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Environment, Technology & Settlement. Middle Archaic in the SouthEast. Eastern Woodlands Middle Archaic :. Dates: ca. 8000-5000 B.P. Corresponds with the Hypsithermal Warming Event. Regional cultural diversity became apparent during this period of global warming
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Environment, Technology & Settlement Middle Archaic in the SouthEast
Eastern Woodlands Middle Archaic: • Dates: ca. 8000-5000 B.P. • Corresponds with the Hypsithermal Warming Event. • Regional cultural diversity became apparent during this period of global warming • Extensive use of broad-spectrum food sources • Ground-and-polished stone artifacts appear • Burials start showing status differentiation • Spring fishing camps found on the seacoast
Middle Archaic “Shell Mound Archaic” • Focus on freshwater and marine shellfish-both mussels and gastropods. • Large deposits of shells in middens or rings. • Thought to be adaptation to river stabilization during the hypsithermal. • Continues into Late Archaic, but much less common.
Read Site, KY http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Stone Tools • A variety of new chipped stone points • For example, Stanly, Morrow Mountain, Levy, Eva, Benton, Cypress Creek, Arrendondo, White Springs, Sykes, and Newnan.
WPA era • A lot of shell mound sites excavated as part of WPA era work and dam construction. • For example, the Green River Shell mound system in Kentucky.
New Deal laborers excavating a shell mound site in Butler County http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Prehistoric dog burial exposed at a shell mound site in McLean County http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
New Deal laborers excavating a shell mound site in Ohio County http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Indian Knoll • At the conjunction of what are now the Green and Ohio rivers in Ohio County, Kentucky. • The Indian Knoll shell mound itself was elliptical in shape and covered an area of about two acres. At the center its deposits were up to eight feet deep. • Hundreds of burials were discovered in the mound during the first half of the last century. • The burials were of individuals, not groups, and included men, women, children, and dogs. • Many held gender-specific objects. • Men were interred with axes, fishhooks, and tools, while women were accompanied by mortars, pestles, and beads. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/knol/hd_knol.htm
Indian Knoll, Kentucky http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/knol/hd_knol.htm
http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=245&ResourceType=Sitehttp://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=245&ResourceType=Site
Excavations http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Bannerstone from Indian Knoll Bannerstones/Atlatl weights http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/knol/hd_knol.htm
Projectile Points from Indian Knoll http://www.uky.edu/PR/News/Archives/2004/Oct2004/041006_native_american.htm
Indian Knoll Groundstone http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Indian Knoll burials • Burials: • 1100 found • 1-4% of graves contained exotics—objects such as: • Conch shell (Gulf?) • Copper (from Lake Superior?) • Grave goods for children: • Reflects social obligations • Not necessarily determined through achievement but through ascribed status
Indian Knoll Human vertebra with bone point imbedded. http://www.anthro.psu.edu/projects_labs/bioarch/bioarch_lab.shtml
Indian Knoll, Kentucky, from Figure 16 (Webb 1974:157) Dog Burial from Indian Knoll
Eva Site • Riverbank shell midden • Deer also hunted, but a broad-spectrum is still characteristic • Substantial post holes indicate "large" structures • But too cluttered to know their exact shape or form • Thus, uncertain if we are dealing with a truly sedentary life, or a situation where a mobile population periodically reuses the same location d. • Artifacts varied, but made of locally available materials.
Chiggerville, KY http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Chiggerville, shell artifacts http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html
Sapelo Island Shell Ring, GA Early Native American settlers on the island, perhaps as long ago as 2300 B.C., enjoyed a steady seafood diet and deposited the shells of the ocean creatures in huge, circular layers around their residential sites.
Video on Sapelo Island Shell Rings • http://www.lostworlds.org/sapelo_shell_rings.html
Stallings Island Site • ca 2250 B.C. (ca 4200 B.P.) • Discovered by James Stoltman, then of the University of Minnesota (later with University of Wisconsin-Madison) Pottery: • Fiber tempered • Crude, but is considered the pride and joy of many south Atlantic coast Archaic-ists • Fiber-temper technology and issues with respect to northern South America
Location of Stallings Island http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf
Excavation Units http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf
Occupations http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf
Fiber-tempered Pottery http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf
Stallings Island Storage pit http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/StalPage.htm
Sources • http://www.fmnh.org/research_collections/anthropology/anthro_sites/paul_martin/martin_web/Tularosa/tularosa1.html • http://sipapu.gsu.edu/timeline/timeline3000.html • http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/knol/hd_knol.htm • http://www.uky.edu/PR/News/03-09_shells_research.htm