What did people do in the Archaic period?
During the thousands of years after the last Ice Age, human populations increased and settled into a range of environments across Arkansas. For the most part, Indians in the Archaic Period lived in hunter-gatherer communities that hunted, fished, and collected wild animal and plant resources for food. But it is too simplistic to view these people as roving bands of hunters or as primitive cave dwellers foraging a meager subsistence from the wilderness. It was during the Archaic Period that people first domesticated plants that later became the staple grain crops of farmers. In some areas, communites became stable and sedentary, and ritual or sacred locations were marked with mounds and earthworks. Instead of moving across the landscape to use natural resources directly, some groups traded raw materials and craft objects across wide areas.
What are some of the most important cultures of the Archaic Period?
Within the Archaic Period, archaeologists have identified more specific regional cultures, such as the Dalton, San Patrice, Tom's Brook, Big Creek, and Poverty Point cultures.
What is the history of Arkansas?
Historic Occupation I. Historic Occupation II. Archaic Period 8000-500 BC. The Archaic Period refers to the time between 8000 and 500 BC in the Native American history of Arkansas. As was the case in other regions in North America, Arkansas' Archaic Period was a long span of cultural development and innovation that transformed small-scale ...
When were mounds built?
One of the most famous mound sites in the region is Poverty Point in northeast Louisiana, and is known for its concentric semicircular earthworks, embankment, and mounds that date to several centuries around 1300 BC.
What was the Archaic period?
The Archaic period is the name given to generalized hunter-gatherer societies in the American continents from approximately 8,000 to 2000 years BC. Archaic lifestyles includes a dependence on elk, deer, and bison depending on where the site is, and a wide range of plant materials.
What were the major advances in the Archaic period?
Archaic Advances. Important advances of the later Archaic period include earthworks at sites such as Poverty Point and Watson Brake (both in Louisiana), and the first pottery in the Americas, a fiber-tempered ware named after Stallings Island South Carolina were an important invention.
What were the most important plants that were domesticated during the Archaic period?
The Archaic period people are also responsible for the domestication of such important New World plants as bottle gourd, maize and cassava, the use of which plants would flourish in later periods.
