A Serpent’s Tale: Discovering America’s Ancient Mound Builders By Lorett Treese

Abstract

Lorett Treese undertakes a blend of travelogue-cum-literature review of Western archaeological sources on the ancient Mound Builders. From Thomas Jefferson’s speculations in 1782, through Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis’s 1848 works, and Cyrus Thomas’s writings (1884–1894)—all commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution—and into the mid-twentieth century with the Archaeological Society of Ohio’s sponsored digs, Treese gives a meticulous summary of outmoded Euro-American takes on the mounds.