Education
William Romain received his Doctor of Philosophy in archaeology from the University of Leicester and Master of Arts
(Buried beneath today's Midwestern towns, under several la...)
Buried beneath today's Midwestern towns, under several layers of earth and the accumulated debris of two thousand years, are the clues to an ancient mystery. A Native American people, now known as the Hopewell, lived and worked these lands, building earthworks which in some instances dwarf the ruins at Stonehenge. More significantly, these mammoth earthworks were built in different geometric shapes, using a standard unit of measure and aligned to the cycles of the sun and the moon. Using the foundation of existing scholarship, Mysteries of the Hopewell presents new discoveries showing the accomplishments of the Mound Builders in astronomy, geometry, measurement, and counting. William Romain then goes one step further to theorize why generations of people toiled to move millions of tons of earth to form these precise structures, joining the ranks of the Egyptians, Mayans, Greeks, Chinese, and other advanced ancient cultures. William Romain's Mysteries of the Hopewell will appeal to many readers, including anthropologists, mathematicians, and historians, but perhaps especially to readers curious about ancient cultures and seeking explanations for these magnificent earthen structures.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931968047/?tag=2022091-20
(Two thousand years ago, Native Americans created thousand...)
Two thousand years ago, Native Americans created thousands of mounds and geometrically shaped earthworks across the Eastern Woodlands. Many are larger than Stonehenge; most are aligned to celestial events. Among the most impressive of these earthworks were those created by people of the Adena and Hopewell cultures in south and central Ohio. This book presents one of the most comprehensive and detailed studies of the Ohio earthworks ever written. More than one hundred sites are documented using on-site photographs, maps, and LiDAR imagery. Using these data the author assesses each earthwork relative to its astronomy, geometry, mensuration, and landscape setting. The author then shows how earthworks were integral to Adena-Hopewell religious beliefs and practices. For the Adena-Hopewell, the landscape - to include earth, sky, and water were part of who they were. To move through the landscape was to engage with the sacred. Using new approaches drawn from relational archaeology and state of the art technology, this book examines and explains the deep connection between ancient Native Americans and the land.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692492267/?tag=2022091-20
( Shamans of the Lost World bridges the gap between rec...)
Shamans of the Lost World bridges the gap between recent work in the cognitive sciences and some of humankind's oldest religious expressions. In this detailed look at the prehistoric shamanism of the Ohio Hopewell, Romain uses cognitive science, archaeology, and ethnology to propose that the shamanic worldview results from psychological mechanisms that have a basis in our cognitive evolutionary development. The discussions in this volume of the most current theories concerning how early peoples came to believe in spirits and gods, as well as how those theories help account for what we find in the archaeological record of the Hopewell, are of interest to archaeologists and cognitive scientists alike.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0759119066/?tag=2022091-20
William Romain received his Doctor of Philosophy in archaeology from the University of Leicester and Master of Arts
Degree in anthropology from Kent State University. He is Director of The Ancient Earthworks Project. He specializes in the study of ancient religions, cognitive archaeology, and archaeoastronomy.
William Romain pioneered the use of LIDAR technology for the analyses of ancient earthworks - most notably those of the Eastern Woodlands.
In 2011 Romain led a team of archaeologists (collectively known as The Serpent Mound Project) in an investigation of Serpent Mound, in Adams County, Ohio. This was the first major investigation of the effigy in more than one hundred years and included Geoprobe coring, hand coring, limited excavation, ground-penetrating radar, and electric resistivity analysis.
Among the results were new radiocarbon dates for the effigy suggesting it was built about 2,300 years ago by people of the Early Woodland period.
(Buried beneath today's Midwestern towns, under several la...)
( Shamans of the Lost World bridges the gap between rec...)
(Two thousand years ago, Native Americans created thousand...)