Fishweirs is the first book ever devoted entirely to the long established, globally significant practice of harvesting masses of freshwater and coastal saltwater fishes by human beings.
Fishweirs is substantive yet accessible, and is one result of more than thirty years of research on the subject by the author.
It is an important reference volume; it will serve as a baseline from which future studies of fishweirs and the mass harvesting of freshwater and coastal saltwater fishes will depart; it will increase public awareness of what once was an important method of resource procurement and the surviving evidence of that activity; and it will guide historians, anthropologists, cultural and natural resource managers, and policymakers in identifying, evaluating, and assessing these distinctive elements of the cultural landscape. Fishweirs is Archaeological Report No. 33 of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
John M. Connaway was born in New London, Connecticut, and grew up in Helena, Arkansas. He holds degrees in biology and anthropology (B.A.) and anthropology (M.A.) from the University of Mississippi, and has been employed as a field archaeologist by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History since 1968. Connaway has specialized in the prehistoric archaeology of Mississippi and has authored several books, monographs, and articles on the subject.