(1821-88). American journalist who, together with his colleague E.H. Davis, made a study of the prehistoric mounds of the eastern USA. Their book Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published in 1848, contained detailed description and classification of the mounds, but concluded that they were constructed by a lost race of moundbuilders, who had migrated away from the area (perhaps to Mexico), rather than by the ancestors of the surviving American Indians of the area.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied