Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast

by Mallory M. O'Connor

When Columbus arrived on the shores of Hispaniola, a rich and complex civilization already existed that forms the core of American cultural history.  Exploring ancient southeastern Indian sites from the metropolis of Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis), ancient capital of the American heartland, to the island stronghold of Calos, king of the Florida Calusa, Mallory O'Connor examines the significance of these prehistoric cultures.

 Bringing together scholarship from classics in architecture, archaeology, and iconography, she discusses twenty sites of Mississippian culture, describing the religious patterns of the inhabitants and the sophisticated art works that supported their sacred practices.   She also addresses the controversial topic of repatriation of Indian artifacts and the continuing problem of archaeological "looting" of Indian sites and ceremonial centers.

 Lavishly illustrated with maps, site plans, and photographs of the ruins of ancient ceremonial centers along with sculpture, ceramics, and other artifacts, Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast captures the timeless beauty and technical sophistication of the art and architecture of pre-Columbian America.

Mallory McCane O'Connor is director of the Santa Fe Gallery, Santa Fe Community College, in Gainesville, Florida.  She has taught art history at the University of Florida and has published articles on art history and on gender and art in Native North American Art History, American Indian Art Magazine, and  Southern Quarterly.
 
Barbara Gibbs, a Gainesville-based photographer, served as a photographic consultant for the Amazonia Research Institute, Brazil, and has photographed sacred ceremonial sites in Latin America and the American Southwest.  She has exhibited her photographs in California and Florida.

Genres: History

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Mallory O’Connor is a writer, an art historian, and a musician. She is the author of two non-fiction books, Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast and Florida’s American Heritage River, both published by the University Press of Florida. American River :Tributaries, Book One of the American River Trilogy, is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Corbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Passable overview of southeastern Native American culture. Has some factual errors that make me question the veracity of the rest of the book, like:
* Claiming “Chucalissa” is a Choctaw word when it’s actually Chickasaw and when that town was located in Chickasaw territory.
* Tries to use the fact that a town had a stockade to claim that Mississippian culture was a colonizing force, rather than a shared culture among Native peoples in a vast region, some of whom saw the need for defensive fortifications.
* Claims that the Chickasaw looked down on farming, when James Adair, who lived with them for years, reports in detail that they did in fact grow crops.
* The non-Native author tries to claim that “we inherited [the land] from our Indian ancestors”, somehow forgetting the centuries of genocide inflicted on Native people by European foreigners. If I squat in someone’s house and force them and their children out onto the streets, I didn’t “inherit” anything by any definition and their grandparents don’t magically become my ancestors.