Woodland period

Woodland period Woodland period - in the pre-Columbian chronology of North America dates back to about 1000 BC. e. 1000 g. e. in eastern North America. The term Woodland was established in the 1930s. The boundary of its beginning is the end of the archaic period, and the end is the emergence of the Mississippian culture .

The Woodland period is characterized by a slow and gradual, without sharp jumps, development of stone and bone tools, leather products, fabric production, land cultivation and the construction of dwellings. Some Woodland peoples continued to use spears and atlatti until the end of the period, when they were finally supplanted by bows and arrows.

The main technological achievement of the Woodland period was the widespread use of ceramics that arose in the late archaic period, as well as the increasing complexity of its shapes and patterns. The growing spread of an agricultural lifestyle also meant that nomadic tribes were being replaced by permanent settlements, although the Indians finally switched to an agricultural lifestyle much later, under the Mississippian culture .

Content

Early Woodland Period (1000 B.C. - 0 C.E.), Deptford Phase

This period, also known as the Deptford culture , is marked by the widespread use of ceramics, which is the lower boundary of the Woodland period. It was originally believed that ceramics in North America arose around 1000 BC. e., however, according to recent studies, this happened much earlier - the first samples that date back to 2500 BC. e., discovered in Florida and Georgia. Nevertheless, the settlements where the first samples of ceramics were discovered, in all other respects, preserved the characteristics of the Archaic period. Thus, in determining the lower boundary of the Woodland period, modern archaeologists operate not only on ceramics, but also on such criteria as the appearance of permanent settlements, complex funeral practices, intensive collection and cultivation of starch plants, differentiation of social structure, specialized activities and other factors. Most of these factors appear in the southeastern United States by 1000 AD. e. The most famous example of the early Woodland period is the culture of Aden .

In a number of territories, for example, in South Carolina and in coastal Georgia, Deptford ceramics was found up to 700 AD. e.

Most settlements are located off the coast, often near salt lakes. Acorns and palm berries, as well as wild grapes and persimmons were eaten. The most common game was the white-tailed deer (Virginia deer). An important role in the diet was played by mollusks , known for the numerous garbage heaps found on the coast. After 100 BC e. construction of burial mounds began, which indicates changes in the social structure (Milanich 1994).

Middle Woodland Period (1-500 CE), Swift Creek Phase

Swift Creek culture existed between 1-400 years. n e., and a similar culture of Santa Rosa in western Florida - in the period 150-500 years. n e.

At the beginning of the middle Woodland period, migration to the interior of the continent, far from the coast, is observed.

The inter-regional trade in exotic materials is gradually growing up to the point that the trading network covers the entire east of the modern USA. Numerous funeral gifts from materials of non-native origin were found in the burial mounds of influential people. The largest variety of products is observed in the region from Illinois to Ohio. Due to the fact that in this region there is a significant similarity in funeral gifts, the construction of mounds, religious practice, etc., archaeologists use the unifying term “ Hopewell tradition ”. The commonality of tradition, however, speaks more of a network of exchanges and contacts than of the capture and control of such a huge territory by one tribe, which was physically impossible in those days. The term “Hopewell culture”, popular among archaeologists as early as the middle of the 20th century, is inaccurate, we are talking about several regional cultures connected by the trade exchange - Swift Creek, Marxville, Copen and others.

Late Woodland Period (500-1000 CE)

The Late Woodland period is the time when the population begins to settle in other territories, although its number, apparently, has not decreased. in most territories, the number of constructed burial mounds, as well as the volume of trade in exotic materials, is sharply reduced. At the same time, the bow and arrows displace the spear and atlatl . In agriculture, the "three sisters of the American continent" prevail over other crops: corn , curly beans and pumpkin . Although farming has not yet become the predominant type of economy, as later, under the Mississippian culture, plant cultivation becomes systematic, in addition to collecting edible plants. Late Woodland settlements are becoming more numerous, but their size (with rare exceptions) is smaller than that of the settlements of the middle Woodland period.

The reasons remain unknown. Historians have suggested that the population has increased to such an extent that trade alone could no longer provide residents and some clans raided aggressively against others for resources. According to an alternative point of view, the effectiveness of bows and arrows in hunting could greatly reduce the stock of large game, which is why large tribes were forced to split into small clans in order to better develop local resources, which in turn reduced the trading potential of small groups. As a third possibility, the onset of a cold climate, which could ruin the crop, is considered. Finally, agricultural technologies could become so complicated that each clan could independently provide its needs for various cereals, without resorting to trade with neighbors.

As the communities became isolated from each other, they began to develop in their own unique ways, in connection with which numerous small regional cultures emerged.

Although historians traditionally attribute the end of the late Woodland period to 1000 AD e., in practice, many regions of East Woodland fully integrated into the Mississippi culture much later. Some tribes in the north and northeast of the modern USA , for example, the Iroquois , maintained a lifestyle identical to the Woodland, until the arrival of Europeans. Moreover, despite the widespread distribution of bow and arrows during the Woodland period, in some places in the United States the population continued to do without them. During the expedition of Hernando de Soto to the south of the modern USA in 1543, he noted that individual tribes were armed not with bows, but with spears.

Literature

Bense, Judith A. Archeology of the Southeastern United States: Paleoindian to World War I. Academic Press, New York, 1994. ISBN 0-12-089060-7 .
JT Milanich 1994, Archeology of precolumbian Florida (Gainesville)

Links

The Woodland Period, Southeast Archaeological Center (Neopr.) . Date of treatment July 27, 2005. Archived March 23, 2012.