Recipient of the 1994 Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize

This comprehensive study provides a history of New Deal archaeology in the Southeast in the 1930s and early 1940s and focuses on the projects of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civil Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Park Service, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Utilizing primary sources including correspondence and unpublished reports, Lyon demonstrates the great importance of the New Deal projects in the history of southeastern and North American archaeology. New Deal archaeology transformed the practice of archaeology in the Southeast and created the basis for the discipline that exists today. With the current emphasis on curation and repatriation, archaeologists and historians will find this volume invaluable in reconstructing the history of the projects that generated the many collections that now fill our museums.

 

Edwin A. Lyon is an archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University.

"A founding reference to an analytical history of southeastern archaeology. . . . Thorough, solid, and valuable."

—American Antiquity

"The story of one of the most exciting chapters in the history of American science: the transformation of archaeology from dilettante's hobby to scientific profession . . . Lyon portrays this magnificent contribution with skill and enthusiasm, and a historian's fine appreciation for detail."

—Public Archaeology Review