Penelope B. Drooker

While contact with explorers, missionaries, and traders made a significant impact on natives of the Eastern Woodlands, Indian peoples cannot be solely understood from the historical record. Here, in ""Societies in Eclipse"", archaeologists combine recent research with insights from anthropology, historiography, and oral tradition to examine the cultural landscape preceding and immediately following the arrival of Europeans. The evidence suggests that native societies were in the process of significant cultural transformation prior to contact.

Because textiles rarely are preserved in the archaeological record outside of deserts and permafrost areas, in many regions of the world very little is known about their characteristics, functions, production technology, or socioeconomic importance. While this fact is also true of organic fabrics produced during the Mississippian period in southeastern North America, a wide variety of Mississippian textiles has been preserved in the form of impressions on large pottery vessels. From attribute analysis of 1574 fabrics impressed on Wickliffe pottery sherds and comparison of the impressions with extant Mississippian textile artifacts, Drooker presents an analysis of these materials.