Certain enigmatic prehistoric constructions in the eastern United States were possibly designed partly as barriers to restrict the movement of spirits or to protect the enclosed area from unwanted supernatural influences. Ethnographic accounts indicate that in historic times the belief was widely held in the United States that ghosts could not pass through water and that the geometry of a circle was effective in countering magic or supernatural forces. Some implications for archaeology are explored.
Since 1935 American Antiquity has published original papers on the archaeology of the New World and on archaeological method, theory, and practice worldwide. Beginning in 1990, most papers on the archaeology and prehistory of Latin America appear in the Society for American Archaeology's Latin American Antiquity.
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American Antiquity
© 1976 Cambridge University Press
