Early Woodland Period Research Articles

From foraging to farming: Domesticating landscapes in the Midsouth three thousand years ago

Peoples living in the Eastern Woodlands of North America domesticated a suite of small‐seeded crops between five thousand and two thousand years ago, making this region one of roughly ten independent centers of domestication across the globe. In the Southern Appalachian region, foraging peoples began cultivating these native crops around thirty‐five hundred years ago (during the Late Archaic period [3000–800 BCE]); by the start of the Early Woodland period (800–200 BCE), they had significantly altered their lifeways and surrounding landscape. This included a change in the physical landscape, as demonstrated by paleoethnobotanical data, with an increase in weedy plants at the expense of bottomland forests. Groups also significantly shifted their lifeways, becoming more sedentary, as evidenced by an increase in storage pits, more substantial structures, and the adoption of ceramic vessels. Storage pits also tend to be smaller, indicating a shift from community‐based food procurement and storage to the household level. This may reflect the development of private property and distinctions among households with differential access. Community‐based rituals, as evidenced in several caves and rock‐shelters in the region, may have been established to strengthen group ties in the face of the broader changing social and physical landscape.

AN UPDATED HISTORY OF PRE-CONTACT NEW ENGLAND: NEW AMS DATES FOR THE HORNBLOWER II AND FRISBY-BUTLER ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

ABSTRACTFaunal assemblages from the pre-Contact period sites Frisby-Butler and Hornblower II on Marthaʼs Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA, remain unstudied since excavation during the 1980s. This project establishes radiocarbon (14C) dates from faunal remains and evaluates occupation and abandonment at each site. 14C measurements were collected from 17 specimens and 13 dates from previous analyses were re-examined. Dates were identified from the archaeological time periods Transitional Archaic (2700–3700 BP), Early Woodland (2000–2700 BP), and Late Woodland (450–1200 BP) at Frisby-Butler. Occupation likely represented seasonal visitations during autumn and winter to hunt based on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) demographic profiles. A combined dataset of new and re-calibrated 14C measurements from Hornblower II date to the Late Archaic (3700–6000 BP), Early Woodland, Middle Woodland (1200–2000 BP), and Late Woodland periods. Settlement was focused on gathering warm-weather foods like demersal fish and lakebirds. Together, the sites demonstrate periodic seasonal use of the southwest coast of the island throughout the Late Holocene and fit within an established regional pattern in southern New England.

Food production in the Early Woodland: macrobotanical remains as evidence for farming along the riverbank in eastern Tennessee

ABSTRACTOpen riverbanks and disturbed floodplains are targeted by archaeologists as optimal habitats for the growth of many of the weedy indigenous seed crops in eastern North America, but there is still little evidence for garden locations in the archaeological record. This article combines macrobotanical and geoarchaeological analyses from the Birdwell site (40GN228), located on the Nolichucky River, to give insight into where cultigens were planted and how they were managed in eastern Tennessee during the Early Woodland period. The recovery of uncharacteristic amounts of edible seeds and wood charcoal from the lower terrace of this site suggests that inhabitants were actively managing cultigens along the floodplain of this settlement. The presence of these remains in a non-midden context is evidence that precontact farmers in the Tennessee foothills took advantage of the newly created floodplains of the Early Woodland by implementing a burning regime, an early agricultural strategy aimed at increasing soil productivity and encouraging the growth of weedy annuals on the riverbank. In absence of lines of evidence such as preserved paleosols that can be examined for soil micromorphology, pollen, and phytoliths, integrated paleoethnobotanical and geomorphological analyses can be used to reconstruct land use and archaeologically identify prehistoric cultivated fields.

AN EARLY WOODLAND DOMESTICATED CHENOPOD (CHENOPODIUM BERLANDIERISUBSP.JONESIANUM) CACHE FROM THE TUTELA HEIGHTS SITE, ONTARIO, CANADA

A cache of charred, domesticated chenopod (Chenopodium berlandierisubsp.jonesianum) seeds is reported from the Early Woodland (930–915 cal BC) Tutela Heights site (AgHb-446) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. This is the northernmost report of the crop, approximately 800 km northeast of Kentucky where the previous northernmost occurrences contemporary with Tutela Heights are reported. The Tutela Heights chenopod dates to about 1,500 years before the earliest maize is reported in Ontario and is the earliest Eastern Agricultural Complex crop in Canada. The chenopod may represent a crop that was not grown locally. In this scenario, the crop was strictly an exchange item that was circulating in an interregional exchange system that extended south to the US Midwest region and east to the Maritime provinces. Another possibility, although less likely given our current understanding of Early Woodland plant use in Ontario, is that chenopod was introduced to Southern Ontario in this exchange network and subsequently became a crop in a low-level food producing economy during the Ontario Early Woodland. However, no ecological indicators of cultivation have been found at Tutela Heights, and continuity of domesticated chenopod utilization from the Early Woodland period in the province has not yet been documented.

Unified Theory of Cosmogram Decorations on Potteries of the Upper Midwest: Part I. Early Woodland Period

ABSTRACTEarly Woodland Liverpool (Black Sand variant) pottery decorations consist of belts, rectilinear panels, and/or punctates encircling the vessel. Vertically arranged thematic motifs reflect t...

Invention or diffusion: on the appearance of limestone temper in the late Holocene archeological record of southern Ohio, USA

One of the most fundamental questions archeologists face is whether some form or expression of material culture appears at a specific geo-temporal position in the archeological record as a result of invention or diffusion. As one of the most common archeological phenomena, ceramic technology at different times and places was either invented by, or diffused across, prehistoric populations. Here, we investigate whether the use of limestone temper—an additive added to clay before firing—could have been indigenously invented by prehistoric people in southern Ohio, USA. Since current evidence suggests that limestone temper was used on a limited basis during the Middle Woodland period in southern Ohio, it follows that if it were invented there indigenously, then evidence for its invention should be present in that period or the period prior, that is, during later portions of southern Ohio’s Early Woodland period. We tested this hypothesis via an assessment of 32 Early and Middle Woodland pottery sherds from southern Ohio using the HCL method. Our results unequivocally show that small amounts of limestone were indeed present in these early periods, consistent with possibility that the independent invention of limestone temper in southern Ohio could have occurred.

On the Age of Serpent Mound

Abstract Radiocarbon dates reported by Romain and colleagues (2017) suggesting that Serpent Mound (33AD1) is an Adena effigy mound are problematic because they cannot be linked reliably to cultural activities associated with the original construction of the effigy mound. Additional arguments offered by Romain and colleagues (2017) in support of an Early Woodland age for Serpent Mound also are unconvincing. A Late Prehistoric age for Serpent Mound is supported by the radiocarbon dates reported previously, new radiocarbon dates, the relative abundance of serpent imagery in the Fort Ancient culture and the contemporaneous Mississippian Tradition, the virtual absence of serpent imagery in the Adena culture, and the fact that, whereas effigy-mound building is otherwise unknown in the Early Woodland period, it is well documented, if rare, for the Fort Ancient culture and in the not-so-terribly-far-away upper Midwest it is so common that it defines the broadly contemporaneous Effigy Mound culture.

Current Research at Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station

During 2017, the Arkansas Archeological Survey celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of website postings (http://archeology.uark.edu/who-we-are/50moments/), a forum at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Archeological Society, and a symposium at the annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Tulsa. In addition, the Survey made strides in documenting and archiving its history and collections. The Survey’s Henderson State University (HSU) Research Station in Arkadelphia continued to inventory curated artifact collections and scan older paper records and color slides. Trubitt and Cinotto, assisted by volunteers during weekly Archeology Lab Days, are updating the station’s curated collections database with artifact counts and weights, and using identified diagnostic artifacts to revise temporal information in the AMASDA state site files database. We are also adding new information on novaculite projectile point distributions to the “Arkansas Novaculite” website (http://archeology.uark.edu/novaculite/index.html) database. Ultimately, the novaculite distribution map will be expanded to create maps for each time period. This attention to the station’s curated collections inventory has sparked several new projects. We inventoried over 10,000 artifacts from 1973 testing at the Spanish Diggings site (3GA48) in Garland County, the largest of the Ouachita Mountains novaculite quarries. Novaculite debris from this quarry can now be compared with excavated samples of chipping debris and in-process pieces from other quarries and habitation sites. Diagnostic dart points (Marshall and Gary, var. Gary) indicate use of the quarry at least during the Middle and Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods (ca. 6000-200 B.C.).

Radiocarbon Dates Reveal Serpent Mound Is More than Two Thousand Years Old

Abstract Recent radiocarbon dating (Herrmann et al. 2014) found that Serpent Mound was likely built during the Early Woodland period—around 320 BC. Herrmann et al. (2014) also suggested that the effigy was repaired or restored during Fort Ancient times, thereby accounting for the late prehistoric radiocarbon-dated samples recovered by Fletcher et al. (1996). The present article presents new data in support of the Early Woodland construction date. These data include lidar analyses, electrical resistivity ground imaging (ERGI) studies, and iconographic assessments.

The Nature and Pace of Change in American Indian Cultures: Pennsylvania, 4000 to 3000 BP

The Nature and Pace of Change in American Indian Cultures: Pennsylvania, 4000 to 3000 BP

Radiocarbon Dates Reveal Serpent Mound Is More than Two Thousand Years Old

Recent radiocarbon dating (Herrmann et al. 2014) found that Serpent Mound was likely built during the Early Woodland period—around 320 BC. Herrmann et al. (2014) also suggested that the effigy was ...

Archaeological Investigations at the Mike Myers Site (41CE481) on Bowles Creek in Cherokee County, Texas

The Mike Myers site is a multiple component prehistoric site in the Bowles Creek valley in the Neches River basin in East Texas. The site is on an upland landform (400 ft. amsl), now a pasture with low surface visibility, between Bowles Creek to the east ca. 100 m and a spring-fed branch to the west. The confluence of Bowles Creek with Jackson Branch lies ca. 600 m to the south. Soils on the site are classified as Nacogdoches fine sandy loam. Based on the archaeological investigations conducted at the site to date, the known site area covers a ca. 150 x 60 m area (north-south and east-west) or approximately 2 acres, but the site may well extend to the south onto a lower upland ridge slope (390 ft. amsl) some distance; hopefully shovel tests can be excavated in this area in the near future to determine the full site boundaries. This article discusses the archaeological findings obtained to date from 2016 archaeological investigations at the Mike Myers site, much of it consisting of shovel tests across the site area, focusing particularly on the archaeological remains recovered in the work that date from Woodland and Caddo periods. Most notably, the shovel test work at the site recovered two sherds of non-tempered early Woodland period Tchefuncte pottery. As far as we are aware, this is only the second site in East Texas where Tchefuncte pottery has been found; the other site is the well-known Resch site (41HS16) in the Sabine River basin in Harrison County, Texas. Tchefuncte culture pottery has been recovered from the Louisiana Gulf Coast, in the Ouachita and Mississippi river basins in Mississippi, Louisiana, and southeast Arkansas, and in the Sabine Lake area of coastal Texas and Louisiana, more than 250 km east and southeast of the Mike Myers site.

A Woodland Biface Cache from the Ranch Dash 3 Site, 47-MO-828, Monroe County, Wisconsin

Archaeological investigations during the 2014 field season at the Fort McCoy military installation in Wisconsin encountered a lithic artifact cache at the Ranch Dash 3 site (47-MO-828). Radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples collected from direct association with the feature returned dates associated with the transition from the Early Woodland period into the Early Middle Woodland period. The Ranch Dash 3 cache was recovered in the course of a controlled professional investigation, and while these blanks may have been cached for future biface production, they were most likely left behind because they were not of sufficient quality to merit further transport.

Revisiting the resilience of Late Archaic hunter-gatherers along the Georgia coast

This paper addresses fisher-hunter-gatherer settlement and subsistence variability of the Georgia Coast during the Archaic-Woodland transition, framed within ideas derived from Resilience Theory, and focusing on systemic shifts, or “collapse.” A critical examination of these shifts is needed to understand how communities experience change differentially, which in turn can lead to differential community resilience. Analysis of site file and radiocarbon date databases, as well as Bayesian modeling on a subset of dates, was performed at multiple scales and within distinct micro-environmental habitats. Results indicate that as sea levels dropped, there was continuity in Late Archaic occupation within deltaic areas of the coast, with intensive shellfishing occurring earlier (∼5000cal. BP) and lasting longer (∼3500cal. BP). In certain habitats, occupation may have continued into the following Early Woodland period. In non-deltaic areas, shellfishing occurs between 4500 and 3800cal. BP, followed by subsistence changes and population movement. However, some of the post-3800cal. BP occupations were fairly substantial. This differential experience of change between deltaic and non-deltaic areas was not accompanied by collapse: both areas had resilient communities. We conclude that inter-village relationships developed during the early Late Archaic period continued into the terminal portion, leading to resilience in the face of change.

Connecting Heaven and Earth

Abstract Most previous studies of Early Woodland ritual and ceremonialism in the Ohio region have focused primarily on Adena mound and earthwork enclosures and their attendant mortuary facilities. Recent investigations of other constructions, such as circular post structures, have demonstrated the feasibility of expanding interpretations of Early Woodland ceremonialism to include nonmortuary contexts. In the southern drainages of Lake Erie, small hilltop enclosures are potentially fruitful localities for the study of (non-Adena) ritual and ceremonialism. Recent investigations at the Heckelman hilltop enclosure reveal nonmortuary-ceremonial activity during the Early Woodland period. Archaeological remains point to the construction of an oval ditch enclosing clusters of freestanding (ritual) poles and pits that exhibit evidence of having been used for preparing and serving ceremonial meals. It is proposed that the Heckelman ceremonial precinct was the site of ritually charged activities bearing important cosmological significance for its users.

Connecting Heaven and Earth: Interpreting Early Woodland Nonmortuary Ceremonialism in Northern Ohio

Most previous studies of Early Woodland ritual and ceremonialism in the Ohio region have focused primarily on Adena mound and earthwork enclosures and their attendant mortuary facilities. Recent investigations of other constructions, such as circular post structures, have demonstrated the feasibility of expanding interpretations of Early Woodland ceremonialism to include nonmortuary contexts. In the southern drainages of Lake Erie, small hilltop enclosures are potentially fruitful localities for the study of (non-Adena) ritual and ceremonialism. Recent investigations at the Heckelman hilltop enclosure reveal nonmortuary-ceremonial activity during the Early Woodland period. Archaeological remains point to the construction of an oval ditch enclosing clusters of freestanding (ritual) poles and pits that exhibit evidence of having been used for preparing and serving ceremonial meals. It is proposed that the Heckelman ceremonial precinct was the site of ritually charged activities bearing important cosmologica...

A Late Woodland red ocher burial cache from Madison County, Ohio

An isolated human burial was discovered on a private property in Madison County, Ohio in the spring of 2009. The remains were recovered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and sent to The Ohio State University for analysis. We report the results of a generic descriptive analysis of the assemblage and remains. The individual was a robust young adult male, and the assemblage seemed typical of a terminal Archaic or Early Woodland period (1500–500 B.C.) deposit; however, a 14C AMS analysis run on collagen from a rib of the burial yielded an estimated age of 1520–1370 BP (A.D. 430–580). The dating result indicates that there is much potential variability in the archaeology of central Ohio that is not well accounted for by current classification systems.

Gifts of the Ancestors: Secondary Lithic Recycling in Appalachian Summit Prehistory

Evidence of systematic secondary lithic recycling at the Katie Griffith site and Church Rocksheiter No. 2 in the mountains of western North Carolina is presented. It is proposed that recycling and reuse of found stone artifacts in the Early Woodland period of the Appalachian Summit region of the southeastern United States was a regular lithic procurement option. It is concluded that systematic secondary lithic recycling was widespread in prehistory, provides an avenue for exploring economizing responses to raw material procurement challenges, and must be accounted for when using lithic artifacts in reconstructions and explanations of human mobility, exchange, and technological organization, and in archaeological constructions of lithic artifact typologies.

Gifts of the Ancestors: Secondary Lithic Recycling in Appalachian Summit Prehistory

Abstract Evidence of systematic secondary lithic recycling at the Katie Griffith site and Church Rocksheiter No. 2 in the mountains of western North Carolina is presented. It is proposed that recycling and reuse of found stone artifacts in the Early Woodland period of the Appalachian Summit region of the southeastern United States was a regular lithic procurement option. It is concluded that systematic secondary lithic recycling was widespread in prehistory, provides an avenue for exploring economizing responses to raw material procurement challenges, and must be accounted for when using lithic artifacts in reconstructions and explanations of human mobility, exchange, and technological organization, and in archaeological constructions of lithic artifact typologies.

A new multistage construction chronology for the Great Serpent Mound, USA

Effigy mounds occur across the midcontinent of North America but their cultural purposes and construction chronologies are rarely known and often controversial. Determining the age and construction history of monuments is important to relate religious symbolism, scientific knowledge, and cultural continuity to groups within a region. Based mainly on circumstantial evidence, researchers have long held that Serpent Mound in Ohio, USA, was constructed 2000–3000 years ago during the Early Woodland (Adena) or Middle Woodland (Hopewell) periods. Excavations in 1991 recovered charcoal buried at shallow depths (35–45 cm) in fill units of the mound and the 14C ages from two of these units indicated that Serpent Mound was built ∼900 years ago, during the Late Prehistoric (Fort Ancient) period, much later than originally thought. Our recent multidisciplinary work provides a more complex, robust construction history of Serpent Mound. We used geophysics to map the mound, and solid-earth cores to provide accurate stratigraphy and organic samples for 14C age estimates from the base of the mound. Bayesian statistical analyses of the seven 14C ages from Serpent Mound suggest that it was first constructed ∼2300 years ago during the Early Woodland (Adena) period but was renovated 1400 years later during the Late Prehistoric (Fort Ancient) period, probably to repair eroded portions of the mound. Modification of the mound is also indicated by a possible abandoned coil that is located near the head of the Serpent and visible only in the magnetometer survey.