The existence of monumental archaeological sites in the American Southwest and elsewhere (primarily the mounds of the Eastern Woodlands) have long been a source of both fascination and frustration for archaeologists and non-archaeologists alike. The existence of these remnants of “lost” civilizations led to ruminations, not only on the nature of those civilizations and their relation to descendent communities (an association generally denied before the rise of professional archaeology) but about time, loss, and the limits of knowledge of our past. As the most archaeological of Romantic poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote in “Ozymandias”:

中文翻译：

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编辑介绍

长期以来，美国西南地区和其他地区（主要是东部林地的丘陵）的考古遗址的存在一直是考古学家和非考古学家都为之着迷和沮丧的原因。这些“遗失”文明残余的存在不仅导致了反思，不仅在于这些文明的性质及其与后代社区的关系（在专业考古学兴起之前通常被否定的一个协会），而且还涉及时间，损失和限制。对我们过去的了解。作为浪漫主义诗人最考古的作品，珀西·比希·雪莱（Percy Bysshe Shelley）在《 Ozymandias》中写道：