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Those Who Came Before
Robert H. Lister & Florence C. Lister
A handsome, authoritative introduction to the archaeology of the ancient Southwest, told through the lens of the national parks and monuments that protect it. Robert and Florence Lister — two of the most experienced Southwestern archaeologists of their generation — walk the reader through dozens of sites across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, explaining who the ancestral peoples were, what they built, and how we have come to know them, along with the story of the archaeologists who first dug there. Illustrated with fine historic photographs, it is the rare park-association book that is both a genuine scholarly overview and an inviting companion for a traveler standing among the ruins.
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The authors
Robert H. Lister (1915–1990) and Florence C. Lister were a prolific husband-and-wife team at the center of twentieth-century Southwestern archaeology, associated with major work at Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and beyond. They wrote for scholars and the public alike, and this book shows that double gift.
The book
Published by the Southwest Parks and Monuments Association (this copy a 1986 second printing of the 1983 edition; it was later substantially revised and expanded). It surveys the prehistoric cultures of the Southwest as preserved and interpreted across dozens of National Park System sites, illustrated with duotone photographs from the George A. Grant Collection and a color portfolio.
How it has aged
Well as an accessible overview, though terminology has shifted since: "Anasazi," standard when it was written, has largely given way to "Ancestral Puebloans" out of respect for descendant communities. The archaeological picture keeps being refined, but as an orientation to the sites and their stories it remains genuinely useful.
For more context
The Listers' other Southwestern books; and Craig Childs's more recent, literary House of Rain on the Ancestral Puebloan world.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Robert H. Lister & Florence C. Lister
- Publisher
- Southwest Parks and Monuments Association
- Place of publication
- Tucson, Arizona
- Year
- 1983
- Edition
- Second printing (1986)
- ISBN
- 0-8165-0851-8
- Shelf
- History
- Location
- Maine