The People of the Stone

In the past week I have spent a great deal of time reading, thinking, and finally writing about one of the most universally recognized phenomena of all of human history and, more importantly perhaps, prehistory.  By some great irony, purest chance, or sub-conscious master plan I just happened to arrive at the point in my new novel in the People of the Stone series, THE CORN MAIDEN'S G

While conducting on-going research for the fifth novel in The People of the Stone saga, THE CORN MAIDEN'S GIFT, it has been impossible to ignore the incredible contributions made to the great mound sites, particularly those of the Hopewell period with which the new novel deals, by two often neglected pioneers of scientific archaeology.  Ephram Squier and Edwin Davi

For the past twenty-five plus years while working professionally as both an archeologist and, later, as a professional and avocational flintknapper, this writer was privledged to visit and investigate many of the signigicant quarry sites that are to be found across much of North America.  The generalized use of the term "Flint" to categorize the various non-volcanic stones which

When doing public presentations as an archaeolgist, no matter what time period the material might deal with, one can always anticipate the question:  What tribe made this?  It is often difficult to convey to the lay person that modern or early historic tribal names and affiliations are fairly recent and often virtually impossible to project back into the lon

The appearance of literally thousands of small stone mounds, cairns, and even one large serpent effigy in the central Ohio Valley and mid-Appalachian highlands region has generally baffled professional archeologists, hunters, hikers, and others who continually encounter these enigmatic remains.

With literally thousands of earthen mounds of all sizes scattered over much of the eastern United States the question is often asked, "How were they built and why are there so many?"  For us in the modern world looking at the tecnological level of the moundbuilders, who lacked any metal tools except for raw copper, it would appear a daunting task to build the huge earth

   When Cyrus Thomas began his excavations of the thousands of earthen structures across the eastern and central United States for the Smithsonian in the late 19th century he began to unravel for the first time the true meaning of these amazing and enigmatic piles of dirt, which had generated every form of fantastic speculation since the first Europeans had arriv

In dealing with the on-going Clovis origins controversy in any form, one is always struck by the dedication (even ferocity) with which the various proponents of differing viewpoints cling to their ideas.  As one who was a graduate archeology student at Eastern New Mexico Univ. in the 70's and literally surrounded by the Clovis material an

Archeologists, ecologists, geologists and others have frequently debated the massive extinction of many large mammal species such as the mammoth, mastodon, sabretooth cat, and others in N. Am. at the end of the last ice age.