Taking an archaeological perspective on the past, Jeffrey S. Girard traces native human habitation in northwest Louisiana from the end of the last Ice Age, through the formation of the Caddo culture in the tenth century BCE, to the early nineteenth century. Employing the results of recent scientific investigations, The Caddos and Their Ancestors depicts a distinct and dynamic population spanning from precolonial times to the dawn of the modern era. Girard grounds his research in the material evidence that defined Caddo culture long before the appearance of Europeans in the late seventeenth century. Reliance solely on documented observations by explorers and missionaries- which often reflect a Native American population with a static past- propagates an incomplete account of history. By using specific archaeological techniques, Girard reveals how the Caddos altered their lives to cope with ever-changing physical and social environments across thousands of years. This illuminating approach contextualizes the remnants of houses, mounds, burials, tools, ornaments, and food found at Native American sites in northwest Louisiana. Through ample descriptions and illustrations of these archaeological finds, Girard deepens understanding of the social organization, technology, settlement, art, and worldviews of this resilient society. This long-overdue examination of an often-overlooked cultural force provides a thorough yet concise history of the 14,000 years the Caddo people and their predecessors survived and thrived in what is now Louisiana.

Finely decorated ceramic vessels made for cooking, storage, and serving were a hallmark of Native Caddo cultures. The tradition began as many as 3,000 years ago among Woodland-period ancestors, thrived between c. 800 and 1800, and continues today in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. In Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions, eighteen experts offer a comprehensive assessment of recent findings about the manufacture and use of Caddo pottery, touching on craft technology, artistic and stylistic variation, and links between ancestral production and modern artistic expression. Part I discusses the evolution of ceramic design and morphology in the Caddo Archaeological Area by geographic region: southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, southeastern Oklahoma, and East Texas. It also gives focused study to the salt-making industry and its associated pottery. Part II features ceramic studies employing state-of-the-art techniques such as geochemical analysis, fine-grained analysis of stylistic elements, iconography, and network analysis. These essays yield increased understanding of specialized craft production and long-distance exchange; decorative variation at community and regional scales to reveal past communities of practice and identity; ancient Caddo cosmological and religious beliefs; and geographical variation in vessel forms. In Part III, two contemporary Caddos furnish an important Native perspective. Drawing on personal experience, they explore meaning and inspiration behind modern pottery productions as a cultural strategy for the persistence of community and identity. The first volume of its kind for Caddo archaeology, Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions is also a valuable reference on ceramic practices across the broader southeastern archaeological region.

Drawing on the latest archaeological fieldwork, Caddo Connections looks at the highly dynamic cultural landscape of the Caddo Area and its complex interconnections and exchanges with surrounding regions. The authors employ a multiscalar approach to examine cultural diversity through time and across space within the Caddo Area. They explore how and why this diversity developed, consider what allowed it to stabilize during the Mississippian period, and analyze changes following contact between historic Caddo peoples and Europeans. Looking beyond individual river valleys to the broader macroregion, they also address the linkages connecting the Caddo Area with the Southeast, southern Plains, and Southwest.