The historian of science David Wootton (Reference Wootton2015) has recently suggested that a key distinguishing feature of the scientific revolution that began with the Renaissance was the establishment of facts—statements of truth established (and perhaps also disestablished) by experience. Particularly important to scientific progress has been the acknowledgment of ‘killer facts’ that demand the abandonment of established theories. Within archaeology, one might argue that traditional understanding of hunter-gatherer prehistory as simple, static and subsistence-focused—put simply, that these societies lacked history—has been undone by the growing list of exceptions, from Göbekli Tepe to Poverty Point. Randall's study of the Middle and Late Archaic period societies of the St Johns River Valley in Florida contributes to this emergent killer fact.

His study is centred specifically on the Mount Taylor culture period (7400–4600 cal BP) on the middle St Johns River. The first chapter describes the limitations on previous knowledge. The numerous shell and earthen mounds of the area were first recorded by the archaeologist Jeffries Wyman in the mid nineteenth century. Wyman's recognition of the mounds as native constructions put him well ahead of many of his peers. He also, however, drew a distinction between earthen burial mounds, which he recognised as monuments, and mounds of shell, which he interpreted as refuse piles. This massive over-generalisation persists, and Randall cites it as another reason that the scale and complexity of Archaic-period occupation of the St Johns River Valley have been underappreciated. A further limitation on our understanding has been the loss of sites to modern development.

In Chapter 2, Randall describes his approach to the investigation of shell mound communities. He frames this study as social history, with history here defined as both the practice of social actors and the construction of narratives. In the case of the native societies of the middle St Johns River, this history is recorded through the process of landscape inhabitation, which Randall argues allows access to both the mundane practices of public living and the construction of social memories as narratives about the past. Delineating this sort of history requires three objectives: documenting “variability in practices through time and across space”; “detailing genealogies or histories of practices, in order to understand how practices were innovated, deployed, revalued, ritualized, or extended”; and “tacking back and forth between many lines of evidence for placemaking and memory inscription at multiple scales” (p. 81).

Chapter 3 is a skilful summary of the relevant palaeoecological data for the study area. These data are ultimately rather ambiguous with regard to the Archaic landscape and climate, as well as to how these might have influenced the development of Mount Taylor culture. In general, however, Randall is able to conclude that it was a time of considerable variation, with cyclical flooding, rising water tables and temperature fluctuations.

Chapters 4 and 5 address the first of Randall's three objectives: documenting variability in practices across time and space. The former chapter provides a macro-scale view of Mount Taylor culture, focusing primarily on issues of timing, settlement, subsistence, technology and exchange. Chapter 5 looks to the internal dynamics of Mount Taylor culture. Here, Randall draws together his own detailed reading of the observations by early investigators such as Wyman, with insights drawn from historic aerial photographs, modern excavations and high resolution LiDAR data. Randall uses three temporal divisions to tell the history of this region: episodes 1 (7400–6350 cal BP) and 2 (6350–5700 cal BP) of the early Mount Taylor phase and the Thornhill Lake phase (5700–4600 cal BP). Shell-matrix sites are likewise divided into three primary configurations: linear or crescentic shell ridges (some as much as 250m long and 8m high); multiple mound complexes (most with a combination of one or two shell ridges and associated sand-and-shell burial mounds); and more variable ‘shell fields’ (consisting primarily of sites with middens less than 1m thick).

Chapter 6 addresses Randall's second objective, detailing genealogies of practice, using three case studies of commemorative activities. The first consists of the creation of early shell ridges during episode 1. These ridges were created on the site of smaller residences through routine or ritualised depositions. Their summits were eventually capped with shell and used for ceremonies that Randall suggests might have been timed to coincide with periods of abundance. Next, Randall examines how the landscape was reconfigured in episode 2. Mortuary mounds were added, and new shell ridges were constructed, often with ritualised referents to earlier monuments. Finally, in the Thornhill Lake phase, most of the pre-existing shell ridges were abandoned and new shell fields and other new kinds of places were created, often within sight of older ones. In this chapter, and in the conclusion (Chapter 7), Randall accomplishes his third objective of tacking between the evidence at multiple scales.

Randall writes eloquently, the text is logically organised and the figures are clear. This is, however, not a light read. At more than 250 pages of relatively small print, there is no economy of words. This mainly reflects the amount and complexity of data that Randall synthesises. The book is also dense with theory; even the data discussions contain frequent theoretical asides and allusions. Randall's writing also has a tendency towards meta-narrative that, while generally useful in guiding the reader through the organisation of the material, some may find wordy to the point of distraction.

Randall has given us a painstaking reconstruction of the Mount Taylor landscape of the middle St Johns River. It is the definitive data synthesis for the region; it is also a methodological model for the reconstruction of a landscape from fragmentary evidence; finally, it is an important repudiation of the notion that hunter-gatherers lack history.