Mammoths and Empires: A History of Indigenous Discovery, Civilization, and Adaptation in the Americas

An absorbing, eye-opening narrative that looks through the lens of deep time and invites us to rethink human history—and our shared future. Long before the arrival of Columbus and other Europeans, Indigenous peoples were exploring continents, engineering ecosystems, and building powerful empires across the Americas. In Mammoths and Empire, archaeologist Todd Braje reveals the sweeping, often overlooked story of more than 15,000 years of human history in the Americas—beginning with Ice Age explorers navigating unfamiliar lands filled with mammoths and giant predators, and culminating in the rise of agricultural communities, cities, and empires that rivaled any in the ancient world. This is not a tale of vanished peoples or “primitive” cultures, but a bold recentering of American history as Indigenous history and a celebration of the enduring traditions of Indigenous peoples. Blending storytelling with cutting-edge science, Mammoths and Empire reveals how archaeologists study the past and how scientists unearth the stories of deep history.