Transcript North American Archaeology

A Culture History of
North America
With a particular focus on the Paleoindian,
Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian
periods of the Midwest and East
General Timeline
 Paleoindian (18,000-10,000 B.P.)
 Archaic (10,000-3,000 B.P.)
 Woodland (3,000-1,000 B.P.)

Northeast continues in the Woodland tradition
until contact.
 Mississippian (1,000-500 B.P.)

In Midwest and Southeast
Paleoindian
 Early Paleoindian (18,000-11,750 B.P.)


Meadowcroft Rockshelter, PA
Monte Verde, Chile
 Middle Paleoindian (11,750-10,900 B. P.)


Clovis Culture/Clovis Fluted Projectile points
Clovis, NM
 Late Paleoindian (10,900-10,000 B.P.)


End of fluted point tradition
Many more sites- such as Dust Cave, AL
 Ends with the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age
Meadowcroft Rockshelter
http://people.delphiforums.com/MCCONAUGHY/meadowcroft/meadcr07.htm
Meadowcroft Rockshelter
View of the excavations where the Paleoindian materials were recovered.
http://people.delphiforums.com/MCCONAUGHY/meadowcroft/Meadcr04.htm
Monte Verde, Chile
Monte Verde, Chile
http://www.unl.edu/rhames/monte_verde/MonteVerde.htm
Monte Verde, Chile
Fiber cordage
Grooved Mastodon tusk
Tent Stakes from Monte Verde
http://www.unl.edu/rhames/monte_verde/MonteVerde.htm
Archaic Period
10,000-3,000 B.P.
 Begins with start of Holocene climatic period
(global warming)
 Characterized by more generalized foraging.

Hunting deer, other mammals, greater reliance
on plant resources.
 Still fairly mobile lifestyle.
 More variable stone tools.
Early Archaic 10,000-8,000 B.P.
 As the climate changed, the mastodon, the last of the
large Pleistocene animals, became extinct and other
animals such as bison, caribou, and moose moved
away.
 People now hunted deer, elk, bear, turkey, and small
game such as rabbit and fox. As the vegetation
became profuse, they gathered more plant foods
such as fruit, acorns, and hickory nuts.
 The people of the Archaic period began to vary the
size and shape of their lithic (stone) points.
 Stone spear points, knives, scrapers, gravers, and
drills were still used.
http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/arch_NET/timeline/early_archaic.htm
Early Archaic Artifacts & Lifestyle
Projectile points
Reconstruction of Early Archaic camp
http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/arch_NET/timeline/early_archaic.htm
Early Archaic at Koster, IL
http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/a_sites.html
Middle Archaic 8000-4500 B.P.
 Tools that archaeologists find to be more common
during this time period are mortars and pestles. These
tools were used to crush nuts, seeds, and fibrous
plants in preparing foods. People added walnuts to the
list of seed crops harvested.
 Notched stones found at archaeological sites are
interpreted as net sinkers. They indicate that the
people expanded their quest for food by catching large
numbers of fish in nets.
 The people of the Eastern forest started to produce in
large quantities chipped stone axes around 6,000 B.P.
The axes were made from tough resilient stone, such
as basalt and quartzite. With large axes, the Middle
Archaic people could more easily cut wood to build
houses and make fires.
http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/arch_NET/timeline/middle_archaic.htm
Middle Archaic Artifacts
Mortar and pestle
Axes
http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/arch_NET/timeline/middle_archaic.htm
Middle Archaic: Shell Mounds/Middens
Late Archaic (4500-3000 B.P.)
 People began to cultivate native plant species,
including sunflowers, gourds, sumpweed/marsh
elder, maygrass, lambsquarter/goosefoot, and
amaranth.
 These were plants that appeared in the clearings
created by humans with the axe invented in the
Middle Archaic period.
 People also started to raise varieties of squash that
were brought from what is now Mexico where squash
was first developed.
 People were also living in larger, more settled
communities.
Late Archaic: Poverty Point
http://www.nps.gov/popo/
Poverty Point Earthworks
 A C-shaped figure dominates the center of the site.
The figure is formed by 6 concentric artificial earth
embankments. They are separated by ditches, or swales, where
dirt was removed to build the ridges. The ends of the outermost
ridge are 1,204 meters apart (nearly 3/4 of a mile). The ends of
the interior embankment are 594 meters apart.
 If the ridges were straightened and laid end to end, they would
comprise an embankment 12 kilometers or 7 1/2 miles in length.
 Originally, the ridges stood 4 to 6 feet high and 140 to 200 feet
apart. Many years of plowing have reduced some to only one foot in
height. Archeologists suspect that the homes of 500 to 1,000
inhabitants were located on these ridges.
 The ridges are intersected by avenues that seem to align with
summer and winter solstice points.

http://www.lpb.org/programs/povertypoint/pp_transcript.html
Poverty Point Plan View
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/popo/hd_popo.htm
Woodland (3,000-1,000 B.P.)
 Increased sedentary living and higher
populations.
 More cultures growing native plants first
domesticated in the late Archaic

Sumpweed, maygrass, sunflower, gourds,
squash
 Increase use of pottery
 Mound building expands, particularly burial
and effigy mounds
Early Woodland
 Adena (3000-1900 B.P.)


The Adena complex was a mortuaryceremonial complex centered in the central
Ohio Valley that was shared by many local
cultures.
Earlier Adena burial centers are marked by a
basically egalitarian burial program, utilitarian
grave goods, and smaller earthen burial
mounds.
Grave Creek Mound
http://www.wvculture.org/sites/gravecreek.html
Adena Artifacts
Middle Woodland
 Hopewell (2200-1600 B.P.)
 The most spectacular archaeological evidence of this
climax is associated with the Hopewell phenomenon in
the heartland of the culture area. The most spectacular
Hopewell ceremonial sites are in the Sciota Valley near
Chillicothe, Ohio.
 These religious and political centers typically contain a
burial mound and geometric earthwork complex that
covers 10 to hundreds of acres and sparse; evidence
of large resident populations is lacking. Larger mounds
can be up to 12 m high, 150 m long, and 55 m wide.
 Multiple mortuary structures under the mounds were
often log tombs that contained the remains of
skeletons that had been cremated, bundled, or interred
in some other manner.
Serpent Mound
The most famous of all such (effigy)
mounds is the Great Serpent Mound
in Adams County, 1,330 feet in
length along its coils and averaging
three feet in height.
http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/serpent/
Mound City, Ohio
Aerial photo
http://www.comp-archaeology.org/Chillicothe-MoundCityAir1Screen.jpg
Middle Woodland: Hopewell Culture
Copper Art
Effigy pipes
Late Woodland: Northeastern Sites
 Northeastern cultures continued in the Late
Woodland tradition.
 Long Houses, large populations.
 Corn, Beans and squash horticulture by 1200
A.D.
 Some site with palisades (wooden walls)
constructed around them.
Village Reconstruction
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/
Artifacts
Pendant with turtle
Flaked stone hoe
Mississippian (1000-500 B.P.)
 Height of complexity in Midwest and
southeastern North America.
 Centralized governments, large “city-states”.
 Flat-topped mounds.
 Elaborate burial mounds.
Mississippian Sites: Etowah
Etowah Mound and Statues, GA
http://gastateparks.org/info/etowah/
Moundville, AL
http://www.ua.edu/academic/museums/moundville/sketch.html
Cahokia, IL
http://www.state.il.us/hpa/hs/Mounds.htm
Monks Mound-Cahokia
Largest North American structure
Burial & Status: Cahokia Mound 72
The wood dates to approximately 1000 A.D.
272 burials were discovered in mound 72.
Burials without litters
Burials with litters
Mound 72
Headless Burials
Female Burial Pit (53 between 15 and 30)
Mississippian Ceramics
Human Effigy
Owl
Dog
Shell Ornaments
Spider Gorget
Shell Mask
Priest/Warrior Gorget
Lithic Artifacts
Monolithic Axe
Duck River Cache, TN
The Final Chapter?
 Most mounds sites were abandoned by the time
Europeans arrived.
 Other groups were decimated by disease and
warfare.
 Some groups, like the Iroquois confederacy, faired
pretty well, but most were forced off their lands.
 Finally, the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830.


Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their
lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to
the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would
become citizens of their home state.
However, this disintegrated and many were forcibly
removed during the “Trail of Tears”, where many
southern tribes were forcibly removed in 1838.
Today
 Many groups strive to maintain their traditions
and culture.
 These groups maintain a rich tradition of oral
history, art, and music.
 Traditional languages are still spoken and
taught to the younger generations.
 Sometimes, we have the perspective that
Native Americans are a thing of the past, but
that is clearly not the case.