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The Eastern Woodlands II: The Terminal Archaic Transition

The Eastern Woodlands II: The Terminal Archaic Transition. Lecture 21 North American Archaeology Winter 2007 UCSC. The “Terminal Archaic”. 2000-1000 BC Series of Technological and Social Innovations Pottery--storage and cooking technology Horticulture Squash and Bottle Gourd

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The Eastern Woodlands II: The Terminal Archaic Transition

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  1. The Eastern Woodlands II: The Terminal Archaic Transition Lecture 21 North American Archaeology Winter 2007 UCSC

  2. The “Terminal Archaic” • 2000-1000 BC • Series of Technological and Social Innovations • Pottery--storage and cooking technology • Horticulture • Squash and Bottle Gourd • Local Complex of Weedy Annuals • Elaborate mortuary rituals and monuments • Expansion of local and regional economic and social networks

  3. Invention of Pottery in East • Fiber-Tempered Ware • 2000-1700 BC • So. Atlantic Coast • Shell midden sites • Stallings Island, Savannah River, GA • Thick, rounded or flat- bottomed open bowls w/ simple incised or punctated decoration

  4. Steatite Bowls • Widely traded throughout Mid-Atlantic and NE between 1700-1300 BC • Associated w/ more intensive use of seeds and nuts

  5. Steatite-Tempered Pottery • Marcey Creek Plain • 1300 BC • Sassman: Male status-building may have resisted development of ceramics by women

  6. Grit-Tempered Pottery • 1000BC • Vinette I (NY) • Examples from Koster • Cord-marked, conical bottom (typical Woodland Tradition pottery) • More heat resistant--better for direct heat cooking Vinette I Pottery

  7. The “Container Revolution” • Bruce Smith • Sedentary groups--need more storage, and/or • Direct heat cooking (boiling) • Associated with increased nut and seed processing in Late Archaic • Alternative Hypothesis: • Early pottery as “prestige technology”--used as special containers for preparing and serving food at competitive feasts (“Big Men”)

  8. Origins of Early Gardening Complexes in East • Early Eastern Mexican Complex • Squash (Curcurbita pepo) • Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) • Early Sites • Koster (5000-4000 BC) • Bacon Bend (2100-2400 BC) • Phillips Spring (2000-2300 BC) • Natural spread or human agents??

  9. Eastern Agricultural Complex • Asch and Asch (1970s) • Complex of local weedy annuals (“small grains”) • Sunflower, marshelder (sumpweed) • goosefoot, maygrass, knotweed, little barley • Propagated beyond natural range • Some show genetic changes (domestication) by 2000 BC • Salts Cave, Newt Kash Hallow

  10. Why did “small grain” horticulture develop in East? • Richard Ford • Stress and competition • Deliberately fostering spread of certain species • Bruce Smith • Casual and opportunistic • Sedentary settlements caused restructuring of floodplain ecosystems • Kristen Gremillion • “Small grains” abundant, dependable, and nutritious, but hard to process • Delay cost of processing by storing (caching) • Supplement other foods, especially during Winter

  11. Early Mound Complexes • Watson’s Brake (3900 BC) • NE Louisiana • 11 mounds and oval enclosure

  12. Poverty Point Site • 2200 BC-1200 BC • Bayou Macon, LA • 6 concentric ridges • High population density • Mound complexes • Mound A • Mound B • Motley Mound • Lower Jackson Mound

  13. Charred remains of floor mats • Evidence of post and living debris on top of embankments--houses?? • 600 houses = 3000 people??

  14. Mound A (Bird Effigy?)

  15. Mound B • Cremation burials

  16. Typical Late Archaic subsistence • Rich ecotone setting • Hunted deer, small mammals, birds, fish • Collected fruit, nuts, seeds • Squash cultivation (and maybe weedy annuals) • Fiber-temperd pottery, steatite bowls, earth ovens and Poverty Pt objects

  17. Fancy PPT Objects • Women’s status marker?

  18. Plummets (fishing weights or bola stones) • Randomly distributed throughout site

  19. Motley Points • Status symbols for high ranking warriors?

  20. Microlithic technology for making jasper beads Chiefly status symbols??

  21. Clay figurines

  22. Poverty Point Regional System • PPT site center of regional system • LMV and Gulf Coast • 100 sites, clustered around 10 local centers • Centers located at strategic ecotones • Influence widespread throughout SE

  23. Was Poverty Point the center of a complex regional chiefdom? • Jon Gibson (1974) • Organization of labor to build mounds • Distribution of high status items (Motley Points, jasper beads, etc.) • Three-tier settlement hierarchy • Local centers located to control trade and distribution of high-ranked resources

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