The end of the Pleistocene epoch marked the beginning of the current geologic period called the Holocene epoch. The Paleo-Indian period also evolved into the Archaic Indian period at this time. The Paleo-Indian period lasted from the arrival of the first travelers to the Americas to 8000 B. C. The transitional period (the Watershed Age) between the Paleo-Indian period and the Archaic Indian period lasted from about 8000 to 5000 B. C. The Archaic Indian period lasted from about 5000 to 1000 B. C. It should be kept in mind that these dates are general. The lifeways described for each period were the dominant ones. That is to say, while most Indians lived a certain way, there were other cultures in different parts of the Americas that were exceptions to the rule. For example, the Indians of the Plano culture, normally considered Paleo-Indians, continued their same way of life into the Archaic.
In any case, what distinguished those who are labeled Archaic Indians from Paleo-Indians was a more varied diet. The big game were now extinct, and Archaic Indians hunted and trapped the species of mammals we know today. They fished in rivers and lakes. They gathered many different kinds of edible wild plants and
Archaic Indian point
Planned their migrations around the ripening of berries as well as the movements of animal herds. Like the Paleo-Indians, the Archaic Indians generally led a nomadic way of life, but it was more localized since they no longer tracked the huge herds such great distances. Archaic Indians are sometimes referred to as Foraging Indians.
Archaic Indian wooden animal effigy
In addition to a more varied diet, the Archaic Indians had a wider variety of tools and utensils than their predecessors. Archaic craftsmen shaped spears, atlatls, bolas, harpoons, knives, axes, adzes, wedges, chisels, scrapers, celts, hammers, mauls, anvils, awls, drills, fishhooks and lines, traps, mortars and pestles, and pipes. They used
Archaic Indian celt (ungrooved axe)
Many different kinds of material, including stone, wood, bone, antler, shell, and ivory.
Archaic Indians made a number of key inventions. They learned to weave plant materials into clothing and baskets. They also learned new methods of food preparation and food preservation. For cooking, they placed heated stones into stone pots to boil water. They used their baskets and hide containers to store food. They constructed boats and domesticated the dog.
Archaic Indians also shaped materials into an assortment of ornaments and sacred objects. They had elaborate rituals surrounding the burial of the dead. Their religions were more highly ceremonialized than those of their predecessors.
Five cultures, each in a different region of North America, show the diversity of Archaic Indian life. The Old Cordilleran (or Cascade) culture, which actually began about 9000 B. C., during the Paleolithic period, existed in the Pacific Northwest along the Columbia River until 5000 B. C. or afterward. Cascade spear points, in the shape of willow leaves, were used to hunt small game.
Another culture that began early in the Paleo-Indian period but evolved to a more typically Archaic way of life was the Desert culture in the Great Basin region of what is now Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. It lasted from about 9000 to 1000 B. C. At Danger Cave in Utah, archaeologists have found woven containers, the first example of basketry in North America. They also have found grinding stones used to prepare seeds, and traps made of twine used to capture small game.
The Cochise culture in what is now Arizona and New Mexico evolved out of the Desert culture and lasted from about 7000 to 500 B. C. Cochise Indians hunted many different kinds of small mammals, such as deer, antelope, and rabbits. They also foraged for snakes, lizards, insects, and edible wild plants. Archaeologists have found many Cochise millstones, called manos and metates (like mortars and pestles), that the Indians used to grind seeds, nuts, and grains. The abundance of these utensils shows the growing importance of plant foods in the Archaic Indian diet.
Among Cochise remains have also been found the first evidence of farming north of Mexico. In Bat Cave, New Mexico, archaeologists discovered dried-up cobs of corn from a cultivated species of the plant, probably dating from about 3500 B. C.
Another Archaic culture is the Old Copper culture of the Great Lakes region, lasting from about 4000 to 1500 B. C. This grouping takes its name from the copper objects discovered among the culture’s remains, the earliest use of metal known among Indians north of Mexico. Old Copper Indians used natural deposits of copper— sheets in rock fissures or nuggets in the soil—to make tools and ornaments. They shaped it by heating it then hammering it time and again.
Still another eastern Archaic people were the Red Paint people of present-day New England and eastern Canada. The Red Paint culture takes its name from the use of ground-up red iron ore to line its graves. This culture lasted from about 3000 to 500 B. C.
Archaeologists have found objects of many other Archaic Indians in different parts of North America. Those mentioned above are among the most famous. Far to the north, another remarkable development occurred during this period. Ancestors of the INUIT and ALEUT migrated to North America across the Bering Sea in small boats, from about 2500 to 1000 B. C. The Inuit and Aleut are therefore not descended from the Paleo-Indians that migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge, as other Indians probably are.
World History
