A Culture History of North America

1
A Culture History of North America

• With a particular focus on the Paleoindian,
  Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods of
  the Midwest and East

2
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

3
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

4
Meadowcroft Rockshelter
http//people.delphiforums.com/MCCONAUGHY/meadowcr
oft/meadcr07.htm
5
Meadowcroft Rockshelter
View of the excavations where the Paleoindian
materials were recovered.
http//people.delphiforums.com/MCCONAUGHY/meadowcr
oft/Meadcr04.htm
6
Monte Verde, Chile
7
Monte Verde, Chile
http//www.unl.edu/rhames/monte_verde/MonteVerde.h
tm
8
Monte Verde, Chile
Fiber cordage
Grooved Mastodon tusk
9
Tent Stakes from Monte Verde
http//www.unl.edu/rhames/monte_verde/MonteVerde.h
tm
10
Archaic Period10,000-3,000 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.

11
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/earl
y_archaic.htm
12
Early Archaic Artifacts Lifestyle
Projectile points
Reconstruction of Early Archaic camp
http//www.dhr.virginia.gov/arch_NET/timeline/earl
y_archaic.htm
13
Early Archaic at Koster, IL
http//www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre
/htmls/a_sites.html
14
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/midd
le_archaic.htm
15
Middle Archaic Artifacts
Mortar and pestle
Axes
http//www.dhr.virginia.gov/arch_NET/timeline/midd
le_archaic.htm
16
Middle Archaic Shell Mounds/Middens
17
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.

18
Late Archaic Poverty Point
http//www.nps.gov/popo/
19
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_transc
ript.html
20
Poverty Point Plan View
http//www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/popo/hd_popo.htm
21
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

22
Early Woodland

• Adena (3000-1900 B.P.)
• The Adena complex was a mortuary-ceremonial
  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.

23
Grave Creek Mound
http//www.wvculture.org/sites/gravecreek.html
24
Adena Artifacts
25
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.

26
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/
27
Mound City, Ohio Aerial photo
http//www.comp-archaeology.org/Chillicothe-MoundC
ityAir1Screen.jpg
28
Middle Woodland Hopewell Culture
Copper Art
Effigy pipes
29
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.

30
Village Reconstruction
http//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/
31
Artifacts
Pendant with turtle
Flaked stone hoe
32
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.

33
Mississippian Sites Etowah
Etowah Mound and Statues, GA
http//gastateparks.org/info/etowah/
34
Moundville, AL
http//www.ua.edu/academic/museums/moundville/sket
ch.html
35
Cahokia, IL
http//www.state.il.us/hpa/hs/Mounds.htm
36
Monks Mound-Cahokia
Largest North American structure
37
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
38
Mound 72
Headless Burials
Female Burial Pit (53 between 15 and 30)
39
Mississippian Ceramics
Human Effigy
Dog
Owl
40
Shell Ornaments
Spider Gorget
Shell Mask
Priest/Warrior Gorget
41
Lithic Artifacts
Monolithic Axe
Duck River Cache, TN
42
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.

43
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.