Added November 18, 2001. Updated May 17, 2004, 21:09 hours.

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The Archaic of the Woodland Culture Area in the Eastern US

Maximilian O. Baldia

List of Tables

Table 1. Chronology of Tennessee

Table 2. The stratigraphic horizons of the Koster site.

List of Figures

Figure 1. Location

Figure 2. Calibrated C¹⁴ dates

Figure 3. Artifact categories

Under Construction

Since it appears that there is relatively little readily available information in many parts of the world on American Archaeology, this Internet page aims to inform archaeologists on the subject. The aim is to facilitate Comparative Archaeology as defined on the home page of the Comparative Archaeology WEB©.

Introduction

The Paleo-Indian Period is succeeded by the Archaic (8000/7500 cal BC). As the stone (lithic) technology begins to evolve on a more regional level, the culture area approach begins to be of greater utility (compare Southwestern Archaic). Subsistence strategy changes from an emphasis on big-game hunting to smaller animals, such as deer. Fishing and plant collecting becomes a very important economic activity.

The Geography

The Eastern Woodland Culture Area reaches north of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. It is bounded by the Atlantic in the east and the northern part of the Golf of Mexico in the south. Its western boundary is formed by the great Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains.

Chronology

Ta ble 1. Chronology of Tennessee.[1]

Early Archaic (7500 - 6000 B.C.)

Middle Archaic (6000 - 3000 B.C.)

Late Archaic (3000 - 900 B.C.)

The chronology varies somewhat by region. Table 1 illustrates the phases proposed for parts of Tennessee. In Ohio the Archaic starts around 7500 BC, but ends between 900 – 500 BC, depending on the area (see calibrated radiocarbon dates of Ohio and surrounding states). This is because the subsequent Woodland period starts earlier in the southern parts of the state than in northern regions. For example, in northwest Ohio the Late Archaic is dated 2500 – 1000 BC, the Transitional Archaic/Woodland (1000 – 600 BC), and the Early Woodland Period (600 BC – AD 1).[2]

Artifacts

The technology increases as new artifact categories develop. The most commonly found materials include stone, antler and bone, but shell and even copper occur. The more perishable materials, such as wood, bast and other fibers for textiles, ropes and mats, as well as hide (leather), are rarely if ever preserved.

Stone

Chipped (fleked) stone artifacts include projectile points, scrapers, and drills (borers). Archaeologists focus primarily on the projectile point variety. Early Archaic points are stemmed to facilitate hafting them to the shaft of spears, as the spear thrower or atlatl comes into use. The later, large turkey-tail spear points of the Red Ocher culture exhibit great technological skill and show considerable standardization. Looking like the feathers of a turkey, they have small notches on the sides of one end. Such blades are made of high quality blue-grey “flint”, found in south-central Indiana.[3] The turkey-tail points occasionally occur in buried caches (hoards).

In addition to chipping or flaking, grinding was adapted for the production of stone tools. In other parts of the world, ground stone tools are used as an indicator of a major technological breakthrough, known as the Neolithic or New Stone Age. No such distinction is made in the US and Canada. The grinding technology is employed to make beautiful stone artifacts, variously identified as atlatl weights or banner stones. Other superbly ground stone artifacts, often with drilled perforations, are identified as gorgets (pendants or jewelry). Net sinkers have a grooved end used to tye them to nets as weights to lower the fishing net into the water. Axes are made in various sizes. They exhibit a hafting groove, used to fasten the heavy stone implement to the wooden handle. Adzes (transverse mounted axes) are developed. They can be used for woodworking, including hollowing out tree trunks for canoes. However, shaft-hole axes are not known.

The first stone pipes make their appearance. They look like large stone tubes.

Copper

Starting around 3000 BC artifacts of native (pure) copper come into use.[4] This contrasts with Europe, where the first use of copper finds are dated between ca. 5000 – 4500 BC or even slightly earlier. The native copper sources near the Great Lakes are exploited by the people in the area, who begin to exchange the metal over considerable distances.[5] The artifacts are cold-hammered, not smelted as in the European Neolithic, and include tanged and socketed projectile points, knives, axes, and awls. Such artifacts are associated with the Old Copper and related cultures in northern Indiana and Wisconsin.

Important Sites

The Koster Site

Table 2. The stratigraphic horizons of the Koster site. (Source: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/koster.html Accessed May 9, 2004).
Horizon	Date of Occupations	Period
1	A.D. 1000-1200	Mississippian period
1	A.D. 400-1000	Late Woodland period
2	200-100 B.C.	Early Woodland period
3	1500-1200 B.C.	Late Archaic period
4	2000 B.C.	Late Archaic period
5
6	3900-2800 B.C.	Middle Archaic period
7
8	5000 B.C.	Middle Archaic period
9
10	6000-5800 B.C.	Early Archaic period
11	6400 B.C.	Early Archaic period
12
13	7500-6700 B.C.	Early Archaic period

One of the most important Archaic sites is found in the lower Illinois River Valley. The site was discovered on the Koster Farm in Green County Illinois (Section 21, T 9 N, R 13 W). Dates range from ca. 7500 BC to ca. A.D. 1200 (Table 2.) Occupations include not only the Archaic, but also the Woodland and Mississippian Period. The stratigraphic horizons associated with the later periods provide insights into the horticulture/agriculture of the more northerly ranges of the Woodland Culture Area. However, here the focus is only be on the Archaic.

The site was excavated by Stuart Struever and J. A. Brown from 1969 to 1978. Twenty-three stratigraphically different components have now been isolated, but only thirteen were originally recognized (Table 2). They contain great amounts of stone artifacts (lithics), as well as animal (faunal) and plant remains.

In the Early Archaic the site is seasonally occupied hunters and gatherers. There are hearths, pits, and middens (trash areas), and burials of domestic dogs. The middens and dog burials are reminiscent of the Mesolithic in Scandinavia. Horizon 11 provides the earliest evidence of ground stone tools (metates or grinding platforms and adzes or transverse mounted axes/celts) in North America. This contrasts with Europe, where such tools are thought to be part of the Neolithic revolution, introducing sedentism (year-round occupation) and agriculture.

The earliest signs of permanent houses in North America are found in Horizon 8. Sedentary occupation is recorded in the later part of the Middle Archaic (Horizon 6, ca. 3900 – 2800 BC). This too is considered indicative of Neolithic revolution in Europe and the Near East, as defined by Gordon Child in the mid-nineteen hundreds.

Williams Cemetery and Sidecut Crematory Sites

The two apparently contemporaneous sites are located Southwest of Toledo, near Perrysburg, Wood County, Ohio. They are on opposite sides of the Maumee River, which flows into Lake Erie.

At Williams Cemetery twenty-one burial features were excavated. The total estimated number of buried (inhumed) and cremated individuals is 656 – 1000.[6] Some burial features contain many individuals, now and then separated by sterile layers of sand. Red and yellow ocher occurs with most burials. The site was in use from ca. 1050 – 360 BC.

It is argued that the Sidecut Crematory site’s cremation platforms served as staging area for the cremations. After cremation the human remains were shipped across the river to the downstream burial site of Williams Cemetery. It appears that the area was served as an early regional interaction center for gift exchange and ritual.

The First Mound Builders

The building of monumental architecture, that is burial mounds and enclosures, is currently under reevaluation. The first monumental structures may have been built in the Middle Archaic, as early as 4500 – 4000 cal BC. They occur in the southern part of the Woodland Culture Area.

Among the oldest mounds are those of Watson Brake, Louisiana, which appear to form an oval enclosure. Not far from this site, is a rather complex enclosure, called Poverty Point. Unlike similar European structures, the architecture was developed by hunter-gathers, who knew no domesticated plants or animals.

In the North, the hunter-gatherers near the Great Lakes, such as the Old Copper of Wisconsin, uses mass burials furnished with some copper artifacts. Similar burial customs occur in the Red Ocher culture, which built small, low, man-made, mounds. They cover burials that sometimes are sprinkled with red ocher. One such mound in Terre Haute exhibited a clay basin with human cremations, a “turkey tail projectile point, an “expanded-end bar gorget”, and scattered deposits of red ocher. Similarities between Glacial Kame, Red Ocher, Old Copper and related cultural expressions, suggest a “northern” or “boreal” archaic. The Williams Cemetery and the Sidecut Crematory sides provide additional insight into a wider development of Archaic burial practices. Ultimately, this and the discoveries in the South lead to the burial (mortuary) customs found in the subsequent Woodland period, with its fascinating earthworks and large burial mounds.

References and Links

Abel, T. J., D. M. Stothers, and J. M. Koralewsky

2001 The Williams Mortuary Complex : A Transitional Archaic Regional Interaction Center in Northwestern Ohio. In Prufer, Olaf H., Sara E. Pedde, and Richard S. Meidl (Eds.) Archaic Transitions in Ohio and Kentucky Prehistory. Kent State University Press. Kent and London.. 2001:290-327.

Curry, Denis

2002 The Old Copper Culture in Maryland. Maryland Archaeology 38/2:33-34. http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/copper.pdf (Accessed May 3, 2004).

Kellar, James

1998/03 An Introcuction to the Prehistory of Indiana: Archaic Tradition Indiana27-35 http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/abstracts/IHS/3ph.html (Accessed May 1, 2004)

Prufer, Olaf H., Sara E. Pedde, and Richard S. Meidl (Eds.)

2001 Archaic Transitions in Ohio and Kentucky Prehistory. Kent State University Press. Kent and London..

Saunders, Joe et al.,

1997 A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years Before the Present. Science Vol. 277:1796-1799.

Unattributed Transcript

???? Poverty Point Earthworks: Evolutionary Milestones of the Americas. Louisiana Educational Television Authority. http://www.lpb.org/programs/povertypoint/pp_transcript.html (Accessed May 3, 2004)

Unattributed

???? Poverty Point National Monument: Unearthing an Ancient Culture in Louisiana. GORP.COM

Unattributed

???? Poverty Point National Monument: Poverty Point State Commemorative Area. GORP.COM

Walker, Amélie A.

1998 The Earliest Mound Site. News Brief. Archaeology 51/1 January/February 1998

Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.

[1] Source: University of Tennessee Center for Transportation Research “Cultural Periods in Tennessee”.