Brown and Connaway have each devoted over 50 years of their lives to investigating the
archaeology of the Southeastern United States. The Lower Mississippi Valley has been a
point of overlap in their work, as has the study of historic trade bells. In this volume they
each contribute three essays relating to trade bells, four of the works having been
published previously and two being new to the field.
 
"Jeffrey M. Mitchem, noted Southeastern U.S. scholar, says in his Foreword to the book,
Both Ian and John have published several bell studies in diverse venues, and some of these are difficult to find. Some are out of print, and others are in periodicals that are difficult to locate. Archaeologists and other researchers will therefore welcome this  compendium of papers in a single volume. For the first time all the pertinent papers are in a single volume, and researchers will no longer have to gather a big stack of books to clutter their lab space and strain their pocketbooks. A welcome addition to the archaeologist’s toolkit!"