Table of Contents

Introduction: An Archaeology of Mississippian Ritual Practices

Part I Sacred Bundles

Chapter 1: Dressing and Caring for the Spirits: The Role of Sacred Bundles in Siouan Society

Chapter 2: Ritual Languages of the Southeast: Sacred Bundles in the Memory Theaters of Mississippian Period Ritualism

Chapter 3: Nested Bundles Within Etowah’s Mound C

Chapter 4: “Cradleboard Figurines” Or Icons of Sacred Bundles?

Chapter 5: Regalia and Sacred Bundles from Mound 1 at the Castalian Spring Mounds, Tennessee

Part II Other-Than-Human Persons and Ritual Caches

Chapter 6: The Link Farm Cache: Invoking the Ancestors and Supplicating the Hero Twins

Chapter 7: Earth Mother in the Middle Cumberland, Beneath World Powers, and a Portal to the Otherworld

Chapter 8: Medicine for the Dead: Shell Gorgets as Accompaniments for Rites of Passage

Part III Elite Regalia

Chapter 9: Hair, Hats, and Headdresses as Symbolic Regalia in Missouri Rock Art

Chapter 10: Caddo Regalia in Context: Historic and Ethnographic Examples

Chapter 11: Mississippian Regalia at Lake Jackson: Elaborate Finery, Insignia of Office, Ritual Paraphernalia, and Material Symbols of Elite Status

About the Author

David H. Dye is professor of archaeology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Memphis.

Reviews

Mississippian Culture Heroes, Ritual Regalia, and Sacred Bundles is an essential read for archaeologists researching and thinking about Mississippian symbols. It addresses important and timely issues, such as the use and depiction of ceremonial bundles and ritual regalia, as well as the significance of culture heroes and other-than-human persons in Mississippian belief systems and cosmologies. Certain chapters also focus on under-discussed mound centers, such as the Castalian Springs, Link Farm, and Lake Jackson sites, in ways that alter our understanding of these Mississippian communities. Additionally, its chapters engage in pertinent discussions about how Mississippian symbols were intertwined with ceremonial practices and memory in ways that are sure to influence future archaeological analyses.
*Bretton T. Giles*