Invisible Founders: How Two Centuries of African American Families Transformed a Plantation into a College

Abstract

whole. This is a problem that needs to be ameliorated at a higher level by archaeologists collaborating across state lines. Another concern is that mound building does not emerge until the chapter on Woodland-period sites. This is due to the fact that there do not appear to be any knownArchaic-periodmound sites in northwest Louisiana, but this means that the inexperienced reader may draw the conclusion that Archaic-period peoples did not build mounds at all. In fact, the author definitively states that “Archaic-period people living in the Red River drainage of northwest Louisiana did not constructmounds” (28). I challenge this by positing that while archaeological investigations may not have yet provided evidence of such activity in the region, this does not mean that these people did not travel outside of the area and participate in such activities elsewhere. The author does recognize the existence of nearby Watson Brake and Poverty Point during the Archaic-period in northeast Louisiana, but discusses these as a lead-in to the chapter on Woodland-period sites. This means that the discussion in the earlier chapter on Paleoindianand Archaic-period archaeology is artificially separated from contemporaneous mound building activities in which the Caddo ancestors may have participated. Despite these criticisms, I would like to recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the archaeology of the southeastern United States. The book is succinct and relatively short yet served as a good primer for me as an archaeologist recently relocated to southeast Arkansas who is learning about the region for the first time. The abundance of maps, drawings, and photographs also make it visually appealing. One can use this volume as a handy reference to important sites and publications related to the region as well as a good example of how archaeology is done more generally in the Southeast.