Introduction: Reconsidering the archaeology of the lower Mississippi River Valley / Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock -- The Interstate 69 project in Mississippi : generation of an archaeological synthesis / John R. Underwood, James H. Turner, and Kevin L. Bruce -- Archaeology in the lower Mississippi Valley / Robert C. Dunnell -- Archaeological things : languages of observation / Robert C. Dunnell -- Paleoenvironmental modeling in the lower Mississippi River Valley : past and future approaches / Evan Peacock -- Settlement patterns, occupations, and field methods / Janet Rafferty -- Prehistoric settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley : a critical review / Carl P. Lipo and Robert C. Dunnell -- Absolute dating in the Mississippi Delta / James K. Feathers -- Bioarchaeology in the Mississippi Delta / S. Homes Hogue -- Through the lens of the lithic analyst : the organization of Mississippi Delta chipped-stone technologies / Philip J. Carr -- Review of ceramic compositional studies from in and around the Mississippi Valley / Hector Neff -- Ceramic petrography and the classification of Mississippi's archaeological pottery by fabric : a GIS approach / Michael L. Galaty -- Faunal research in the Yazoo Basin and lower Mississippi Valley : setting parameters for future research in the I-69 corridor, Mississippi / H. Edwin Jackson -- Paleoethnobotanical information and issues relevant to the I-69 overview process, northwest Mississippi / Gayle J. Fritz -- Archaeological remote sensing research in the Yazoo Basin : a history and evaluation / Jay K. Johnson -- Culture contact along the I-69 corridor : protohistoric and historic use of the northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi / Ian W. Brown -- Sad song in the Delta : the potential for historical archaeology in the I-69 corridor / Amy L. Young -- Fording the river : concluding comments / Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock.