Woodland Occupation Research Articles

Late Woodland settlement ecology of the Appalachian Summit

ABSTRACT The Late Woodland (ca. AD 800–1500) was a time of socioeconomic and environmental change in the Appalachian Summit. Changing climatic conditions and the introduction of maize agriculture made permanent settlement in these high-elevation mountain landscapes possible for the first time. We adopt a settlement ecology approach to examine how Late Woodland communities situated themselves in the landscape. Drawing upon geospatial analyses of legacy datasets, we document how Late Woodland communities prioritized access to different socioeconomic resources in the New River Headwaters region of northwest North Carolina. The New River Headwaters was an important source of natural resources, including mica and copper, as well as an important corridor for the movement of people and resources throughout Eastern North America. Our analyses demonstrate that Late Woodland communities balanced access to arable land, copper sources, and long-distance trade routes when situating their settlements. Larger sites had access to more land suited for maize agriculture than smaller sites. The largest sites in the region were also well-positioned with nearby access to copper sources and trade routes along the New River. Regional approaches to Late Woodland occupation in the Appalachian Summit reveal the dynamic relationship between humans and the environment in mountain landscapes.

Reverse Engineering Stone Atlatl Dart Points

ABSTRACTReverse engineering provides a way, in the absence of contemporary documentation, to deduce from physical principles the functional traits of artifacts. Constraints on atlatl dart point design serve as the principles to explain the discard of 46 whole points at the Cork site, 22OK746, a Middle Woodland occupation in north-central Mississippi. Because many of the points likely were jam-hafted, the dart–arrow index of Hildebrandt and King, rather than shoulder width, was used to identify them as dart points. Constraints operating on accuracy, penetrability, and durability were chosen. They include weight, symmetry, tip angle, raw material, and ratios of width and length to thickness. Cork site points most often violate critical values of the two ratios, indicating that their poor ability to penetrate a target was a major factor in their discard.

EARLY WOODLAND SETTLEMENT AND MOUND BUILDING IN THE UPPER TENSAS BASIN, NORTHEAST LOUISIANA

Traditionally overlooked because it lacks hallmarks of material and cultural complexity, Early Woodland in the Southeast is an interval of significant transformation in material culture, settlement, and social organization. Investigations at four sites in northeast Louisiana provide insights into changes taking place at this time. These sites are situated on a crevasse splay created by flooding at the end of the Archaic. This flooding is associated with an occupation hiatus ca. 3000–2500 cal B.P. Evidence suggests a rapid colonization of the crevasse splay by people using Tchefuncte pottery, and there is no evidence at these sites of stratigraphic or cultural continuity from Poverty Point. The Early Woodland occupation in the study area dates ca. 2400–2100 cal B.P., which is later than dates associated with Early Woodland in the Pontchartrain Basin and contemporary with Lake Cormorant culture sites farther north. Early Woodland in northeast Louisiana is marked by a diagnostic Tchefuncte ceramic assemblage and the presence of a settlement system composed of small villages or hamlets nucleated around a conical mound that presumably served as a ceremonial/ritual center. This mound was erected very rapidly; radiocarbon dates suggest it was constructed in no more than 10 years. Although mound building has been suspected, this is the first conclusive evidence it was an aspect of Tchefuncte settlement and ceremonial practices. Data from these sites bear on the question of cultural and demographic continuity and change at the Archaic to Woodland transition. Previous models emphasize continuity of populations with ceramic technology and styles diffusing into the lower Mississippi Valley. In contrast, our data support a model of Early Woodland repopulation of the lower Mississippi Valley from the south and east following a prolonged period of regional abandonment.

Prehistoric Ceramics from the Browning Site (41SM195A)

Archaeological work at the Browning site (4JSM195A) in eastern Smith County, Texas, has shown that it is a stratified site with two very distinct occupations: an early nineteenth century assemblage of artifacts in the upper zone overlying a buried prehistoric occupation. This occupation appears to be confined to the Woodland time period (ca. 500 B.C. to A.D. 800) with little evidence of any earlier or later prehistoric activity. The Woodland period in East Texas is a time of important cultural changes, "the most obvious (and most important?) of which is pottery-making and the bow and arrow." The main focus of the prehistoric occupation at the Browning site occurs in an organically enriched darker soil zone that is the result of either a continuous human occupation or frequent revisiting of this location, what Waters has described as archaeo-sediments resulting from human activity. This darker soil occupies the center of the landform and covers approximately 500m2 It contains charred wood, charred nut shell, lithic debris from stone tool manufacture/maintenance, and small amounts of burned and unburned animal bone. Other artifacts in this distinct soil zone include small dart points, mostly varieties of Gary; arrow points, mostly of the Friley and Steiner types; ground stone tools; and ceramics, primarily plain grog-tempered wares. Early work at the site included the excavation of 6.546 m3 of archaeological deposits from 10 1 x 1 m test units plus 22 shovel tests, resulting in the recovery of numerous historic and prehistoric artifacts, including eight Woodland period sherds. To date, excavations at the Browning site have totaled 20.4 m3 of archaeological deposits from 41 1 x 1m test units. The total amount of sherds associated with the Woodland occupation now totals 40 pieces. Those sherds, which are described in some detail and compared with other known sites, are the focus of this article. These sherds are scattered evenly across the occupation area in low densities.

Subsistence Transformation and Thermal Pretreatment of Lithic Raw Material

It has been proposed that changes in subsistence economy are often accompanied by modifications in tool manufacture, such as heat treatment of stone material. A lithic analysis performed on artifacts from the Schultz site, a stratified Early through Late Woodland occupation in Saginaw County, Michigan, shows an increased use of heat treatment during a period of intensification on wetland resources. Evidence for greater use of thermal alteration is seen in the proportion of heat-treated flakes as well as in the presence of heat treatment facilities.

Micromorphology of a Late Woodland Cave Site, East-Central Iowa

AbstractThis article discusses a micromorphological investigation conducted at Bogus Cave (13JN23), a Late Woodland occupation in Jones County, Iowa. Micromorphology–the study of undisturbed soil and sediment in thin section–was used to evaluate, and differentiate between, natural and cultural processes evidenced within the cave sediments. Twenty-two thin sections were prepared from samples collected from test units excavated in the front room of the cave, the principal site of human occupation. The cultural material was confined to a 55-cm-thick surface layer that rests on an accumulation of angular to subangular boulder-size dolostone blocks, the result of one or more episodes of pre-Holocene ceiling collapse. The thin sections revealed an accumulation of exogenous mineral grains, chert microdebitage, microvertebrate remains, and charcoal fragments in an organic-rich clay matrix. The absence of microstratification in the samples collected from the artifact-bearing stratum supports previous macroscopic e...

Eastern and Plains Late Woodland Transitions as Seen at the Lafayette Mound, Northwest Missouri

The Lafayette Mound, 23LF3, a burial site which dates to the latter part of the Late Woodland period in northwestern Missouri, provides insight into the poorly-understood geographical area between the Central Plains Late Woodland and Eastern Late Woodland regions. The mound was deflated and partially disturbed, but large portions of it contained intact fill. Diagnostic material indicates the mound was constructed on a previously utilized location. Fill contained artifacts diagnostic of the Early or Middle Woodland period and a Late Woodland occupation area. Human remains were primarily cremated subadults. Associated with these graves were miniature Scallorn projectile points, clay pipes, ochre, hematite objects, and pottery vessels. The mound base contained one hearth feature which is interpreted as a ceremonial or pre-mound feature. Comparisons with adjacent areas indicate that the Lafayette mound is part of a continuum of Late Woodland sites that spans the Central Plains and Eastern Missouri Late Woodland areas.

Early Woodland Occupation of the Northern Bluegrass: The West Runway Site (15BE391), Boone County, Kentucky

The West Runway site (15BE391) is located in an upland setting in Boone County, Kentucky. Excavations at this locality revealed intact Early Woodland deposits including pit features containing Fayette Thick ceramics and straight stemmed Kramer projectile points. Until these investigations, Fayette Thick ceramics had not previously been recovered from non-mound locations or in isolation within undisturbed feature contexts. Several radiocarbon determinations bracket the primary occupation of the West Runway site between 770 B.C. and 390 B.C. These dates indicate that the site predates the well-known Adena culture and suggest a need for continuing refinement of the Early Woodland cultural sequence.

Radiocarbon Dates for the Stelzer Site, 39DW242, Dewey County, South Dakota

Two uncorrected radiocarbon dates, AD 150 and AD 290, conform nicely with previously published estimated dates for this well-known Plains Woodland occupation site along the Missouri River in north ...

Early Woodland in the Trans-Missouri West

The recent discovery of several sites, in proximity to the Missouri River on the east and also to the west of the river, demonstrates an Early Woodland presence of significance between 500B. C. and A.D. 1. Sites, as far west as the Flint Hills of Kansas, previously identified as Late Archaic, may also be a part of this presence. A search for sites with cordmarked pottery, overlain with textured designs, and trian gular-bladed comer-notched projectile points will likely identify many additional examples of this ear liest Woodland interaction on the Plains. In 1967, by means of a contract with the Na tional Park Service, a field party from the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted an archaeological survey within the Little Delaware-Mission Creek Watershed Management Area in Brown, Atchison, and Jackson counties, northeastern Kansas. The purpose of the survey was to deter mine if important cultural resources were threatened by the anticipated construction of a series of water-retention structures. The struc tures were to be built by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service (Eoff and Johnson 1968). One of the sites located by the survey in an area not threatened by construction activity is 14BN26. Marked by a surface scatter of cultural debris in an agricultural field, 14BN26 is on the east side of Otter Creek, a northern tributary of the Delaware River (Fig. 1). The Delaware, in turn, flows into the Kansas River near Perry, Kansas between Lawrence and Topeka. Tem porally diagnostic artifacts collected from the site in 1967, and during a revisit in 1990, demonstrate the presence of two prehistoric oc cupations, one assignable to the early Plains Vil lage tradition and the other to Plains Woodland. A single projectile point fragment and a frag ment of crockery also suggest usages during the Archaic and Historic periods. Of these various periods of use, the one of interest to the present study is the Plains Wood land occupation. Artifacts assignable to this oc cupation include a single body sherd, 6 projec tile points or fragments, and one bifacial knife. The sherd, reconstructed from three small frag ments, measures 55 mm x 66 mm in overall size and 11 mm in thickness. It is heavily tempered with rounded sand grains. The exterior surface bears horizontally-placed cordmarks, overlain by diagonal cordmarks, on which are superim posed a series of horizontal lines of partially obliterated punctates, probably produced by the circular end of a hollow reed (Fig. 2a). Two complete projectile points have trian gular blades, corner notches, and straight bases (Fig. 2b, d). Four fragments, all broken across the stems and lacking tips, retain enough similarities to indicate conformation with the morphology of the complete points. One point fragment is of gray chert that probably originated in the Flint Hills of east-central Kan sas, while the remaining points and fragments are manufactured from a variety of chert types not known from the surrounding area. Dimen sions for the points are presented in Table 1, along with those from several contemporaneous sites believed to be affiliated. The remaining artifact that can be identified with the Woodland occupation at 14BN26 is a contracting-stemmed biface apparently used as a hafted knife (Fig. 2c). The stem, which at its point of origin is only slightly inset from the blade, has ground lateral edges and traces of wear and polish on both faces. Both the edge grinding and the facial wear are believed related

Radiocarbon Dating as a Probabilistic Technique: The Childers Site and Late Woodland Occupation in the Ohio Valley

Like any scientific technique, radiocarbon dating has limitations, and its results cannot be interpreted uncritically. The archaeological record of Childers, a Late Woodland site in eastern North America, and inferences concerning its occupational history are evaluated here against radiocarbon dates from the site. The record suggests a single, relatively brief, occupation, but radiocarbon-dating results suggest either a much longer continuous occupation or a long series of shorter ones. The apparent conflict between the archaeological record and radiocarbon results is resolved by considering context and integrity of radiocarbon samples, as well as the probabilistic character of the radiocarbon method itself. Considerable dispersion in dating results can occur even in relatively brief occupations, casting doubt on the uncritical interpretation of raw radiocarbon results. Childers's occupational history and chronological placement have important implications for regional culture process during the early Late Woodland interval, and suggest a time lag in the acceptance of cultural innovations.