"First-rate. . . . This book is excellent for both the general public and the general scholarly audience. . . . Lively, lucid prose."--Janet Catherine Berlo, University of Missouri, St. Louis

"Provides concise art historical analysis of works of art that have never been subjected to such analysis before. . . joining the best from old classics and the latest scholarship in the field. It's a huge task and O'Connor has done it well."--Amelia M. Trevelyan, Gettysburg College


When Columbus arrived on the shores of Hispaniola, a rich and complex civilization already existed that forms the core of American cultural history. Exploring ancient southeastern Indian sites from the metropolis of Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis), ancient capital of the American heartland, to the island stronghold of Calos, king of the Florida Calusa, Mallory O'Connor examines the significance of these prehistoric cultures.
Bringing together scholarship from classics in architecture, archaeology, and iconography, she discusses twenty sites of Mississippian culture, describing the religious patterns of the inhabitants and the sophisticated art works that supported their sacred practices. She also addresses the controversial topic of repatriation of Indian artifacts and the continuing problem of archaeological "looting" of Indian sites and ceremonial centers.
Lavishly illustrated with maps, site plans, and photographs of the ruins of ancient ceremonial centers along with sculpture, ceramics, and other artifacts, Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast captures the timeless beauty and technical sophistication of the art and architecture of pre-Columbian America.

Mallory McCane O'Connor is director of the Santa Fe Gallery, Santa Fe Community College, in Gainesville, Florida. She has taught art history at the University of Florida and has published articles on art history and on gender and art in Native North American Art History, American Indian Art Magazine, and Southern Quarterly.

Barbara Gibbs, a Gainesville-based photographer, served as a photographic consultant for the Amazonia Research Institute, Brazil, and has photographed sacred ceremonial sites in Latin America and the American Southwest. She has exhibited her photographs in California and Florida.

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"a well-written, popular, and highly informative survey of the architecture, archaeology, and iconography from twenty sites representative of the Mississippian culture or tradition that emerged among American Indians living in the Southeast after about 700 A.D. A brief bibliography enhances the value of this introduction to an immense subject."
--Journal of Southern History

"This book is a beautifuyl, well-constructed, and gracefully written tribute to a Southeastern past seen through the lens of a very modern point of view."
--Mississippi Archaeology

"Combining art history, anthropology, archaeology, and architecture, Mallory McCane O'Connor takes the reader on a pictorial and textual jounrey through th eprehistoric time and space to the Mississippi period (1000 B.C.-A.D. 1540) mound center of the Southeast." "O'Connor's site descriptions, aided by the photos of Barbara Gibbs, are wonderful." "an excellent and informative introductory work"
--Gulf Coast Historical Review