Ian W. Brown's recent monograph published by the Louisiana Archaeological Society and Borgo Publishing, The Petite Anse Project: Archaeological Investigations along the West-central Coast of Louisiana, 1978–1979, is a weighty declaration of coastal Louisiana prehistory and an important read for any scholar interested in coastal Native American archaeology, salt production, and Mississippian trade and exchange. His monograph covers the full prehistory of the region, from its oldest inhabitants to its more recent ones, and adroitly considers the archaeology relative to ecology and environment and, consequently, opens itself up to those interested in historical ecology, environmental archaeology, and topics related to resilience and sustainability.

For those working in coastal Louisiana or nearby, Brown's thorough and detailed descriptions of material culture, which constitute the second chapter, provide an easy-to-read and accessible reference for students and scholars who do not have access to his archives at the Gulf Coast Survey. For the study of southern Louisiana material culture, this report is the second best thing to working directly with his type collections. Thorough in-text descriptions are of pottery, stone artifacts, and bone and antler objects and include richly detailed images, spatial distributions, and the chronological and temporal position of each artifact.

If you are an environmental archaeologist, ecologist, and/or coastal scientist interested in learning more about prehistoric life in aquatic environments, the following three sections, as well as the natural setting section of the introductory chapter, will be of special importance, as they each describe archaeological sites in different settings: salt domes and prairie terraces, the Chenier plain, and along waterways. By contextualizing the archaeology of each of these regions within specific environments, the volume provides the reader the opportunity to compare and contrast how indigenous architecture, site plans, site function, and material culture vary across different ecosystems. In the penultimate chapter, the author enumerates and describes these differences by presenting a sequence of maps for the region by time period, which feature diagnostic artifacts and cultural phases.

In the final concluding chapter, Brown dedicates three short pages to wrapping up and summarizing his thoughts. Important subsistence- and history-oriented conclusions are offered, especially regarding population shifts during the transition to maize agriculture, the timing and technology of salt production on Avery Island, and the presence of nonlocal, Mississippian populations on the island. My only critique here is that I would have liked to hear more from him in this concluding chapter; given that this is a data-oriented monograph, perhaps we can expect a future volume offering greater insight into his interpretations on the significance of ecology and environment on the long-term history of indigenous coastal Louisiana communities.

Reading The Petite Anse Project has been an exercise is revisiting lessons from Brown's work, which include his emphasis on site locations, environments, architecture, site plans, and material culture. His clear and detailed writing avoids inferential leaps, focusing on data, and allows readers to draw their own interpretations and conclusions. For this, it is an excellent volume, because he writes with an eye towards the practicing archaeologist, one who would seek solutions to problems of identifying material culture and defining cultural sequences in a region that undeservingly sees too little attention. I remember an early lesson in the field; Dr. Brown standing on a prominent landscape feature in the southern Mississippi Bluffs, describing how a certain place felt to him and what it may have meant to humans hundreds of years ago. In the preface, Brown describes how he felt on his first visit to Avery Island. This book is a reminder of one of his most enduring lessons: that the experience of a place and its material culture must simultaneously be employed to understand its archaeology. Since the island is open to tourists, where you can visit the McIlhenny Tabasco factory, you too can experience this yourself. Bring a copy of The Petite Anse Project with you.