A sweeping account of Medieval North America when Indigenous peoples
confronted climate change.
Few Americans today are aware of one of the most consequential periods
in North American history--the Medieval Warm Period of seven to twelve
centuries ago (AD 800-1300 CE)--which resulted in the warmest
temperatures in the northern hemisphere since the "Roman Warm Period," a
half millennium earlier. Reconstructing these climatic events and the
cultural transformations they wrought, Timothy Pauketat guides readers
down ancient American paths walked by Indigenous people a millennium
ago, some trod by Spanish conquistadors just a few centuries later. The
book follows the footsteps of priests, pilgrims, traders, and farmers
who took great journeys, made remarkable pilgrimages, and migrated long
distances to new lands.
Along the way, readers will discover a new history of a continent that,
like today, was being shaped by climate change--or controlled by ancient
gods of wind and water. Through such elemental powers, the history of
Medieval America was a physical narrative, a long-term natural and
cultural experience in which Native people were entwined long before
Christopher Columbus arrived or Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs.
Spanning most of the North American continent, Gods of Thunder focuses
on remarkable parallels between pre-contact American civilizations
separated by a thousand miles or more. Key archaeological sites are
featured in every chapter, leading us down an evidentiary trail toward
the book's conclusion that a great religious movement swept Mesoamerica,
the Southwest, and the Mississippi valley, sometimes because of
worsening living conditions and sometimes by improved agricultural
yields thanks to global warming a thousand years ago. The author also
includes a guide to visiting the archaeological sites discussed in the
book.
