Buried Beneath Us: Discovering the Ancient Cities of the Americas by Anthony Aveni (illustrated by Katherine Roy; Roaring Brook Press, 2013) covers the basics of four early American civilizations for the middle school and high school reader in less than 100 pages. With emphasis on the Aztec, Maya, Inca, and Cahokian civilizations, Aveni describes the evidence that has been found for these civilizations. His book discusses what cities are, how the cities grew, what daily life may have been like, how religion plays a part in the civilizations, and what the crumbled ruins can teach us.
Given what we know about the early American civilizations, they were violent, including human sacrifice and burial of people alive. Aveni treats these topics in a candid way, being direct about the violence and how these practices related directly to the lives and civilizations. Because of these gruesome and straightforward passages, Buried Beneath Us is a book best read by children ages 12+. I prefered the sections about Cahokia, as I was not as familiar with this ancient city, its development, and its ultimate fall. (Even this situation buried people alive, however.) In each section, I wish the description of civilizations were separated by location to provide selective reading, if desired.
The book is well put together. Illustrations break up the texts and are appropriately detailed, even if not exciting. Most illustrations have captions explaining the context of the image. End matter provides a pronunciation guide, source notes, and an index. It is a solid volume for researching the archeology, history, and traditions of a few of the ancient civilizations of the Americas.
