Study Guide
Grades 9-12, College, Adult
Directed by T.W. Timreck and William Goetzmann
DVD Purchase $79, Rent $45
US Release Date: 1987
Copyright Date: 1987
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-650-0
VHS ISBN: 1-56029-235-0
Subjects
American Studies
Anthropology
Archaeology
Arctic Studies
History
Humanities
Indigenous Peoples
Native Americans
Social Studies
Awards and Festivals
CINE Golden Eagle
Editor's Choice, Booklist
Red Ribbon, American Film & Video Festival
Bronze Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival
American Indian Film & Video Festival
PBS Broadcast: NOVA
The Discovery of a Prehistoric North American Sea Culture
Advanced seafaring culture lived in New England 7000 years ago.
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"An excellent synthesis of significant new discoveries and interpretations." Science Books & Films |
Did you know that a seafaring American tribe explored the shores of North America 7000 years ago? Or that these ancient Americans rivaled their European counterparts in navigational skills several millennia before the Vikings?
THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST RED PAINT PEOPLE follows U.S., Canadian, and European scientists from the barrens of Labrador - where archaeologists uncover an ancient stone burial mound - to sites in the U.S., France, England, and Denmark, and to the vast fjords of northernmost Norway where monumental standing stones testify to links among seafaring cultures across immense distances.
This film represents the first publication in any medium that has synthesized these new discoveries and attempted to draw a picture of the northeastern sea peoples, whom scientists refer to as the Maritime Archaic.
Reviews
"This technically superb film provides an excellent synthesis of significant new discoveries and interpretations."
Science Books and Films
"Ten years in the making, this film is a major accomplishment."
American Anthropologist
"These new discoveries are totally unknown to the public and also even to many scholars of North American prehistory... It is the best film on northeastern archeology that I have seen and should help develop public interest in a long-lost chapter of our continent's prehistoric cultures."
William Fitzhugh, Curator, Smithsonian Institution
"Making archival material accessible in an exciting way, this video informs students and special interest groups about an advanced Native American culture and the history of archaeology."
Booklist
"This film remains a vivid introduction to some fascinating archaeological sites and cultures of the Northeast. It is effective in showing how ideas change and how new archaeological information can be brought to bear on old problems. It would be an appropriate film for college courses in North American archaeology and archaeological methods."
Janet Rafferty, Mississippi State University (Anthropology Review Database)