The early woodland period
THE EARLY WOODLAND PERIOD
Download 171.37 Kb.
|
THE EARLY WOODLAND PERIOD1000 - 300 BC If one uses the traditional definition of pottery introduction being equated with a Woodland tradition, then the earliest Woodland sites would be those found along the South Atlantic coast that have produced fiber-tempered pottery dating as early as 2500 BC. However, these sites are essentially Late Archaic seasonally occupied coastal base camps with a material cultural assemblage equivalent to that found on Archaic sites, and differentiated only by the addition of fiber-tempered pottery. Researchers in the Southeast are attempting to define the beginnings of the Woodland period by using; the appearance of pottery, evidence of permanent settlements, intensive collection and/or horticulture of starchy seed plants, differentiation in social organization, and specialized activities, to name just a few topics of special interest. Most of these cultural aspects were clearly in place in parts of the Southeast by around 1000 BC. This was evident of Woodland artifacts recovered here at Ocmulgee National Monument during the 1930’s archaeological digs. potteryThe Stallings Island culture established itself as a Late Archaic shellfish-collecting society around 2500 BC, probably on a seasonal basis, leaving evidence of their occupation in the form of large shell middens. This cultural group used an Archaic material culture, but also created the first ceramics known in the United States. Called Stallings Island, these ceramics were named after a major shell midden site on an island in the Savannah River near Augusta, Georgia. The Stallings Island ceramics generally contained Spanish moss as a tempering agent, and the forms consisted of simple shallow bowls and large, wide-mouthed bowls, as well as deeper jar forms. Most ceramics were plain, although some with punctuated surface decoration were found. Stallings Island pottery dates from about 2500 to 1000 BC, and ceramic finds range from the Tar River drainage in North Carolina, southward to northwest Florida. Contemporary with Stallings Island pottery along the South Atlantic coast are other fiber-tempered wares, such as Orangeware from sites in northeast Florida and southeast coastal Georgia (1200 to 500 BC). Orange period sites have been located at Canaveral National Seashore, Fort Matanzas National Monument, and Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. An unusual type of settlement pattern associated with fiber-tempered wares and found in this area are "shell rings." Nearly three dozen of these ring-shaped settlements have been identified as representative of permanent, stable village life by about 1600 BC. It was during the Gulf Formational period that fiber-tempered ceramics were replaced first by plain, then by fabric-impressed, and, later, by cord-marked sand-tempered Alexander ceramics. By the mid-Early Woodland period, Gulf Formational cultures developed their own fiber-tempered pottery styles, such as Wheeler, which was in turn replaced by the sand-tempered Alexander series. This area also participated in long-range exchanges with other areas of the Deep South in steatite, sandstone, Tallahatta quartzite, and ceramics. Examples of this long-range trading of these materials can be seen on display in the Visitor Center of the Ocmulgee National Monument. permanent settlementsP  overty Point sites in Louisiana and western Mississippi exhibits the first major residential settlements and monumental earthworks in the United States. Although the Poverty Point culture is not well understood in terms of social organization, it was involved in the transportation of non-local raw materials (for example, shell, stone, and copper) from throughout the eastern United States into the lower Mississippi River Valley to selected sites where the materials were worked into finished products and then traded. While specific information on Poverty Point subsistence, trade mechanisms, and other cultural aspects is still speculative, the sites nevertheless exhibit specific material culture, such as baked clay objects, magnetite plummets, steatite bowls, red-jasper lapidary work, fiber-tempered pottery, and microlithic stone tools.
plant domesticationAlthough plant domestication occurred sporadically in the Late Archaic, even possibly as early as the terminal Middle Archaic, generalized plant domestication, or horticulture, appears in Kentucky throughout the Early Woodland with intensive collecting of starchy seeds and tubers. These appear to have included sunflower, maygrass, sumpweed, giant ragweed, and knotweed. social organizationBy around 500 BC, the Poverty Point culture was replaced by the Tchula/Tchefuncte Early Woodland culture, which existed in western Tennessee, Louisiana, southern Arkansas, western Mississippi, and coastal Alabama. The sites of this lower Mississippi River Valley culture were small village settlements. Subsistence continued to consist of intensive collecting of wild plants and animals, as with the preceding Poverty Point culture, but for the first time quantities of pottery were produced. There appears to be a de-emphasis on long-distance trade and manufacture of lithic artwork noted in the earlier Poverty Point culture. The Tchula/Tchefuncte Early Woodland culture appears to have coexisted with some Middle Woodland cultures in the lower Mississippi River Valley. specialized activities With the introduction of the northern-type ceramics came isolated mortuary sites with grave offerings. Some of the best examples of earthen enclosures and burial mounds dating to the Early Woodland Adena complex (circa 500 BC) were identified in the Ohio River Valley of Kentucky. Early Woodland projectile-point styles from Georgia include Small Savannah River, Gary, Hernando, and Otarre. These new ceramics later appeared in the mountains of western North Carolina during the Swannanoa period (700 to 300 BC). The Early Woodland Deptford ceramics appear to have developed in Georgia (circa 800 BC) out of the Early Woodland Refuge phase (1000 to 500 BC) and spread north into the Carolinas and south into Florida. Deptford ceramics continued to be made and found on Middle Woodland sites in the Southeast up through about 800 AD. Subsistence for the coast and coastal plains of Georgia and the Carolinas appears to have followed a transhumance (or seasonal) pattern of winter shellfish camps on the coast, then inland occupation during the spring and summer for deer hunting, and fall for nut gathering. Early Woodland Indians (before 1000 BC) probably continued to be nomadic to some extent, but did begin to develop ritualistic burials and extended trade networks. Modern science has allowed us to track pottery found in Mississippi to the hills and plateaus of Georgia. Only limited evidence of the Early Woodland Indians exits in Georgia today. http://pelotes.jea.com/inwood.htm http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/woodland.htm http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/woodland.htm Woodland Indians (NPS Southeastern Archeological Center) Download 171.37 Kb. Share with your friends:
|