Phytolith Evidence for the Early Presence of Maize in Southern Quebec

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 408-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gates St-Pierre ◽  
Robert G. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Middle Woodland Period ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
New Crop ◽  
St Lawrence River

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.

scholarly journals Late woodland cultural adaptations in the lower Missouri River valley : archery, warfare, and the rise of complexity

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kerry David Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Missouri River ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Cultural Adaptations ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Defensive Strategies ◽  
Social Dynamic ◽  
The Face ◽  
Major Increase

The introduction of the bow and arrow into prehistoric Missouri during the Late Woodland Period was a major event that possibly changed the entire Middle Woodland social dynamic and settlement pattern arrangement such that there was a major increase in social cooperation between settlements tied closely to defensive settlement strategies. Small villages faced the possibility of effective, long-range attacks that could potentially lead to the quick application of overwhelming force on unprepared villages. To deal with this potential, settlements moved to less productive upland locations with inter-visible settlement clusters that provided for mutual defense through defense in layers. As agriculture became better established, this pattern of defense again changed as people nucleated into larger sites in highly productive, lowland areas. Defense was still a significant consideration as reflected in both the selection of defensible topographic settings and the apparent creation of a borderland along the river. The larger number of people in each village provided safety in numbers and decreased the likelihood of overwhelming attacks. The influence of archery and the selection for effective defensive strategies in the face of archery-based warfare creates a more parsimonious explanation for the rapid shift to inter-visible, upland sites during the Late Woodland Period. Archery appears to be the primary cause of what was a seismic shift where settlement patterns altered radically in just a few hundred years. This research addresses the possible implications for major advances in prehistoric weapons technology that has increasing relevance for today's society.

A Study of Possible Prehistoric Wild Rice Gathering on Lake of the Woods, Ontario

1985 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Rajnovich
Keyword(s):  
Wild Rice ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Lake Of The Woods ◽  
Middle Woodland Period

Archaeological surveys of Lake of the Woods have located about 200 prehistoric sites including Palaeo, Archaic, Middle Woodland (Laurel) and Late Woodland (Blackduck and Selkirk) components. None have contained direct evidence of wild rice usage prehistorically, but this may be due to the archaeological record rather than a real reflection of non-use of wild rice. This article presents a discussion of the palynological record of the area to determine the advent of wild rice and a settlement pattern study of Middle and Late Woodland components in relationship to known wild rice stands. Both Middle and Late Woodland components tend to cluster around wild rice stands. This factor, along with the palynological record, leads to the hypothesis that wild rice was gathered as early as the Middle Woodland period on Lake of the Woods.

Late Woodland Period Settlement Patterns in the Piedmont Uplands of Pennsylvania: The Evidence from 36CH161

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-285
Author(s):  
Paul A. Raber
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Chester County ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
A Site ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Early Late

Investigations at 36Ch161, a site in the Piedmont Uplands of Chester County, Pennsylvania, have revealed a series of early Late Woodland Period camps associated with the Minguannan Complex. The use of local quartz seems to have been a primary focus of settlement at the site. Quartz, which formed an overwhelming majority of the assemblage, was used in ways that contrast strongly with that of non-local materials like jasper, a minority component of the assemblage obtained from quarries in the Hardyston Formation. The selection of raw materials suggests restrictions on access to certain materials perhaps imposed by territorial constraints. The combined evidence of artifact assemblage and cultural features indicates that 36Ch161 was inhabited seasonally by small, mobile groups of non-horticulturalists, a reconstruction consistent with that of Custer and others regarding the economy of the Minguannan Complex and related cultures of the Piedmont Uplands.

The Evolution and Persistence of Ceramic Motifs in Northern Georgia

1950 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wauchope
Keyword(s):  
Woodland Period ◽  
Previous Article ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
Early Woodland ◽  
Middle Woodland Period ◽  
Frequency Peak

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.

Other-Than-Human Persons, Mishipishu, and Danger in the Late Woodland Inland Waterway Landscape of Northern Michigan

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-366
Author(s):  
Meghan C. L. Howey
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Inland Lakes ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Inland Waterway ◽  
Northern Michigan

Other-than-human persons and the role they play in transforming social, economic, and ideological material realities is an area of expanding interest in archaeology. Although the Anishinaabeg were an early and vital focus of cultural anthropological studies on nonhumans given their significant relationships with other-than-human persons, known to them as manitou, emerging archaeologies advancing this topic are not largely centered on ancestral Anishinaabeg sites and artifacts. This article analyzes a set of nonvessel ceramic artifacts from Late Woodland archaeological sites in the Inland Waterway in northern Michigan, which are interpreted to be ceramic renderings of manitou. I argue that these were manitou-in-clay, vibrant relational entities that are brought into being for and through use in ceremonial perspective practices related to Mishipishu—a complexly powerful, seductive, and dangerous nonhuman being known as the head of all water spirits. I contextualize the making and breaking of Mishipishu manitou-in-clay as acts of petition by hunter-fishers who had been seduced by this manitou in dreams, as they headed out on necessary but high-risk early-spring resource harvesting in the inland lakes of the Inland Waterway. This case advances insights into how relationships with other-than-human persons were coproductive of the world in the northern Great Lakes region during the Late Woodland period.

Over the hills and far away: Middle to Late Woodland archaeology and toolstone conveyance at Hyre Mound (46RD1), West Virginia

2020 ◽  
pp. 019769312097631
Author(s):  
Richard L Rosencrance ◽  
Amy J Hirshman
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Lithic Raw Material

The archaeology of the eastern West Virginia uplands remains significantly understudied compared to other areas of the Appalachian Plateau. Bettye Broyles’ excavations at the Hyre Mound site (46RD1) in 1963 recovered a variety of artifacts within and directly adjacent to a burial mound but the excavations remain largely unpublished. We provide a report of Broyles’ excavations, new radiocarbon dates, and an analysis of the lithic raw material frequencies at the site. Material culture and ceremonial practices suggest the initial mound construction dates to the Middle Woodland period. Radiocarbon dating of cultural features confirms that people also used the locality during the Late Woodland period. Lithic raw material frequencies indicate a preference for non-local, Hillsdale chert found ∼100 km from the site throughout both time periods. The directionality of toolstone conveyance supports existing models that emphasize the quality and location of raw material sources and the orientation of the region’s physiography.

scholarly journals Modeling Regional Radiocarbon Trends: A Case Study from the East Texas Woodland Period

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (02) ◽  
pp. 239-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Z Selden
Keyword(s):  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Early Woodland ◽  
Resultant Data

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.

Evidence for Stepped Pyramids of Shell in the Woodland Period of Eastern North America

2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D. Thompson ◽  
W. Jack Rink
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Construction Material ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Mississippian Period

AbstractAntiquarians of the nineteenth century referred to the largest monumental constructions in eastern North America as pyramids, but this usage faded among archaeologists by the mid-twentieth century. Pauketat (2007) has reintroduced the term pyramid to describe the larger, Mississippian-period (A.D. 1050 to 1550) mounds of the interior of the continent, recognizing recent studies that demonstrate the complexity of their construction. Such recognition is lacking for earlier mounds and for those constructed of shell. We describe the recent identification of stepped pyramids of shell from the Roberts Island Complex, located on the central Gulf Coast of Florida and dating to the terminal Late Woodland period, A.D. 800 to 1050, thus recognizing the sophistication of monument construction in an earlier time frame, using a different construction material, and taking an alternative form.

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