social ranking, Cahokia and the Hinterlands explores cultural interactions among Cahokians and the inhabitants of other population centers, including Orensdorf and the Dickson Mounds in Illinois and Aztalan in Wisconsin, as well as sites in Minnesota, Iowa, and at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Proposing sophisticated and innovative models for the growth, development, and decline of Mississippian culture at Cahokia and elsewhere, this volume also provides insight into the rise of chiefdoms and stratified societies and the development of trade throughout the world.''This handsome volume defines the place of Cahokia, as currently understood, within a wide regional and cultural context. As such, it provides a number of important new models to replace simplistic diffusional theories that have been uncritically accepted for too long. . . . It belongs on the short list of titles about Midwestern archaeology that those who do archaeology cannot do without.''--James M. Collins, Journal of the Iowa Archaeological Society ''Exceptionally well done.''--Mary Ann Graham, Plains Anthropologist ''Emerson and Lewis are to be commended for assembling such a diverse group of regional specialists. Collectively, these authors have produced a provocative volume that should be on the bookshelf of everyone interested in the prehistory of the midcontinent. The impressive regional syntheses and the various ideas regarding contact situations are sure to be referred to and argued over for many years to come.''--George R. Milner, Missouri Archaeological Society Quarterly