Preface

Issues 1 and 2 of Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology Volume 49 present recent archaeological research on precontact and postcontact communities in the Chicago area, updating and augmenting Charles R. Markman's Chicago Before History: The Prehistoric Archaeology of a Modern Metropolitan Area, published by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in 1991. For over 30 years, Markman's volume has stood as the only comprehensive publication on the precontact area of what was to become metropolitan Chicago. To date, there has been no later publication providing a broad overview on the archaeology of the Chicago region that includes new approaches utilizing new theoretical perspectives to the study of precontact lifeways. Perhaps more importantly, since the publication of Chicago Before History, the discipline overall has expanded significantly to include robust archaeological investigations of postcontact communities. In metropolitan Chicago, this research has highlighted the underrepresented or even hidden experiences of Indigenous peoples, immigrants,...