The Origin of the Mound Builders

A landmark work of 19th-century American archaeology, this book investigates the ancient civilizations that constructed the enigmatic earthworks scattered throughout the Mississippi Valley. Coffin, one of the few African-American scholars of his era, examines the remarkable engineering, social organization, and cultural practices of the people who built these mounds thousands of years before European contact. The work systematically addresses the different types of mounds, their probable purposes, and the evidence for understanding their builders. Written during a period of intense debate about the origins of these structures,Coffin brings careful scholarship to questions that much of his era preferred to answer with speculation and false theories. This book remains a fascinating window into how late 19th-century thinkers grappled with thepre-Columbian history of North America, and into the sophisticated civilizations that left these enduring earthworks behind.