Download Middle Archaic

Environment, Technology
& Settlement
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.

Stone Tools from Dust Cave
Bone Tools from Dust Cave
Important
Middle and
Late Archaic
sites.
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=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
Dog Burial from Indian Knoll
Indian Knoll, Kentucky, from Figure 16 (Webb 1974:157)
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_ri
ngs.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
Fibertempered
Pottery
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/us
ers/sassaman/pages/resea
rch/stallings/A1492508145
9.pdf
Stallings Island Storage pit
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassam
an/pages/research/stallings/StalPage.
htm
Sources

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http://www.fmnh.org/research_collections/anthropology/anthro_sit
es/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