Aztalan

We're in the process of updating our website! Learn more about what that means and how you can help create history..

Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town

Robert A. Birmingham and Lynne G. Goldstein

Explore the history and archaeological record of an early and thriving indigenous community in the Upper Midwest that mysteriously disappeared.

152 pages, 6 x 9, 35 b&w photos
Paperback: $16.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-362-6
Ebook: $12.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-518-7
Publication Date: 12/30/2005

BUY

-

Description

The city of Aztalan has remained a mystery ever since newly arrived American migrants came upon its ruins in the early nineteenth century while settling near the Crawfish River, fifty miles west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Who were the early indigenous people who inhabited this place? When did they live here? Why did they disappear? Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town seeks to unlock these mysteries and reveal the story behind the rise and fall of a large and lost Native American community.

Archaeologists and historians Robert Birmingham and Lynne Goldstein delve deep into the archaeological evidence and other research about the people of Aztalan and similar First Nations communities, providing insights and information about the group of people who settled here in 1100 CE. Filled with maps, drawings, and photographs of archaeological objects and sites, this volume examines what life was like nearly a thousand years ago in the place we now call Wisconsin.

Author Bios

Robert Birmingham

The former Wisconsin State Archaeologist and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin–Waukesha. He has researched and written about various historical and archaeological topics. The Wisconsin Historical Society Press has published three of his books: Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town (with Lynne Goldstein); Life, Death, and Archaeology at Fort Blue Mounds; and Skunk Hill: A Native Ceremonial Community in Wisconsin. He currently serves as the executive director of the Friends of Aztalan State Park. Birmingham lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Dr. Lynne Goldstein

Dr. Lynne Goldstein formerly served as professor and department chair of the Michigan State University Department of Anthropology. She has led excavations and other archaeological work at Aztalan and its vicinity since the 1980s and has published numerous articles on her work in archaeological journals. She is a national leader in North American archaeology and has received numerous awards. Goldstein is a former editor of the national journal American Antiquity. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

‘Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town’ is informative, enjoyable, and easy to read, a real gift to us from its two veteran-archaeologist authors. Written with a popular audience in mind, it is also a handy and up-to-date guide for professional archaeologists.

Dr. Timothy Pauketat

Author of “Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians”

“This is a delightful little book that tells the story of Aztalan and how archaeologists in the 20th century cracked its mysterious legacy.”
—American Archaeology magazine