American Indian Ways of Life: An Interpretation of the Archaeology of Illinois and Adjoining Areas

The author interprets regional prehistory by tracing successive cultural stages—Paleo-Indian and Archaic hunting and tool-making phases, the ceramic-bearing Initial and Food-Storer Woodland phases, the Hopewellian classic expressions, and the later Middle and Upper Mississippi traditions culminating in the historic Illini—using archaeological evidence from settlement, burial mounds, artifacts, and radiocarbon dates. It reconstructs subsistence, social organization, religious and ceremonial practices, and technological change; explains a classificatory scheme of stages and sub-stages; discusses notable mound sites and regional variation; and provides a glossary and bibliography to support further study.