The Evolution and Persistence of Ceramic Motifs in Northern Georgia

1950 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wauchope

Stamped or impressed designs on pottery from a group of relatively early sites in northern Georgia provide new data on the origin of several well known motifs of later times, and add to the evidence for a considerable cultural continuity between the archaeological phases of this area.In a previous article for american antiquity (Vol. XIV, pp. 201-9), I summarized the general ceramic sequence in the Etowah Drainage. Fabric impressed pottery seems to be the first majority ware in this area. It gradually decreased in popularity as Mossy Oak Simple Stamped increased and Deptford Bold and Linear Check Stamped appeared. The last named, together with Deptford Simple Stamped, became majority types during Late Archaic or Early Woodland times. In the meantime Woodstock Stamped and Woodstock Incised pottery appeared, but did not reach their frequency peak until Early Swift Creek had presumably degenerated into its later form near the end of the Middle Woodland period. Napier Stamped appeared at this time. Napier and Woodstock pottery strongly influenced the Early Mississippi "Etowah" wares, both stamped and incised. In the latter part of this period, Savannah Stamped intruded briefly, but the Etowah types persisted and finally deteriorated in carefulness of execution, thus evolving into the Lamar pottery of Late Mississippi time.

Author(s):  
Robert W. Jobson ◽  
Frank Winchell ◽  
A.E. Picarella ◽  
Kiven C. Hill

In northeastern Oklahoma, very little is known about the transition from the Late Archaic to the Woodland period (Wyckoff and Brooks, 1983: 55). To date, most of the archeological evidence documenting this time period has been derived from sites with mixed or otherwise uncertain components. In this report, we present a preliminary description of a small rockshelter, 34RO252, which has a Late Archaic deposit stratigraphically below a Woodland era cultural deposit. These two deposits are unmixed, discrete, and are physically separated by an apparently sterile clay soil horizon. It is anticipated that the stratified cultural deposits at this site will help characterize the transition from the Late Archaic to the Early Woodland period along the Verdigris River in northeast Oklahoma. This site was first reported in April 1994 by two men who had discovered partially exposed human skeletal remains located in the rear remnant of a rockshelter at Oologah Lake in Rogers County, Oklahoma. The two men illegally excavated the remains and removed them from the site. 1 The rockshelter where the remains originated was subsequently examined by the authors and additional skeletal material was identified, in situ, in an exposed soil profile. A series of three radiocarbon assays, described below, placed the cultural deposit and the human remains within the Late Archaic-Woodland period (circa 780 B.C. to A.O. 900).2 This site is provisionally classified as corresponding to a cultural sequence that includes the old Grove C described by Purrington and Vehik.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (02) ◽  
pp. 239-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Z Selden

The East Texas Radiocarbon Database contributes to an analysis of tempo and place for Woodland era (∼500 BC–AD 800) archaeological sites within the region. The temporal and spatial distributions of calibrated14C ages (n= 127) with a standard deviation (ΔT) of 61 from archaeological sites with Woodland components (n= 51) are useful in exploring the development and geographical continuity of the peoples in cast Texas, and lead to a refinement of our current chronological understanding of the period. While analysis of summed probability distributions (SPDs) produces less than significant findings due to sample size, they are used here to illustrate the method of date combination prior to the production of site- and period-specific SPDs. Through the incorporation of this method, the number of14C dates is reduced to 85 with a ΔTof 54. The resultant data set is then subjected to statistical analyses that conclude with the separation of the east Texas Woodland period into the Early Woodland (∼500 BC–AD 0), Middle Woodland (∼AD 0–400), and Late Woodland (∼AD 400–800) periods.


1951 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Ritchie

Since my synthesis (Ritchie, 1944) additional chronological and other data (Smith, 1950; Bullen, 1949) have accumulated for the New York area from interrelated field (Ritchie, 1946; also excavations of 1950 on same site) and laboratory (Ritchie and MacNeish, 1949; MacNeish, n.d.) researches. Among the significant sites recently excavated by the writer, which have contributed to the problem of cultural continuity are the Jack's Reef site, to be further excavated and reported on in 1951; the East Sugar Island site (Ritchie, 1949, pp. 3-24); and a group of Owasco and early Mohawk sites in eastern New York, excavated in 1949-1950 (Ritchie, Lenig and Miller, n.d.; Ritchie, n.d.). The Piffard site in western New York, excavated by Robert R. Hill of Rochester, N. Y., is another site showing transitional features. The chronological data accrue from the radiocarbon analyses of Arnold and Libby (1950, p. 7) made from charcoal samples obtained from hearths and graves on certain Archaic and early Woodland period sites in central New York.


1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark F. Seeman

During the Middle Woodland period in eastern North America, modified human skulls are interjected into a broader pattern of "trophy"-artifact manufacture. Interpretations of these human trophies have resulted in a polarity of opinion-that they are the remains of (1) revered ancestors, or (2) defeated enemies. Both previous investigations of the problem support exclusively the "revered-ancestor" interpretation. Results of the present study, which makes use of a six-site Ohio Hopewell sample and stylistic and biological analyses, do not support this position, and are seen as reflecting a competitive component in Hopewell society.


2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 408-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gates St-Pierre ◽  
Robert G. Thompson

It has long been believed that maize (Zea maysspp.mays) was introduced in Quebec at around A.D. 1000, at the very beginning of the Late Woodland period. The identification and dating of maize phytoliths extracted from the carbonized encrustations on the interior surfaces of Native American ceramic vessels from three sites located in the St. Lawrence River valley, namely the Hector-Trudel, Station-4, and Place-Royale sites, indicate that this cultigen was rather introduced in that area during the Early Middle Woodland period, ca.400 to 200 B.C. These sites provide the northernmost and possibly the oldest evidence of maize consumption in northeastern North America. More samples of maize phytoliths from the same two sites were dated to the late Middle Woodland period, between A.D. 600 and 800, suggesting an increase in the ubiquity and importance of this new crop in the subsistence strategies. Moreover, the identification of an unknown variety of maize points toward the possibility that a new local variety of maize appeared during the process. This process might have been accompanied by a more intensive and complementary collecting of wild rice. Finally, the results support the hypothesis of an in situ origin of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians.


Author(s):  
Jeffery S. Girard

Clarence Webb defined the pre-Caddoan Bellevue focus on the basis of investigations at several isolated mounds located in upland settings in northwestern Louisiana. With the exception of the Bellevue Site (16B04), little detailed information is available about these mounds. Most were excavated many years ago and few notes, photographs, or other records exist This paper describes the results of recent cleaning of an old excavation trench through one of the Bellevue focus sites the Phelps Lake Mound (16B024). The work has provided a relatively detailed look at the mound strata. A radiocarbon assay on a sample of charcoal underlying the mound constitutes one of the few chronometric dates from a Bellevue focus context. Also discussed briefly is the Jim Burt Site (16B023), where a radiocarbon assay was obtained on charcoal recovered near the mound.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document