A serpent's tale
Subtitle: discovering America's ancient mound builders
By: Lorett Treese
Publisher: Westholme Publishing
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9781594162633
Subjects: Mounds; Mound-builders; Antiquities; Indians of North America
Description: When American settlers first crossed the Appalachian Mountains they were amazed to discover that the wilderness beyond contained ancient ruins - large man-made mounds and enclosures, and impressive earthen sculptures, such as a gigantic serpent. Reports trickled back to the eager ears of President Thomas Jefferson and others. However, most did not believe these earthworks had anything to do with Native Americans; rather, given the intense interest in the history of Western Civilization at the time, it became popular to speculate that the ruins had been built by refugees from Greece, Rome, Egypt - or even the lost continent of Atlantis. Since their discovery, the mounds have attracted both scholars and quacks, from the first investigations sponsored by the then new Smithsonian Institution to the visions of the American psychic Edgar Cayce.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-279) and index.
Table of contents: title: A serpent's tale; title: Genteel Virginia gets news from the frontier; title: "Let us open the tombs..."; title: The lost civilizations; title: Mormons and the mounds; title: That old-time religion; title: Fall of the empire; title: The Hopewell culture of death; title: The eclipsed adena; title: Fort ancient; title: So what's the alternative?