"In the decades since the recognition of Archaic mounds in the Lower Mississippi Valley, archaeologists have proposed many different, and often opposing, interpretations of their meaning: physical, social, residential, and sacred uses are among the field's top explanations, but these are far from the only proposed answers to the question of why the mounds were built. The culmination of over fifty years of research and study, Archaic Earthworks of the Lower Mississippi Valley is Jon L. Gibson's attempt to unpack the best explanations for these earthworks and the peoples who made them"--