Recreating Hopewell /

The first 9 of these 28 chapters by 36 Hopewellian experts from a 2000 Center for American Archaeology conference deal with Ohio Hopewell issues like the Great Hopewell Road and the nature of its ceremonialism. The next ten chapters cover Hopewell outside that core area, from Georgia to Michigan to Kansas. Six papers explore shamanistic behaviors and special aspects of material culture, like obsidian or copper or ceramic exchange. The last two essays are by prehistorians Bruce Smith, a North American specialist, and European Neolithic expert Robert Chapman. Their role was to raise new and not so new questions. Smith focused on issues of settlement, site character, and subsistence, while Chapman was asked to bring his special perspective to Hopewell. The latter particularly points out how many issues of monument interpretation cannot be resolved without very tight chronological controls concerning their construction sequence and alterations. For North American archaeologists working east of the Rockies, the book is essential, and serious avocational archaeologists will also enjoy it. The 76-page bibliography is a treasure. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. P. J. O'Brien emeritus, Kansas State University