author
John T. (John Thomas) Short
1850–1883
An American archaeologist and writer from Columbus, Ohio, he is best known for The North Americans of Antiquity, an ambitious 1880 study of ancient cultures in North America, Mexico, and Central America. His work reflects the wide-ranging curiosity of nineteenth-century scholarship and helped introduce general readers to early American archaeology.
1 Audiobook
The North Americans of Antiquity Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization considered
by John T. (John Thomas) Short
About the author
Born in 1850 and associated with Columbus, Ohio, he built a reputation as a researcher of ancient American civilizations. He was elected to the American Antiquarian Society, a sign that his work was taken seriously by learned circles of his day.
His best-known book, The North Americans of Antiquity, brought together evidence and theories about the origins, migrations, and cultures of ancient peoples across North America and beyond. He also contributed writing on Ohio and appears in connection with scholarly reference works of the period.
He died in 1883, still young, and much of his reputation now rests on that major study, which remains accessible through public-domain libraries. Even where some nineteenth-century ideas have dated, his writing offers a vivid window into how early American archaeology was being explored and explained for a broad audience.