11,000 to 5,500BP : Late
Paleo to Middle Archaic
PICS
The Holocene Period began around 11,000 years ago. The southern edge of
the
Laurentide ice sheet was south of
Chicago and coniferous forest existed here. A mass
extinction occurs at the beginning
removing the mammoth, mastodon, camel, horse, and long-
horned bison with the glaciers and
their effects. Dalton point types were in style through
much of the central and eastern U.S.
between 11,000 and 9,900 BP. The carbonized
nutshells of shagbark-hickory (Carya
ovata), black walnut (Juglans nigra), and hazelnut
(Corylus americana) found in their
firepits show their use by these people. A severe
drought hit the region around 10,900
BP. Agate Basin and Hell Gap points came into use
around 10,500 years ago. From
10,050-9,550 the pre-Boreal climate supported essentially
modern plants and animals. By 10,000 BP
the wooly mammoth was extinct, the
Laurentide ice sheet existed above Lake
Superior, deciduous forests of oak and hickory
dominated this area, wheat and pigs
were being domesticated in the Middle East and Turkey,
respectively, and copper was being first
formed into objects - beads, pins, and awls in
Turkey and Iran. Rice lanceolate and
Hardin barbed points may have been in use in this area
as early as 9800 BP. The Hale-Bopp
comet flew by around 9600 BP, and the Boreal climatic
episode which began slightly cooler and
moister but soon became warmer and drier, ran
from 9550-8550 BP. Grasses, oak,
hickory, ash, and elm were prominent during the Boreal.
The Early Archaic Period begins around 9,500 years ago here. Early
Archaic peoples are
known to have lived in and around a
rock shelter at Breckenridge in northwest Arkansas,
at Albertson shelter in Benton Co.,
Arkansas, and in the Shoal Creek valley in Newton Co.,
Missouri. The lanceolate point
tradition was still strong 9,500 years ago, as attested to
by the introduction of late Dalton
forms such as Beaver Lake, and the Scottsbluff and
Eden point types, but the variability
of these apparently put ideas into peoples heads as
the early notched varieties of Thebes
and Calf Creek appeared then as did the contractile
stemmed Hidden Valley type. My daughter
was lucky enough to find a Scottsbluff point in
excellent condition in Neosho,
Missouri, which was probably moved in loam cover soil from
the Shoal Creek valley nearby.
Around 9,000 years ago, agriculture developed in the Fertile Crescent
which, in turn,
produced a population explosion from
which people poured out in all directions. Human
head lice is known to have been a
problem then in the Middle East. The Hypsithermal, an
increased flow of dry, westerly winds
in the Pacific airmass, crossed North America from
9,000-5,000 BP. The lanceolate
Angostura, Rice lobed, and the side notched Big Sandy and
Graham Cave point types appear around
9,000 BP, as did the crescent knife. The Atlantic
climatic episode, which was hotter and
drier than the Boreal, held sway from 8550-5050
BP, and pollen profiles show their
driest period of the times between 8750 and 6550 BP.
Around 8500 BP, four dogs were
carefully buried in the Illinois River valley, and fiber
sandals dated between 8375 - 7725 BP
were worn in Missouri. Around 8000 BP, the comet,
Hyakutake, probably gave people
something to talk about, and around 7900 BP, some people
in Jordan were playing games on a
limestone game board. Around 7700 BP, Crater Lake in
southern Oregon was created by
eruption. By 7500 BP, Godar points may have been in use in
this area.
7,000 years ago, the earliest villages in the Egyptian delta were being
formed, the
Saharan rock art was created, the
Chinchorro people of Chile began their society which
practiced mummification, humans first
arrived on Cuba, the earliest Balkan copper mining
begins, and Alpine man domesticates
dogs, cattle, sheep, goats,and pigs. Also around 7000
BP, maize may have first been produced
in Mexico by cross-breeding grass with tripsacum
and teosinte. The smelting of copper
occurred as early as 6500 BP at Israel and West Jordan
sites, and in central Europe by 6000
BP. The Copper Age produced the first plows and
wheeled carts. Around 6000 BP, boxing
was practiced as a sport in the Nile Valley.
The Middle Archaic began around 7000 BP. In this section, over 10
occupational sites
are recorded. They are mainly on Grand
River, Shoal Creek, White River and their tributaries,
Honey Creek and Capps Creek. Between
6300 - 3000 BP, the rate of sedimentation had dropped
to about 1.9 cm/100 years. The Middle
Archaic experienced severe, recurrent droughts,
accelerated erosion, and windblown
sediment deposition. Possibly these mid-Holocene
conditions induced the significant
decrease to modern sizes in the gray squirrel (Sciurus
carolinensis) and the cottontail rabbit
(Sylvilagus floridanus).
Bluff shelters appear to have been the primary means of protection from
the elements,
including the Smith bluff shelters I
and II in Delaware Co., Oklahoma. This areas occupation
is referred to as the Grove focus, with
phases A and B pertaining to the Early to Middle
Archaic Periods. They possessed
woodworking tools such as celts, full grooved axes, and
double-bitted chipped stone axes;
stoneworking tools of antler, stone, and hide for knapping
and grinding; multipurpose tools for
wood, hide, shell, bone, and food, such as drills, knives,
awls, and scrapers; hunting tools of
spear shaft and points, with Jakie Stemmed becoming
popular around 7000 BP, possibly
atlatls and bolas, probably traps and bags; household
equipment of cradles, baskets, turtle
shell bowls, woven bags, mats, sandals, etc., and
adornments such as feather robes, and
shell beads. Manos and metates and nutting stones
were used to grind and crack nuts,
grain, ocher, and probably other pigments, and the shell
hoe made its initial appearance.
Burials were typically partial or fully flexed primary
inhumations placed either on the side
or back, and grave goods, though scarce, included
shell beads, tools, and red ocher.
Prairie bison, pronghorn antelope, wild turkey, jackrabbit,
prairie chicken, raccoon, badger,
oppossum, deer, cottontail rabbit, gray squirrel, fish,
shellfish, nuts, grains, fruits and berries
were probable staples.
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REFERENCES
Adams, L.M., 1958, Archaeological Investigations of Southwest Missouri.
Missouri
Archaeologist, v.20, p.1-199
Baerreis, D.A., 1955, Further Material from the Huffaker Site, Delaware
Co., Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Anthropological Society
Bulletin, v.3, p.53-70
Baerreis, D.A., Freeman, J.E., Wright, J.V., 1958, The Contracting Stem
Projectile Point
in Eastern Oklahoma. Oklahoma
Anthropological Society Bulletin, v.6, p.61-82
Baerreis, D.A., 1959, The Archaic as seen from the Ozark Region.
American Antiquity,
v.24, no.3, p.270-275
Bell, R.E., Perino, G., 1958-1971, Guide to the Identification of
Certain American
Indian Projectile Points. Oklahoma
Anthropological Society Special
Bulletin, no. 1-4.
Chapman, C.H., 1975, The Archaeology of Missouri, Part I.
Freeman, J.E., 1962, The Neosho Focus: A Late Prehistoric Culture in
Northeastern
Oklahoma. Oklahoma
Anthropological Society Bulletin, v.10, p.1-25
Hothem, L., 1994, North American Indian Artifacts.
National Geographic
O'Brien, M.J., 1996, Paradigms of the Past, Missouri Archeology.
O'Brien, M.J., 1996, Jacobs Cavern, McDonald Co. Missouri Archaeological
Society
Quarterly, v.13, no.3
O'Brien, M.J., Wood, W.R., 1998, The Prehistory of Missouri. University
of Missouri Press
Overstreet, R.M., 1997, The Overstreet Indian Arrowheads Identification
and Price
Guide. Avon
Perino, G., 1985, v.1, Selected Preforms, Points, and Knives of the
North American
Indians.
Ray, J.H., 1992, Excavations at the Casa Blanca Site (23NE198): An Early
Archaic Upland
Base Camp in Southwest Missouri. CAR
Report no. 888