The foreword discusses Native American worldviews as critical in understanding the relationship between the living world and nonliving stone architecture dotting the landscape, a concept demonstrated throughout the book’s 14 chapters. Three chapters are written from a Native American perspective, six are from the viewpoint of archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians, and five chapters explore specific Ceremonial Stone Landscape (CSL) sites in eastern North America.
This text successfully addresses problems frequently encountered during ceremonial stone site research such as origin, function, and—most perplexing—whether stone structures sites were constructed historically by Euro-Americans as part of their secular land clearing and agrarian activities or by Native Americans as visual sacred stone monuments and conduits intertwined with the spiritual world.
Editors Lucianne Lavin and Elaine Thomas aptly describe the book as an introduction to Indigenous ceremonial landscapes enabling readers to recognize the significant cultural importance of 17th- to 20th-century CSLs and to highlight the need to preserve and protect these cultural resources. The introduction briefly covers the interesting history of the 33 United South and Eastern Tribes and the 2008 identification of the Turner Falls Airport Site, the first CSL recognized by the federal government and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Lavin and Thomas touch on the use of modern technology, such as the Geographic Information System and optically stimulated luminescence dating technology to better understand these sites, as well as tips to identify CSL sites.
Our Hidden Landscape: Indigenous Stone Ceremonial Sites in Eastern North America is written by an eclectic group of knowledgeable authors who provide diverse perspectives on these sacred stone structures. Though generally focused on sites in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, it is applicable to CSLs throughout North America, and will undoubtedly become a go-to reference source for anyone interested in future CSL research.
—Harry Holstein, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Jacksonville State University
