{"product_id":"a-serpents-tale-lorett-treese-9781594163647","title":"A Serpent's Tale: Discovering America's Ancient Mound Builders","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Fascinating Story of the Enigmatic Monuments that Inspired American Archaeology \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When American settlers first crossed the Appalachian Mountains they were amazed to discover that the wilderness beyond contained ancient ruins--large man-made mounds and enclosures, and impressive earthen sculptures, such as a gigantic serpent. Reports trickled back to the eager ears of President Thomas Jefferson and others. However, most did not believe these earthworks had anything to do with Native Americans; rather, given the intense interest in the history of Western Civilization at the time, it became popular to speculate that the ruins had been built by refugees from Greece, Rome, Egypt--or even the lost continent of Atlantis. Since their discovery, the mounds have attracted both scholars and quacks, from the early investigations sponsored by the then new Smithsonian Institution to the visions of the American psychic Edgar Cayce. \u003cbr\u003e As Lorett Treese explains in her fascinating history \u003ci\u003eA Serpent's Tale: Discovering America's Ancient Mound Builders\u003c\/i\u003e, the enigmatic nature of these antiquities fueled both fanciful claims and scientific inquiry. Early on, the earthworks began to fall to agricultural and urban development. Realizing that only careful on-site investigation could reveal the mysteries of the mounds, scholars hastened to document and classify them, giving rise to American archaeology as a discipline. Research made it possible to separate the Mound Builders into three distinct pre-contact Native American cultures. More recently, Mound Builder remains have attracted the practitioners of new disciplines like archaeoastronomy who suggest they may have functioned as calendars. There is no doubt that the abandoned monuments that made the Midwest's Ohio Valley the birthplace of American archaeology have yet to reveal all the knowledge they contain on the daily lives and world views of persons of North American prehistory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Lorett Treese\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1594163642\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781594163647\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Westholme Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/15\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d","brand":"Lorett Treese","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43944590409983,"sku":"9781594163647","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_0efd3e41-8eb6-40ef-935f-8b0b0b151142.jpg?v=1681504318","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/a-serpents-tale-lorett-treese-9781594163647","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}