Archaeology

Archaic Period: 8000 B.C.E. – 1000 B.C.E. (Janzen)

     Between 3,000 and 10,000 years ago, the glaciers receded and regional climates slowly warmed to become more like those of today (before the present day effects of global warming).  As the climate warmed, big game animals, like mammoth and mastodon, became extinct (possibly due to a lack of food, over-hunting by natives, or they could not adapt to the warmer climate. However, climate change increased the number and diversity of plants and animals, so native people no longer had to depend solely on big game for subsistence.  Small family groups traveled seasonally to hunt and they also took advantage of fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet.  These small groups camped in open spaces, rock shelters and caves.

     An archaic site was discovered at Clarksville in the early 1930s.  Near the Falls of the Ohio, a group of people called ‘Indian Knolls People’ by some archaeologists, established semi-permanent camps on bluffs close to the river where mussels could be gathered in great quantities.  Discarded shells were cast into refuse piles, which over the centuries, grew to more than 25 feet deep and a mile long.  These shell middens (trash piles) can still be found in Clark County.  Middens were sometimes used as burial places for the dead.  This is known because burials were found in the 1930s and 1960s archaeological digs in Clarksville.  Some of the natives’ skeletons found at the site had been covered with Red Ochre, which is a brown or dark red massive hematite that was crushed to a fine powder.  The red ocher and grave goods indicate the beginnings of rituals associated with death.  Other skeletons at the site were found with fossils, shells, or stone tools buried with them as part of their grave goods.  One interesting find was that some of the skeletons were found with projectile points still embedded in them and archaeologists believe that they died from war with other natives peoples.

     Even though hunting continued to be a major source of food in the Archaic period, gathering plants and fishing became more important.  Seeds, nuts, berries and roots were valued as a daily diet.  Fish, in particular the freshwater drum, freshwater snails and mussels, were collected with weirs, traps, nets, and spears.  Deer, squirrel and turtle were hunted or trapped.  Darts were often thrown by means of an atlatl, a hand-held dart launcher.  The atlatl gave Archaic hunters more throwing power than earlier people in the Paleo-period had with their simple spears.  The Archaic tool kit reflected this new lifestyle.  It contained a wide range of tools including ground stone: axes and celts used to cut and work trees, grooved rounded stones to weight fishing nets, knives, spear points, a variety of scrapers, as well as tools and ornaments made of bone, antler, and shell.  People also used vines and plant fibers to twine and braid into mats, bags, clothing, and small game traps.  Stone mortars, pestles, and grinding slabs were used to prepare plant foods.  Some evidence of pottery was found at the Clarksville site, but the pottery was crude.  Beads were found that were made of bone and shell.

     The archaic period is usually divided into early (8000B.C.E. - 6000 B.C.E.), middle (6000 B.C.E. -3500 B.C.E.), and late (4000 B.C.E. -1500 B.C.E.) and occasionally a terminal period is added to include (1500 B.C.E.–700 C.E.) which overlaps into early woodland period.  The main differences between these periods are the tool kits used.  Tools became more specialized, ornamentation such as “jewelry” became more elaborate, and there was a change to more permanent villages and house structures, as the native peoples no longer needed to move around and hunt for food and other resources.

Text written by Gwen Corder, edited by Bett Etenohan

To explore other cultures, click Paleoindian, Woodland, or Mississippian.

  Archaic Tools Photo Album

Images of a few Archaic Culture artifacts in the Falls of the Ohio State Park collections.

          St. Charles Point                        Big Sandy Point                      Kirk Corner Notched

                   Early Archaic, 8000 - 6000 BCE                                      7500 - 6000 BCE

  McWhinney Heavy-Stemmed       Brewerton Ear-Notched                

      Middle - Late Archaic                         Late Archaic                             

         4000 - 1000 BCE                        2900 - 1700 BCE                         

Updated July 26, 2011