Vernon James Knight, Jr, is Professor of Anthropology and College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board Fellow at the University of Alabama. He is a recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the Wenner–Gren Foundation, among others. The author of numerous books and articles, his book Mound Excavations at Moundville: Architecture, Elites, and Social Order was the winner of the 2011 Society for American Archaeology scholarly book prize.
Knight offers a revolutionary departure from earlier studies, and at the same time advances an extraordinary and timely contribution forged from the best that art history and archaeology have to offer the iconographic study of American Indian symbolic forms. Significantly, the author advances 18 essential principles or propositions critical to the rigorous analysis and interpretation of iconographic forms, and these alone will undoubtedly prompt new directions and revolutionary new interpretations in New World prehistory. Essential. --Choice