| Periods in North American prehistory |
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North American archaeological periods divides the history of pre-Columbian North America into a number of named successive eras or periods, from the earliest-known human habitation through to the early Colonial period which followed the European colonization of the Americas.
One of the most enduring classifications of archaeological periods and cultures was established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book, Method and Theory in American Archaeology. They divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, only three of which applied to North America. [1] The use of these divisions has diminished in most of North America due to the development of local classifications with more elaborate breakdowns of times. [2]
For more details on the five major stages, still used in Mesoamerican archaeology, see Mesoamerican chronology and Archaeology of the Americas.
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| Paleo Indians (Lithic stage) (18,000 – 8000 BCE) | Clovis culture | c. 11,500 – 10,800 BCE [3] [4] | ||
| Western Fluted Point tradition | c. 11,200 – 9000 BCE, California | |||
| Post Pattern | c. 11,000 – 7000 BCE, NW California | |||
| Folsom tradition | c. 10800 – 10200 BCE | |||
| Dalton tradition | c. 8500 – 7900 BCE | |||
| Archaic period, (Archaic stage) (8000 – 1000 BCE) | by Time Period | Early Archaic 8000 – 6000 BCE | Plano cultures | 9,000 – 5,000 BCE |
| Paleo-Arctic tradition | 8000 – 5000 BCE | |||
| Maritime Archaic | ||||
| Red Paint People | 3000 – 1000 BCE | |||
| Middle Archaic 6000 – 3000 BCE | Chihuahua tradition | c. 6000 BCE – c. 250 CE | ||
| Watson Brake and Lower Mississippi Valley sites | c. 3500 – 2800 BCE | |||
| Late Archaic 3000 – 1000 BCE | Arctic Small Tool tradition | 2500 – 800 BCE | ||
| Aleutian tradition | 2500 – 1800 BCE | |||
| Poverty Point culture | 2200 – 700 BCE | |||
| by Location | Great Basin | Desert Archaic | ||
| Middle Archaic | ||||
| Late Archaic | ||||
| Great Lakes | Old Copper complex | c. 4000 – c. 1000 BCE | ||
| Red Ochre people | c. 1000 – 100 BCE | |||
| Glacial Kame culture | c. 8000 – 1000 BCE | |||
| Great Plains | Plains Archaic | c. 9500 – 5500 BCE | ||
| Mesoamerica | Mexican Archaic | |||
| Southwest: Southwestern Archaic Traditions | Archaic – Early Basketmaker Era | c. 7000 – c. 1500 BCE | ||
| San Dieguito–Pinto tradition | c. 6500 BCE – c. 200 CE | |||
| Chihuahua (Southeastern) tradition | c. 6000 BCE – c. 250 CE | |||
| Oshara (Northern) tradition | c. 5500 BCE – c. 600 CE | |||
| Cochise tradition | 5000 – 200 BCE | |||
| California | Millingstone Horizon (or Encinitas tradition) | c. 5500 – 1500 BCE | ||
| Intermediate Horizon (or Campbell tradition) | c. 1500 BCE – 1000 CE | |||
| Southeast | Mount Taylor period | 5000 – 2000 BCE | ||
| Stallings Island (St. Simons) culture | 2500 – 1000 BCE | |||
| Thoms Creek culture | 2500 – 1000 BCE | |||
| Poverty Point culture | 2200 – 700 BCE | |||
| Elliott's Point complex | 2000 – 700 BCE | |||
| Norwood culture | 2000 – 500 BCE | |||
| Orange culture | 2000 – 500 BCE | |||
| Post-archaic period, (incorporating Formative, Classic and post-Classic stages) (1000 BCE – present) | in North | Norton tradition | Choris Stage | c. 1000 – 500 BCE |
| Norton | 500 BCE – 800 CE | |||
| Ipiutak Stage | 1 CE – 800 CE | |||
| Dorset culture | 500 BCE – 1500 CE | |||
| Thule people | 200 BCE – 1600 CE | |||
| on Great Plains | Plains Woodland | c. 500 BCE – 1000 CE | ||
| Plains Village | c. 1000 – 1780 CE | |||
| in Southwest and by Pecos Classification | Early Basketmaker II Era | 1500 BCE – 50 CE | ||
| Late Basketmaker II Era | 50 CE – 500 CE | |||
| Basketmaker III Era | 500 CE – 750 CE | |||
| Pueblo I Era | 750 CE – 900 CE | |||
| Pueblo II Era | 900 CE – 1150 CE | |||
| Pueblo III Era | 1150 CE – 1350 CE | |||
| Pueblo IV Era | 1350 CE – 1600 CE | |||
| Pueblo V Era | 1600 CE – present | |||
| in Southwest and by peoples | Ancestral Puebloans (formerly Anasazi) | 1 CE – 1300 CE | ||
| Hohokam | 200 CE – 1450 CE | |||
| Fremont | 400 CE – 1350 CE | |||
| Patayan | 700 CE – 1550 CE | |||
| Mogollon | 700 CE – 1400 CE | |||
| in East and by peoples | Early Woodland Period 1000 BCE – 1 CE | Adena culture | 1000 – 100 BCE | |
| Deptford culture – Atlantic region | 800 BCE – 700 CE | |||
| Deptford culture – Gulf region | 500 BCE – 200 CE | |||
| Middle Woodland Period 1 – 500 | Point Peninsula complex (a Hopewellian culture) | 600 BCE – 700 CE | ||
| Laurel complex (a Hopewellian culture) | 300 BCE – 1100 CE | |||
| Hopewell culture | 200 BCE – 500 CE | |||
| Havana Hopewell culture (a Hopewellian culture) | 200 BCE to 400 CE | |||
| Goodall focus (a Hopewellian culture) | 200 BCE to 500 CE | |||
| Saugeen complex (a Hopewellian culture) | 200 BCE to 500 CE | |||
| Kansas City Hopewell (a Hopewellian culture) | 100 BCE – 700 CE | |||
| Armstrong culture (a Hopewellian culture) | 1 – 500 CE | |||
| Swift Creek culture (a Hopewellian culture) | 100 – 800 CE | |||
| Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture (a Hopewellian culture) | 100 – 300 CE | |||
| Marksville culture (a Hopewellian culture) | 100 BCE – 400 CE | |||
| Fourche Maline culture | 300 BCE to 800 CE | |||
| Copena culture (a Hopewellian culture) | 1 – 500 CE | |||
| Late Woodland Period 500–1000 | Baytown culture | 300–700 CE | ||
| Plum Bayou culture | 400–900 CE | |||
| Troyville culture | 300–700 CE | |||
| Coles Creek culture | 700 – 1100 CE | |||
| Mississippian culture 900–1500 (ending with European contact) | Early Mississippian culture | 1000 – 1200 CE | ||
| Middle Mississippian culture | 1200 – 1400 CE | |||
| Late Mississippian culture | 1400 – 1500 CE (or European contact) | |||
| Fort Ancient (a non-Mississippian culture) | 1000 – 1550 CE | |||
| Oneota [5] | 900 – 1650 CE | |||
| in Florida and adjacent parts of Alabama and Georgia, by culture | Belle Glade culture | 1050 BCE – European contact | ||
| Glades culture | 550 BCE – European contact | |||
| Manasota culture | 550 BCE – 800 CE | |||
| St. Johns culture | 550 BCE – European contact | |||
| Caloosahatchee culture | 500 BCE – European contact | |||
| Weeden Island culture 100–1000 CE | Weeden Island I, including | 100–750 CE | ||
| – Cades Pond culture | 100–600 CE | |||
| – Kolomaki culture | 350–750 CE | |||
| – McKeithen Weeden Island culture | 200–750 CE | |||
| Weeden Island II, including | 750–1000 CE | |||
| – Wakulla culture | 750–1000 CE | |||
| Alachua culture | 600 – European contact | |||
| Suwannee Valley culture | 750 – European contact | |||
| Safety Harbor culture | 800 – European contact | |||
| Fort Walton culture a Mississippian culture | 1000 – European contact | |||
| Pensacola culture | 1250 – European contact | |||
| Lower Mississippi periods | Lower Yazoo phases | Lower Yazoo dates | Tensas/Natchez phases | Cahokia Phases | Cahokia dates | Ohio/Miss. River Confluence phases | Ohio/Miss. dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Historic | Russell (Tunica) | 1650–1750 CE | Tensas / Natchez | Vacant Quarter | 1350 CE - European Contact | Jackson | 1500-1650 CE |
| Plaquemine Mississippian culture Late Plaquemine/Mississippian Middle Plaquemine/Mississippian Early Plaquemine/Mississippian | Wasp Lake | 1400-1650 CE | Transylvania / Emerald | ||||
| Lake George | 1300-1400 CE | Fitzhugh / Foster | Sand Prairie | 1275-1350 CE | Medley Phase | 1300-1500 CE | |
| Winterville | 1200-1300 CE | Routh / Anna | Moorehead | 1200-1275 CE | Dorena | 1100-1300 CE | |
| Transitional Coles Creek | Crippen Point | 1050-1200 CE | Preston / Gordon | Lohmann Sterling | 1050-1200 CE | ||
| Coles Creek culture Late Coles Creek Middle Coles Creek Early Coles Creek | Kings Crossing | 950-1050 CE | Balmoral | Terminal Late Woodland | 900–1050 CE | James Bayou | 900-1100 CE |
| Aden | 800-950 CE | Ballina | |||||
| Bayland | 600-800 CE | Sundown | Late Woodland | 400–900 CE | Cane Hills Berkley | 600–900 CE 400–600 CE | |
| Baytown/Troyville Baytown 2 Baytown 1 | Deasonville | 500-600 CE | Marsden | ||||
| Little Sunflower | 400-500 CE | Indian Bayou | |||||
| Marksville culture Late Marksville Early Marksville | Issaquena | 200-400 CE | Issaquena | Middle Woodland | 200 BCE - 400 CE | La Plant Burkett | 100 BCE-400 CE 550-100 BCE |
| Anderson Landing | 1-200 CE | Point Lake/ Grand Gulf | |||||
| Tchefuncte culture | Tuscola | 400 BCE-1 CE | Panther Lake | ||||
| Jaketown | Poverty Point | 700- 400 BCE | Frasier | Early Woodland | 700-200 BCE | O'Bryan Ridge | 700-550 BCE |
| - | 1000-700 BCE | - | Late Archaic | 1000 - 200 BCE | |||
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In the classification of the archaeological cultures of North America, the Archaic period in North America, taken to last from around 8000 to 1000 BC in the sequence of North American pre-Columbian cultural stages, is a period defined by the archaic stage of cultural development. The Archaic stage is characterized by subsistence economies supported through the exploitation of nuts, seeds, and shellfish. As its ending is defined by the adoption of sedentary farming, this date can vary significantly across the Americas.
The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1600, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well. It was composed of a series of urban settlements and satellite villages linked together by loose trading networks. The largest city was Cahokia, believed to be a major religious center located in what is present-day southern Illinois.
Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.
The Weeden Island cultures are a group of related archaeological cultures that existed during the Late Woodland period of the North American Southeast. The name for this group of cultures was derived from the Weedon Island site in Old Tampa Bay in Pinellas County.
Spiro Mounds is an Indigenous archaeological site located in present-day eastern Oklahoma. The site was built by people from the Arkansas Valley Caddoan culture. that remains from an American Indian culture that was part of the major northern Caddoan Mississippian culture. The 80-acre site is located within a floodplain on the southern side of the Arkansas River. The modern town of Spiro developed approximately seven miles to the south.
In archaeological cultures of North America, the classic stage is the theoretical North and Meso-American societies that existed between AD 500 and 1200. This stage is the fourth of five stages posited by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.
The Alachua culture is a Late Woodland Southeast period archaeological culture in north-central Florida, dating from around 600 to 1700. It is found in an area roughly corresponding to present-day Alachua County, the northern half of Marion County and the western part of Putnam County. It was preceded by the Cades Pond culture, which inhabited approximately the same area.
The Belle Glade culture, or Okeechobee culture, is an archaeological culture that existed from as early as 1000 BCE until about 1700 CE in the area surrounding Lake Okeechobee and in the Kissimmee River valley in the Florida Peninsula.
The Glades culture is an archaeological culture in southernmost Florida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly after European contact. Its area included the Everglades, the Florida Keys, the Atlantic coast of Florida north through present-day Martin County and the Gulf coast north to Marco Island in Collier County. It did not include the area around Lake Okeechobee, which was part of the Belle Glade culture.
The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their heartland extended from about the Altamaha River in Georgia to south of the mouth of the St. John's River, covering the Sea Islands and the inland waterways, Intracoastal. and much of present-day Jacksonville. At the time of contact with Europeans, there were two major chiefdoms among the Mocama, the Saturiwa and the Tacatacuru, each of which evidently had authority over multiple villages. The Saturiwa controlled chiefdoms stretching to modern day St. Augustine, but the native peoples of these chiefdoms have been identified by Pareja as speaking Agua Salada, which may have been a distinct dialect.
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Timothy R. Pauketat is an American archaeologist, director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, the Illinois State Archaeologist, and professor of anthropology and medieval studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is known for his historical theories and his investigations at Cahokia, the major center of precolonial Mississippian culture in the American Bottom region of Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri.
The Indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However, the indigenous Floridians living east of the Apalachicola River had largely died out by the early 18th century. Some Apalachees migrated to Louisiana, where their descendants now live; some were taken to Cuba and Mexico by the Spanish in the 18th century, and a few may have been absorbed into the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.
The Safety Harbor culture was an archaeological culture practiced by Native Americans living on the central Gulf coast of the Florida peninsula, from about 900 CE until after 1700. The Safety Harbor culture is defined by the presence of Safety Harbor ceramics in burial mounds. The culture is named after the Safety Harbor site, located close to the center of the culture area. The Safety Harbor site is the probable location of the chief town of the Tocobaga, the best known of the groups practicing the Safety Harbor culture.
The Marksville culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Lower Mississippi valley, Yazoo valley, and Tensas valley areas of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and extended eastward along the Gulf Coast to the Mobile Bay area, from 100 BCE to 400 CE. This culture takes its name from the Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Marksville Culture was contemporaneous with the Hopewell cultures within present-day Ohio and Illinois. It evolved from the earlier Tchefuncte culture and into the Baytown and Troyville cultures, and later the Coles Creek and Plum Bayou cultures. It is considered ancestral to the historic Natchez and Taensa peoples.
Lynne Sullivan is an American archaeologist and former Curator of Archaeology for the Frank H. McClung Museum located on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, Tennessee. A graduate of the University of Tennessee (undergraduate) and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Sullivan is renowned for her research and publications on subjects such as Southeastern United States prehistory, Mississippian chiefdoms, mortuary analysis, and archaeological curation. She has been a major contributor to the feminist/gender archaeology movement through her studies in social inequality, gender roles, and the historic significance of women in the development of modern archaeology.
A temper is a non-plastic material added to clay to prevent shrinkage and cracking during drying and firing of vessels made from the clay. Tempers may include:
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