Lithic stage

Last updated

In the sequence of cultural stages first proposed for the archaeology of the Americas by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in 1958, the Lithic stage was the earliest period of human occupation in the Americas, as post-glacial hunter gatherers spread through the Americas. [1] [2] The stage derived its name from the first appearance of Lithic flaked stone tools. [3] The term Paleo-Indian is an alternative, generally indicating much the same period.

Contents

This stage was conceived as embracing two major categories of the stone technology: (1) unspecialized and thy largely unformulated core and flake industries, with percussion the dominant and perhaps only technique employed, and (2) industries exhibiting more advanced "blade" techniques of stoneworking, with specialized fluted or unfluted lanceolate points the most characteristic artifact types. Throughout South America, there are stone tool traditions of the lithic stage, such as the "fluted fishtail", that reflect localized adaptations to the diverse habitats of the continent. [4]

Stemmed fluted "Fishtail" point found in Belize StemmedFlutedPoint-Surface.jpg
Stemmed fluted "Fishtail" point found in Belize

The indications and timing of the end of the Lithic stage vary between regions. The use of textiles, fired pottery, and start of the gradual replacement of hunter gatherer lifestyles with agriculture and domesticated animals would all be factors. End dates vary, but are around 5000 to 3000  BCE in many areas. The Archaic stage is the most widely used term for the succeeding stage, but in the periodization of pre-Columbian Peru, the Cotton Pre-Ceramic may be used. As in the Norte Chico civilization, cultivated cotton seems to have been very important in economic and power relations, from around 3200 BCE.

Archeologist Alex Krieger has documented hundreds of sites that have yielded crude, percussion-flaked tools. The most convincing evidence for a lithic stage is based upon data recovered from sites in South America, where such crude tools have been found and dated to more than 20,000 years ago. [5]

In North America, the time encompasses the Paleo-Indian period, which subsequently is divided into more specific time terms, such as Early Lithic stage or Early Paleo-Indians, and Middle Paleo-Indians or Middle Lithic stage. [6] Examples include the Clovis culture and Folsom tradition groups.

The Lithic stage was followed by the Archaic stage.

Timeline [7]

A Clovis point from Utah, dated to 11500-9000 BC. Clovis point, 11500-9000 BC, Sevier County, Utah, chert - Natural History Museum of Utah - DSC07376.JPG
A Clovis point from Utah, dated to 11500–9000 BC.
Kennewick Man Kennewick Man.jpg
Kennewick Man

Times from the 8000 BCE to about 3000 BCE may be classified as part of the lithic stage or of an archaic stage, depending on authority and on region.[ clarification needed ][ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeology of the Americas</span> Study of the archaeology of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean

The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of the Western Hemisphere, including North America (Mesoamerica), Central America, South America and the Caribbean. This includes the study of pre-historic/Pre-Columbian and historic indigenous American peoples, as well as historical archaeology of more recent eras, including the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and European colonization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithic period in Mesoamerica</span> Prehistoric period in Mesoamerica

In the History of Mesoamerica, the stage known as the Paleo-Indian period is the era in the scheme of Mesoamerican chronology which begins with the very first indications of human habitation within the Mesoamerican region, and continues until the general onset of the development of agriculture and other proto-civilisation traits. The conclusion of this stage may be assigned to approximately 9000 BP, and the transition to the succeeding Archaic period is not a well-defined one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clovis point</span> New World prehistoric projectile

Clovis points are the characteristically fluted projectile points associated with the New World Clovis culture, a prehistoric Paleo-American culture. They are present in dense concentrations across much of North America and they are largely restricted to the north of South America. There are slight differences in points found in the Eastern United States bringing them to sometimes be called "Clovis-like". Clovis points date to the Early Paleoindian period, with all known points dating from roughly 13,400–12,700 years ago. As an example, Clovis remains at the Murry Springs Site date to around 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis fluted points are named after the city of Clovis, New Mexico, where examples were first found in 1929 by Ridgely Whiteman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clovis culture</span> Prehistoric culture in the Americas c. 11,100–10,800 BCE

The Clovis culture is an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present. The type site is Blackwater Draw locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, where stone tools were found alongside the remains of Columbian mammoths in 1929. Clovis sites have been found across North America. The most distinctive part of the Clovis culture toolkit are Clovis points, which are projectile points with a fluted, lanceolate shape. Clovis points are typically large, sometimes exceeding 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length. These points were multifunctional, also serving as cutting tools. Other stone tools used by the Clovis culture include knives, scrapers, and bifacial tools, with bone tools including beveled rods and shaft wrenches, with possible ivory points also being identified. Hides, wood, and natural fibers may also have been utilized, though no direct evidence of this has been preserved. Clovis artifacts are often found grouped together in caches where they had been stored for later retrieval, and over 20 Clovis caches have been identified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaic period (North America)</span> Period from c. 8000 to 1000 BC in North America

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleo-Indians</span> Classification term given to the first peoples who entered the American continents

Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix paleo- comes from the Ancient Greek adjective: παλαιός, romanized: palaiós, lit. 'old; ancient'. The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folsom tradition</span> North American Paleo-Indian archaeological culture

The Folsom tradition is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 10800 BCE to c. 10200 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The discovery by archaeologists of projectile points in association with the bones of extinct Bison antiquus, especially at the Folsom site near Folsom, New Mexico, established much greater antiquity for human residence in the Americas than the previous scholarly opinion that humans in the Americas dated back only 3,000 years. The findings at the Folsom site have been called the "discovery that changed American archaeology."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plano cultures</span> Archaeological cultures of North America

The Plano cultures is a name given by archaeologists to a group of disparate hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America during the Paleo-Indian or Archaic period.

The Paleo-Arctic Tradition is the name given by archaeologists to the cultural tradition of the earliest well-documented human occupants of the North American Arctic, which date from the period 8000–5000 BC. The tradition covers Alaska and expands far into the east, west, and the Southwest Yukon Territory.

Southwestern archaeology is a branch of archaeology concerned with the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. This region was first occupied by hunter-gatherers, and thousands of years later by advanced civilizations, such as the Ancestral Puebloans, the Hohokam, and the Mogollon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thunderbird Archaeological District</span> Archaeological site in Virginia, United States

The Thunderbird Archaeological District, near Limeton, Virginia, is an archaeological district described as consisting of "three sites—Thunderbird Site, the Fifty Site, and the Fifty Bog—which provide a stratified cultural sequence spanning Paleo-Indian cultures through the end of Early Archaic times with scattered evidence of later occupation."

J&J Hunt Site (8JE740) is an inundated prehistoric archaeological site located 6 km off the coast of northwestern Florida. The site which was discovered in 1989 is located in 3.7 to 4.6 m of salt water in the Gulf of Mexico along the PaleoAucilla River. In prehistory the site had at least two different occupations: a Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic and Middle Archaic. The J&J Hunt site was a major focus of the PaleoAucilla Prehistory Project conducted by Michael K. Faught.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jones-Miller Bison Kill Site</span>

The Jones-Miller Bison Kill Site, located in northeast Colorado, was a Paleo-Indian site where Bison antiquus were killed using a game drive system and butchered. Hell Gap complex bones and tools artifacts at the site are carbon dated from about ca. 8000-8050 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaic–Early Basketmaker Era</span> Ancient culture of the southwest United States

The Archaic–Early Basketmaker Era was an Archaic cultural period of ancestors to the Ancient Pueblo People. They were distinguished from other Archaic people of the Southwest by their basketry which was used to gather and store food. They became reliant on wild seeds, grasses, nuts, and fruit for food and changed their movement patterns and lifestyle by maximizing the edible wild food and small game within a geographical region. Manos and metates began to be used to process seeds and nuts. With the extinction of megafauna, hunters adapted their tools, using spears with smaller projectile points and then atlatl and darts. Simple dwellings made of wood, brush and earth provided shelter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Colorado prehistory</span> Overview of and topical guide to the prehistory of Colorado

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the prehistoric people of Colorado, which covers the period of when Native Americans lived in Colorado prior to contact with the Domínguez–Escalante expedition in 1776. People's lifestyles included nomadic hunter-gathering, semi-permanent village dwelling, and residing in pueblos.

Prehistoric technology is technology that predates recorded history. History is the study of the past using written records. Anything prior to the first written accounts of history is prehistoric, including earlier technologies. About 2.5 million years before writing was developed, technology began with the earliest hominids who used stone tools, which they first used to hunt food, and later to cook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of prehistoric technology</span> Overview of and topical guide to prehistoric technology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to prehistoric technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andean preceramic</span>

The Andean preceramic refers to the early period of human occupation in the Andean area of South America that preceded the introduction of ceramics. This period is also called pre-ceramic or aceramic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaic Period (Americas)</span> Prehistoric period in the Americas

Several chronologies in the archaeology of the Americas include an Archaic Period or Archaic stage etc. It is often sub-divided, for example into "Early", "Middle" and "Late", or alternatively "Lower" and "Upper", stages. The dates, and the characteristics of the period called "Archaic" vary between different parts of the Americas. Sometimes also referred to as the "Pre-Ceramic stage" or period, it followed the Lithic stage and was superseded by the Formative stage, or a Preformative stage. The typical broad use of the terms is as follows:

References

  1. "Method and Theory in American Archaeology". Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips . University of Chicago. 1958. Archived from the original on 2012-06-28. Retrieved 2017-09-03.; free online text
  2. Silberman, N.A.; Bauer, A.A. (2012). The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford University Press. pp. 2–151. ISBN   978-0-19-973578-5 . Retrieved 2015-02-26.
  3. Willey, Gordon R. (1989). "Gordon Willey". In Glyn Edmund Daniel; Christopher Chippindale (eds.). The Pastmasters: Eleven Modern Pioneers of Archaeology: V. Gordon Childe, Stuart Piggott, Charles Phillips, Christopher Hawkes, Seton Lloyd, Robert J. Braidwood, Gordon R. Willey, C.J. Becker, Sigfried J. De Laet, J. Desmond Clark, D.J. Mulvaney. New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN   0-500-05051-1. OCLC   19750309.
  4. Gordon R. Willey; Philip Phillips (1958). "Method and Theory in American Archaeology". p. 79 by. Archived from the original on 2018-03-25.
  5. Walthall, J.A. (1990). Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast: Archaeology of Alabama and the Middle South. University of Alabama Press. p. 22. ISBN   978-0-8173-0552-9 . Retrieved 2015-02-26.
  6. Gordon R. Willey and Philip Phillips (1957). Method and Theory in American Archaeology. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-89888-9.
  7. "Monte Verde", Wikipedia, 2022-08-30, retrieved 2022-10-25
  8. "New Mexico footprints are oldest sign of humans in Americas, research shows". The Guardian. 6 October 2023. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 6 October 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  9. "Researchers, Led by Archaeologist, Find Pre-Clovis Human DNA". Newswise. (17 June 2011)
  10. Bement, 176– (incomplete reference)
  11. O'Brien, Michael John and R. Lee Lyman. Applying Evolutionary Archaeology: A Systematic Approach. New York: Springer, 2000: 355. ISBN   978-0-306-46253-5.
  12. McManamon, Francis P. "Determination That the Kennewick Human Skeletal Remains are "Native American" for the Purposes of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)." National Park Service Archaeology Program. 11 Jan 2000 (retrieved 18 June 2011)