A01=Timothy R. Pauketat
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Timothy R. Pauketat
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJK
Category=HDD
Category=NHKA
Category=NKD
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9780197645109
- Weight: 612g
- Dimensions: 164 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jul 2023
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
A sweeping account of Medieval North America when Indigenous peoples confronted climate change.
Few Americans today are aware of one of the most consequential periods in North American history--the Medieval Warm Period of seven to twelve centuries ago (AD 800-1300 CE)--which resulted in the warmest temperatures in the northern hemisphere since the "Roman Warm Period," a half millennium earlier. Reconstructing these climatic events and the cultural transformations they wrought, Timothy Pauketat guides readers down ancient American paths walked by Indigenous people a millennium ago, some trod by Spanish conquistadors just a few centuries later. The book follows the footsteps of priests, pilgrims, traders, and farmers who took great journeys, made remarkable pilgrimages, and migrated long distances to new lands.
Along the way, readers will discover a new history of a continent that, like today, was being shaped by climate change--or controlled by ancient gods of wind and water. Through such elemental powers, the history of Medieval America was a physical narrative, a long-term natural and cultural experience in which Native people were entwined long before Christopher Columbus arrived or Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs.
Spanning most of the North American continent, Gods of Thunder focuses on remarkable parallels between pre-contact American civilizations separated by a thousand miles or more. Key archaeological sites are featured in every chapter, leading us down an evidentiary trail toward the book's conclusion that a great religious movement swept Mesoamerica, the Southwest, and the Mississippi valley, sometimes because of worsening living conditions and sometimes by improved agricultural yields thanks to global warming a thousand years ago. The author also includes a guide to visiting the archaeological sites discussed in the book.
Timothy R. Pauketat is Professor of Anthropology and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He previous publications include The Archaeology of Ancient North America, The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology (as editor), and Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi.
