"A masterful integration of archaeological and historical information."--George R. Milner, Pennsylvania State University

"A convincing account of where these people came from, and what happened to them in the shadowy years after their fateful encounter with De Soto's Spanish army."--Vernon J. Knight, University of Alabama

Writing about a powerful Native American society at the dawn of European contact, Marvin Smith, in a colorfully illustrated book, traces the rise and collapse of the chiefdom of Coosa, located in the Ridge and Valley province of northwestern Georgia and adjacent states.

From humble beginnings, Coosa became one of the most important chiefdoms in the Southeast, dominating a territory from present eastern Tennessee to central Alabama. Following contact with three Spanish expeditions in the 16th century, Coosa began its rapid descent. Disease, population movements, political collapse, and changes in subsistence and technology enveloped the population in the ensuing years. By the beginning of the 18th century, the once powerful chiefdom had been reduced to a few towns in the Creek Confederacy.

Explaining for the first time this remarkable demise, Smith blends historical and archaeological evidence to tell the complex story. Written for a general interest audience, it also will be a valuable reference work for the study of the material culture of the contact period.

Marvin T. Smith is professor of anthropology at Valdosta State University in Georgia. He is the author of more than 70 scholarly publications, including The Archaeology of Aboriginal Culture Change in the Interior Southeast: Depopulation during the Early Historic Period (UPF, 1992). In 1992 he received the C. B. Moore Award for Excellence presented by the Lower Mississippi Survey at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference.