Featured Books

Welcome to UMMAA Press

Since 1932, the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology (formerly the Museum of Anthropology) has been publishing academic books that feature excellent scholarship, meticulous research, and innovative interpretation. We continue this tradition today, publishing data-rich monographs on the archaeology and ethnology of North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Our comprehensive books include numerous illustrations, photographs, tables, and charts. They are priceless records of archaeological data, relevant to current and future research.

Warning: Some of our publications do contain images of human remains. We provide this warning for those individuals who do not wish to see photographs of human burials and human skeletal remains. In particular, this warning is posted out of respect for members of descendant communities who do not want to view images of their deceased ancestors.

As a museum and as scholars and authors, we are in the process of changing how we do research on human remains and how we present the results of that research. We thank the Native Americans who have worked with us over the years to institute these changes and who continue to collaborate with us, via the NAGPRA process, to bring their Ancestors home.

We present the research in these books in the spirit of that collaboration.

If you have concerns or questions about this warning or the contents of this book, please contact the director of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology.

New Book

Gheo-Shih: An Archaic Macroband Camp in the Valley of Oaxaca

By Frank Hole and Kent V. Flannery

Gheo-Shih, an Archaic site in the Valley of Oaxaca, was a 1.5 hectare open-air macroband camp near the Mitla River. It was repeatedly occupied in the summer rainy season during the period (cal.) 7500–4000 BC, possibly by 25–50 people. At other times of the year the local population dispersed in smaller, family-sized groups, occupying microband camps in caves and rockshelters. The available macrofossil and palynological data suggest that between 5000 and 4000 BC, the inhabitants were cultivating maize, squash, gourds, and (possibly) runner beans, while continuing to collect wild plants and hunt deer, rabbit, and mud turtle. 

This site report describes the discovery of Gheo-Shih and the subsequent research carried out there: a systematic surface pickup, a series of test pits, targeted excavations, and analysis of the materials recovered. 

See also Cueva Blanca: Social Change in the Archaic of the Valley of Oaxaca, by Kent V. Flannery and Frank Hole, 2019.

Order from the University of Michigan Press.

Memoir No. 66, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 2024
8.5 x 11 inches; 166 pages; 1 color and 214 b&w images

Price: $50

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-951538-77-4
  • Ebook ISBN: 978-1-951538-78-1

Contact Us

For further information about any of our publications, to place an order, or to receive email notification of our new titles, please contact us by telephone, fax, mail, or email.

The University of Michigan
Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
3010 School of Education Building
610 E. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259

ph:  734.998.6921
fax: 734.998.0732