Monday, October 06, 2008

What stone mound problem?

From the bibliography of "An Introduction to the Pre-history of Indiana" online.

Kellar, James H.

1960 The C. L. Lewis Stone Mound and the Stone Mound Problem. Indiana Historical Society, Prehistory Research Series, Vol. 3, No. 4. Indianapolis.

Does anyone have access to this article?

3 comments :

Norman said...

What do you want to know about the Kellar article?

pwax said...

What is the "problem"?

Norman said...

Kellar defines the problem thus:
"Because of voiced and published statements suggesting that stone mounds were themselves culturally diagnostic and because the Adena identification for the Lewis Mound appeared to provide a good datum for evaluating such contentions, an extensive compilation of data was undertaken. As it developed, the Lewis Mound was concluded to have little relevance to the larger problem.."

There is a lot of important information in the article, particularly Part II (pp.401-412). Here, the author quotes Moorehead (1896), who excavated a number of stone mounds and wrote: "It is certain that scientists can learn nothing more from them and further excavation of these small stone structures are(sic) unnecessary."

Stone mounds in the Ohio Valley are discussed on pages 413-445, and those in the Eastern U.S. are discussed on pages 446-459. The ten page bibliography at the end should be combed through carefully.