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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus 
Mann, C.
New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 140004006X.
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| The author debunks the myth that when Europeans arrived in the Americas in the fifteenth century, they encountered a vast primeval wilderness sparsely populated by nomadic hunters living in harmony with nature since time immemorial. See also our review. 480 pages. |
Boomtown Saloons
Dixon, K.
Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2005. ISBN 0874176085.
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| This book is a compelling look at these establishments in one of the biggest mining towns in the nineteenth-century West. See also our review. 256 pages. |
Painted by a Distant Hand 
LeBlanc, S.
Boston: Peabody Museum Press, 2005. ISBN 0873654021.
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| This book is a slim but informative volume inspired by a two-year-long exhibit of Mimbres (A.D. 200-1100) pottery at Harvard's Peabody Museum that closed in June. LeBlanc discusses the meaning of the pottery's figurative imagery and abstract patterns, the artists who created them (most likely women), and what they indicate about daily life, all in clear, straightforward prose. 128 pages. |
Fossil Legends of the First Americans
Mayor, A.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0691113459.
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| This book catalogs the fossil knowledge of Native Americans past and present. The author searches the fossil record for creatures that may have inspired native legends. See also our review. 488 pages. |
Touring Gotham's Archaeological Past
diZerega Wall, D., and A. Cantwell
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 0300103883.
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| Pound the pavement with this book from leading NYC archaeologists. Woodland sites in the Bronx; Dutch Colonial farmhouses in Queens; the native, free-black, and middle-class areas of Brooklyn; and Revolutionary War Manhattan are a few of the options. 224 pages. |
American Flintknappers: Stone Age Art in the Age of Computers
Whittaker, J.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004. ISBN 0292702663.
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| In this insider's look at the obscure subculture of flintknappers, the author relates how he spent years traveling the country and attending "knap-ins," where flintknappers gather to demonstrate their skills and trade tips on making the perfect Clovis spearpoint. 384 pages. |
Archaeology of Bandelier National Monument: Village Formation on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico
Kohler, T., ed.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004. ISBN 0826330827.
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| This volume sumarizes recent survey and excavation of prehistoric pueblos at Bandelier National Monument, one of the country's most visited sites. The authors use the area's 400-year cycle of colonization, occupation, and abandonment to answer larger questions about how villages formed in the ancient Southwest. 288 pages. |
Florida's Lost Tribes
Morris, T.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. ISBN 081302739X.
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| This book contains 58 paintings depicting the lives of many forgotten and vanished tribes of Florida. The paintings are based on (and thoroughly described) evidence from archaeological sites, historical research and much more. The author provides a descriptive account of more than 20 tribes, including a historical and anthropological overview. 112 pages. |
Ishi's Brain: In Search of the Last "Wild" Indian
Stern, O.
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. ISBN 0393051331.
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| In 1911, the "last Stone Age Indian" wandered out of the hills of northern California and became a national sensation. Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber brought Ishi, as he became known, to San Francisco, where he was put up at a museum and employed to demonstrate traditional crafts. Upon his death five years later, Ishi's body was autopsied against his express wishes. Anthropologist Orin Stern's book tells the story of the recent effort to repatriate Ishi's remains, especially his brain, which was stored in the Smithsonian for decades. Stern was directly involved in the campaign to rebury Ishi and gives a compelling first-person account of one of American anthropology's strangest, saddest chapters. 320 pages. |
Journey to the Ice Age: Discovering an Ancient World
Storck, P.
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004. ISBN 0774810289.
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| At the end of the Ice Age, small groups of hunter-gathers crossed from Siberia to Alaska and began the last chapter in the human settlement of the earth. Many left little or no trace. But one group, the early Paleo Indians, exploded onto the archaeological record about 11,500 radiocarbon years ago and expanded rapidly throughout North America, sending splinter groups into Central and perhaps South America as well. Why were Early Paleo-Indians so successful? Peter Storck explores the challenges faced by the early Paleo-Indians of northeastern North America. 384 pages. |
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