Middle Archaic in the SouthEast

1. Environment, Technology & Settlement Middle Archaic in the SouthEast

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Read Site, KY http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

5. 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.

6. Stone Tools from Dust Cave

7. Bone Tools from Dust Cave

8. Important Middle and Late Archaic sites.

9. 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.

10. New Deal laborers excavating a shell mound site in Butler County http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

11. Prehistoric dog burial exposed at a shell mound site in McLean County http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

12. New Deal laborers excavating a shell mound site in Ohio County http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

13. 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

14. Indian Knoll, Kentucky http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/knol/hd_knol.htm

15. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=245&ResourceType=Sitehttp://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=245&ResourceType=Site

16. Excavations http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

17. Bannerstone from Indian Knoll Bannerstones/Atlatl weights http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/knol/hd_knol.htm

18. Projectile Points from Indian Knoll http://www.uky.edu/PR/News/Archives/2004/Oct2004/041006_native_american.htm

19. Indian Knoll Groundstone http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

20. 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

21. Indian Knoll Human vertebra with bone point imbedded. http://www.anthro.psu.edu/projects_labs/bioarch/bioarch_lab.shtml

22. Indian Knoll, Kentucky, from Figure 16 (Webb 1974:157) Dog Burial from Indian Knoll

23. 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.

24. Chiggerville, KY http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

25. Chiggerville, shell artifacts http://www.wku.edu/anthropology/khc_2006/green_river.html

26. 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.

27. Video on Sapelo Island Shell Rings • http://www.lostworlds.org/sapelo_shell_rings.html

28. 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

29. Location of Stallings Island http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf

30. Excavation Units http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf

31. Occupations http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf

32. Fiber-tempered Pottery http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/A14925081459.pdf

33. Stallings Island Storage pit http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/stallings/StalPage.htm

34. 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