Bringing together major archaeological research projects from Virginia to Alabama, this volume explores the rich prehistory of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. Beginning 50,000 years ago, contributors consider how the region's warm weather, abundant water, and geography have long been optimal for the habitation of people. They highlight demographic changes and cultural connections across this wide span of time and space. New data are provided here for many sites, including evidence for human settlement before the Clovis period at the famous Topper site in South Carolina. Contributors track the progression of sea level rise that gradually submerged shorelines and landscapes, and they discuss the possibility of a comet collision that triggered the Younger Dryas cold reversion and contributed to the extinction of mammoths and mastodons. Essays also examine the various stone materials used by prehistoric foragers, the location of chert quarries, and the details stone tools reveal about social interaction and mobility. Addressing many controversial questions in the archaeology of the early Southeast, this volume adds new evidence to the ongoing discussions and debates.

Bringing together major archaeological research projects from Virginia to Alabama, this volume explores the rich prehistory of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. Contributors consider how the region's warm weather, abundant water, and geography have long been optimal for the habitation of people beginning 50,000 years ago. They highlight demographic changes and cultural connections across this wide span of time and space.New data are provided here for many sites, including evidence for human settlement before the Clovis period at the famous Topper site in South Carolina. Contributors track the progression of sea level rise that gradually submerged shorelines and landscapes, and they discuss the possibility of a comet collision that triggered the Younger Dryas cold reversion and contributed to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna like mastodons and mammoths. Essays also examine the various stone materials used by prehistoric foragers, the location of chert quarries, and the details stone tools reveal about social interaction and mobility.This volume synthesizes more than fifty years of research and addresses many of today's controversial questions in the archaeology of the early Southeast, such as the sudden demise of the Clovis technoculture and the recognition of the mysterious "Middle Paleoindian" period.Contributors: Robert J. Austin | Mark J. Brooks | Christopher R. Moore | I Randolph Daniel | Joseph E. Wilkinson | Joseph Schuldenrein | Allen West | David K. Thulman | James K. Feathers | Terry E. Barbour II | Douglas Sain | Thomas A. Jennings | Albert C. Goodyear | Andrew H. Ivester | Malcolm A. LeCompte | Adam M. Burke | James S. Dunbar | Jon Endonino | Richard Estabrook | H. Blaine Ensor | Victor Adedeji | Douglas J. Kennett | Ashley M. Smallwood | Kara Bridgman Sweeney | Sam Upchurch | James P. Kennett | Wendy S. Wolbach | M. Scott Harris | Ted Bunch | David G. Anderson | C. Andrew Hemmings | James. M. Adovasio

Discovered during construction of the I-75 corridor northeast of Tampa, the site of Harney Flats was a turning point in the archaeology of the southeastern United States. Beneath evidence of human settlement from the Middle Archaic period, researchers unearthed Paleoindian stone tools - representing a rare example of a stratified site in the Southeast with a Paleoindian occupation. The expansive excavations at Harney Flats demonstrated that significant land-based sites of early human settlement exist in Florida and are worth exploring. Harney Flats describes the excavation, which was praised for its state-of-the-art strategy and interpretive methods despite its sandy environment, and details the objects uncovered - projectile points, scrapers, adzes - and what they reveal about the lives of the people who used them. Including an update on relevant research since its first publication, this volume is the definitive account of a critical finding in the study of early human history.