Archaic period (North America)

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Copper knife, spearpoints, awls, and spud, from the Late Archaic period, Wisconsin, 3000–1000 BC

In the classification of the

farming
, this date can vary significantly across the Americas.

The rest of the Americas also have an Archaic Period.[2]

Classifications

This classification system was first proposed by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in the widely accepted 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.

In the organization of the system, the Archaic period followed the Lithic stage and is superseded by the Formative stage.[3]

  1. The Lithic stage
  2. The Archaic stage
  3. The Formative stage
  4. The Classic stage
  5. The Post-Classic stage

Numerous local variations have been identified within the cultural rankings. The period has been subdivided by region and then time. For instance, the Archaic Southwest tradition is subdivided into the San Dieguito–Pinto, Oshara, Cochise and Chihuahua cultures.[4]

Archaic stage in North America

Since the 1990s, secure dating of multiple Middle Archaic sites in northern Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida has challenged traditional models of development. In these areas, hunter-gatherer societies in the

Lower Mississippi Valley organized to build monumental earthwork mound complexes as early as 3500 BC (confirmed at Watson Brake), with building continuing over a period of 500 years. Early mound sites such as Frenchman's Bend and Hedgepeth were of this time period; all were constructed by localized societies. Watson Brake is now considered to be the oldest mound complex in the Americas.[5] It precedes that built at Poverty Point by nearly 2,000 years (both are in northern Louisiana). More than 100 sites have been identified as associated with the regional Poverty Point culture
of the Late Archaic period, and it was part of a regional trading network across the Southeast.

Across the

Horr's Island in Southwest Florida, resources were rich enough to support sizable mound-building communities year-round. Four shell or sand mounds on Horr's Island have been dated to between 2900 and 2300 BC.[6][7]

Timeline

Early Archaic

Middle Archaic

Late Archaic

hunter-gatherers
  simple farming societies
  complex farming societies

Shield Archaic

The Shield Archaic was a distinct regional tradition which existed during the

BP) has sites as far as Manitoba,[9] and archaeologists have investigated suspected Shield Archaic sites as far away as Killarney Provincial Park near Georgian Bay in Ontario.[15]

The prominent Canadian archaeologist J. V. Wright argued in 1976 that the Shield Archaic had emerged from the

caribou, with a focus on water crossings as hunting places.[19]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Anderson, David G.; Sassaman, Kenneth E. (2012). Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology: From Colonization to Complexity. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology Press.
  2. ^
    OCLC 19750309
    .
  3. ^ Willey, Gordon; Phillips, Philip (1958), Method and Theory in American Archaeology, University of Chicago[ISBN missing]
  4. ^ "Archaic Period, Southeast Archaeological Center". Archived from the original on 5 December 2004. Retrieved 2004-11-28.
  5. ^ Milanich 1994, p. 84-85, 90, 95.
  6. ^ Russo, Michael. "Archaic Shell Rings of the Southeast U. S." (PDF). National Park Service. pp. 10, 13–15, 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  7. ^ McManamon, Francis P. "Determination That the Kennewick Human Skeletal Remains are "Native American" for the Purposes of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)." National Park Service Archaeology Program. 11 Jan 2000 (retrieved 18 June 2011)
  8. ^ a b Gordon 1996, p. 199.
  9. ^ Saunders, Joe W. et al. "Watson Brake, a Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana" American Antiquity . Vol. 70, No. 4: 631–668. 2005
  10. ISBN 1-56098-516-X. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  11. ^ a b "Migration to Greenland."About Greenland. Retrieved 28 February 2012. Archived 5 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Sara A. Herr, "The Latest Research on the Earliest Farmers", Archaeology Southwest 23, n. 1 (Winter 2009): 1
  13. ^ Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. (October 2003). "Poverty Point (2000–1000 B.C.)" Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (retrieved 19 June 2011)
  14. ^ Storck 1974.
  15. ^ Gordon 1996, p. 201.
  16. ^ Gordon 1996, p. 208.
  17. ^ Gordon 1996, p. 215.
  18. ^ Gordon 1996, p. 200.

References

Further reading

  • Claassen, Cheryl (2010). Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P. .