Strangers in a new land : what archaeology reveals about the first Americans /

In this elegantly illustrated and reasonably priced volume, Adovasio and Pedler, both formerly of Mercyhurst University, discuss the major questions surrounding the inhabitation of the Americas in part 1 (a 28-page essay), and then proceed to examine the evidence from 32 sites, ranging from universally accepted to pretty thoroughly debunked, in the remaining 280 pages of the volume. Unfortunately, the authors do not list the criteria by which these decisions on legitimacy are based until page 141. Each of the 24 chapters in part 2 consists of about three pages of text and eight pages of illustrations whose extensive captions basically repeat the text. Each of these chapters has an introductory paragraph, an indication of the location and environment of the site, a history of the site's investigation, a description of the stratigraphy and the artifacts, and one or two paragraphs of interpretation. Seemingly a coffee-table book designed for browsing, the site descriptions, illustrations, and extensive references provide fodder for more intensive examination, and this reviewer will be using the book as a foundation for her freshman course on the peopling of the Americas. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and general collections and undergraduate libraries. --Lucille Lewis Johnson, Vassar College

North American archaeologists once embraced a consensus that raised Clovis Man, radiocarbon dated to 13,300-12,,800 years BP (before present), as the first humans in the New World (a blanket term for the Americas), but a more complex picture is emerging. This lavishly illustrated work gives a comprehensive overview of the rapidly evolving field of New World archaeology, first outlining the four basic questions that New World archaeologists face-where these people originated in the Old World, how they got here, when they arrived, and what were they doing. The second part of the book examines the current evidence, divided into chapters that discuss uncontroversial Clovis and Folsom sites, disputed pre-Clovis sites, legitimate pre-Clovis sites, and finally controversial pre-Clovis sites. The authors provide ancillary materials such as a glossary and an explanation of the potential and limits of radiocarbon dating. The book is suitable for the curious layperson interested in the current state of the field, and the bibliography will be useful for readers looking for further reading material. By eschewing the practice of presenting the science as settled and absolute in favor of providing the evidence for and against the competing models, the authors also give readers a view of science as a living field, not received truth but a process of endless questing. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.