Archaic Indians, or archaic Americans
Years: 6093BCE - 910BCE
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Showing 10 events out of 18 total
Gulf and Western North America (49,293 – 28,578 BCE): Upper Pleistocene I — Ice Age Coastlines, Desert Basins, and Canyon Shelters
Geographic and Environmental Context
Gulf and Western North America includes Mississippi–Lower Mississippi, Gulf Coast Plains (FL Panhandle, AL–MS–LA–TX), Southern Plains (TX–OK–KS), Southwest deserts/plateaus (NM–AZ), Rocky Mountain fringes (CO–WY south), Great Basin (UT–NV), and nearly all California (except far NW).
Anchors: Lower Mississippi & Yazoo–Natchezbluffs; Mobile–Pensacola–Calusa estuaries; Edwards Plateau–Pecos; Chihuahuan–Sonoran drainages (Gila–Salt–Rio Grande); Colorado Plateau canyons; Great Basin playas; Sacramento–San Joaquin delta; Channel Islands & Chumash coast.
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Sea level ~100 m lower expanded Gulf/California shelves; Great Basin larger pluvial lakes (Bonneville/Lahontan ancestors); Southwest cooler/drier; California coasts broad.
Climate & Environmental Shifts
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LGM cold, arid interiors; pluvial pulses in basins; productive upwelling along California.
Subsistence & Settlement
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Early people likely present by later in this span:
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Coastal: shellfish, pinnipeds, fish; kelp beds (California, Gulf estuaries).
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Interior: camelid, horse (early), later deer/pronghorn; small game; seed geophytes.
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Canyon/rockshelter residence in Colorado Plateau, Edwards Plateau.
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Technology & Material Culture
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Flake–blade industries; early hafting; fire use; ochre pigments.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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Gulf estuaries, Lower Mississippi river-terraces; Rio Grande–Gila–Salt; coastal highway along California.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
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Hearth structuring; pigment use; early engraved stones in some regions.
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
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Coast–canyon–lake mobility hedged climate extremes.
Transition
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Deglaciation will enlarge estuaries, stabilize river plains, and build Holocene fisheries.
Gulf and Western North America (28,577 – 7,822 BCE): Upper Pleistocene II — Deglaciation, Kelp Highway, and Pluvial Lakes
Geographic and Environmental Context
Gulf and Western North America includes Mississippi–Lower Mississippi, Gulf Coast Plains (FL Panhandle, AL–MS–LA–TX), Southern Plains (TX–OK–KS), Southwest deserts/plateaus (NM–AZ), Rocky Mountain fringes (CO–WY south), Great Basin (UT–NV), and nearly all California (except far NW).
Anchors: Lower Mississippi & Yazoo–Natchezbluffs; Mobile–Pensacola–Calusa estuaries; Edwards Plateau–Pecos; Chihuahuan–Sonoran drainages (Gila–Salt–Rio Grande); Colorado Plateau canyons; Great Basin playas; Sacramento–San Joaquin delta; Channel Islands & Chumash coast.
Subsistence & Settlement
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California Channel coast: rich shell-middens; island fox/seabird exploitation; canoe/raft hints.
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Great Basin: shore camps on pluvial lakes; fish/waterfowl; pronghorn on steppe.
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Lower Mississippi/Gulf: estuary–delta foraging.
Technology & Material Culture
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Microliths, barbed points; net floats/sinkers; basketry.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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Kelp highway (California); Gulf estuary chain; Rio Grande–Gila; Lower Mississippi.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
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Shell-heap rites; lacustrine ritual deposits.
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
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Fisheries + seed/geophyte rounds stabilized food webs.
Transition
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Early Holocene warmth will promote semi-sedentary delta/coastal hamlets and canyon field-camps.
Gulf and Western North America (7,821–6,094 BCE): Early Holocene — Semi-Sedentary Shores & Canyon Economies
Geographic and Environmental Context
Gulf and Western North America includes Mississippi–Lower Mississippi, Gulf Coast Plains (FL Panhandle, AL–MS–LA–TX), Southern Plains (TX–OK–KS), Southwest deserts/plateaus (NM–AZ), Rocky Mountain fringes (CO–WY south), Great Basin (UT–NV), and nearly all California (except far NW).
Anchors: Lower Mississippi & Yazoo–Natchez bluffs; Mobile–Pensacola–Calusa estuaries; Edwards Plateau–Pecos; Chihuahuan–Sonoran drainages (Gila–Salt–Rio Grande); Colorado Plateau canyons; Great Basin playas; Sacramento–San Joaquin delta; Channel Islands & Chumash coast.
Subsistence & Settlement
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California: semi-sedentary shell-heap villages; acorn/oak–pine nuts inland.
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Lower Mississippi: levee/oxbow hamlets; fish, turtles, deer.
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Southwest: canyon springs; small-game; agave/yucca.
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Great Basin: fish/waterfowl at shrinking lakes.
Technology & Material Culture
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Ground-stone mills; weirs; dugouts; seed-processing.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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Sacramento–San Joaquin delta; Colorado River; Gulf estuaries; Rio Grande–Gila–Salt.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
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Ancestor burials; incipient rock art panels; feasting middens.
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
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Storage (smoked fish, dried seeds); multi-ecozone rounds.
Transition
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Middle Holocene will push diversification (shell rings, old copper neighbors to the east, canyon aggregation)
Gulf and Western North America (6,093–4,366 BCE): Early Holocene — Middle Holocene — Intensification & Niche Engineering
Geographic and Environmental Context
Gulf and Western North America includes Mississippi–Lower Mississippi, Gulf Coast Plains (FL Panhandle, AL–MS–LA–TX), Southern Plains (TX–OK–KS), Southwest deserts/plateaus (NM–AZ), Rocky Mountain fringes (CO–WY south), Great Basin (UT–NV), and nearly all California (except far NW).
Anchors: Lower Mississippi & Yazoo–Natchez bluffs; Mobile–Pensacola–Calusa estuaries; Edwards Plateau–Pecos; Chihuahuan–Sonoran drainages (Gila–Salt–Rio Grande); Colorado Plateau canyons; Great Basin playas; Sacramento–San Joaquin delta; Channel Islands & Chumash coast.
Subsistence & Settlement
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California: bigger shell-middens; fish weirs; island–mainland canoe commute (Chumash forebears).
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Lower Mississippi/Gulf: shell rings; riverine aggregation.
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Southwest: seed-processing economies; rock art fluorescence; agave roasting pits.
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Great Basin: wetland micro-patches; rabbit/drives; pine nuts.
Technology & Material Culture
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Nets, basketry, millingstones; early pottery in some Gulf belts (very late); lined pits/earth ovens.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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Coastal cabotage; Lower Mississippi spine; Rio Grande–Gila–Salt exchanges.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
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Rock art in Canyonlands–Chihuahuan; shell-heap ancestor cults.
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
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Engineered weirs, roasting pits, seed beats — “low-level food production.”
Transition
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Late Holocene brings preceramic → ceramic transitions and broad exchange.
Hunting, fishing and gathering prevail in the eastern forests and coastal lands of North America.
Bands of hunter-gatherers move north as far as Newfoundland and Labrador by 6000 BCE, into Quebec, Ontario, and the prairie provinces, and on to the Canadian Shield as the vegetation and animal life moves northward.
Archaic North Americans wear ornamental ground-stone gorgets and stone, bone, and shell beads.
Gulf and Western North America (4,365–2,638 BCE): Early Holocene — Late Archaic/Chalcolithic — Coastal–Delta Hamlets & Canyon Aggregation
Geographic and Environmental Context
Gulf and Western North America includes Mississippi–Lower Mississippi, Gulf Coast Plains (FL Panhandle, AL–MS–LA–TX), Southern Plains (TX–OK–KS), Southwest deserts/plateaus (NM–AZ), Rocky Mountain fringes (CO–WY south), Great Basin (UT–NV), and nearly all California (except far NW).
Anchors: Lower Mississippi & Yazoo–Natchez bluffs; Mobile–Pensacola–Calusa estuaries; Edwards Plateau–Pecos; Chihuahuan–Sonoran drainages (Gila–Salt–Rio Grande); Colorado Plateau canyons; Great Basin playas; Sacramento–San Joaquin delta; Channel Islands & Chumash coast.
Subsistence & Settlement
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California: stable coastal villages; intensified kelp fisheries.
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Lower Mississippi/Gulf: larger shell-ring villages; mound precursors.
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Southwest: aggregation at reliable springs; intensified geophyte/roasting; proto-agave cultivation in places.
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Great Basin: seed–pine nut economies; waterhole networks.
Technology & Material Culture
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Expanded milling technology; slate/obsidian points; early ceramics on Gulf fringes; fiber sandals/textiles.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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California canoe corridors; Lower Mississippi trade fairs; Rio Grande–Gila–Colorado nodes.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
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Coastal mortuary areas; canyon rock art dense (ancestral panels); seasonal fairs (shell/stone exchange).
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
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Portfolio subsistence + exchange buffered drought/flood pulses; redundant networks across coast–delta–canyon–basin.
Transition
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After 2,638 BCE, the region’s ceramic and horticultural transformations accelerate (already in your later ages).
Great Lakes natives of the Archaic tradition of the so-called Old Copper Complex of the Western Great Lakes live in pole-frame structures covered with hides or bark and bury their dead in ocher-lined graves.
Having located 99% pure copper in the area of Lake Superior, both in veins and nuggets in gravel beds, they eventually learned to hammer the copper and produce a variety of spearpoints, tools and decorative objects.
In addition to practical use, the Copper Complex peoples trade copper goods to obtain other exotic materials.
Archaeological remains of early maize ears, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley, date back roughly six thousand two hundred and fifty years.
Gulf and Western North America (2637 – 910 BCE): Desert Basins, River Valleys, and Gulf Shores
Geographic and Environmental Context
Gulf and Western North America—including Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, all of California except its far northwest, most of Alabama (except the far northeast), southwestern Georgia, most of Nebraska (except the far northeast), southwestern Tennessee, Illinois’ Little Egypt, southwestern Missouri, southeastern South Dakota, southern Montana, southern Idaho, and southeastern Oregon, as well as most of Florida (except the extreme northeast)—was an immense region of ecological contrasts. It encompassed the Gulf Coast’s wetlands and estuaries, the arid Sonoran and Mojave Deserts, the fertile valleys of the Colorado River and Central California, and the mountainous terrain of the southern Rockies and Sierra Nevada.
Subsistence and Settlement
By the mid–third millennium BCE, subsistence strategies varied widely:
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Along the Gulf Coast, communities harvested fish, shellfish, and estuarine resources, supplemented by hunting deer, small game, and waterfowl.
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In the arid Southwest, early cultivation of squash, sunflower, and other native plants began to complement foraging and hunting of bison, pronghorn, and desert small game.
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In California’s Central Valley and along the Pacific Coast, acorn gathering, salmon fishing, and shellfish collection were major staples.
Settlements were often seasonal, shifting between resource zones—coastal in warmer months, inland in cooler or wetter seasons.
Technological and Cultural Developments
Stone and bone toolkits included grinding stones, manos, metates, projectile points, and fishing gear. In wetter zones, dugout canoes enabled estuarine and nearshore travel; in arid areas, water storage techniques—such as lined pits and natural cistern use—were critical. Basketry was highly developed for food gathering and storage, often waterproofed for boiling foods with hot stones.
Pottery was largely absent in most of the region during this period, though early ceramic experimentation may have begun in parts of the Southeast.
Maritime and Overland Networks
The Gulf Coast linked this region to eastern North America via canoe routes along the shore and major rivers like the Mississippi. Inland trade moved lithic materials, marine shells, pigments, and plant products between desert, mountain, and coastal communities. California’s coast and Channel Islands supported exchange of shell beads, obsidian, and fish products between mainland and island groups.
Cultural and Symbolic Expressions
Shell ornaments, bone carvings, and pigment use in burials reflected symbolic and social roles. Large shell middens on the Gulf and Pacific coasts marked long-term fishing and gathering sites. In the Southwest, petroglyphs and pictographs depicted animals, hunting scenes, and geometric designs, potentially linked to spiritual traditions tied to land and water.
Environmental Adaptation and Resilience
Communities in the Gulf lowlands adapted to hurricanes and seasonal flooding by building mounds or situating camps on higher ground. In arid areas, mobility and reliance on drought-resistant plants reduced risk during dry years. Coastal and riverine peoples preserved fish and meat by drying or smoking, creating surplus stores for lean seasons.
Transition to the Early First Millennium BCE
By 910 BCE, Gulf and Western North America supported diverse, specialized lifeways adapted to local ecologies. The foundations of later agricultural intensification in the Southwest and complex coastal trade in California and the Gulf were already visible in the networks and seasonal strategies of this era.
The area around Meadowcroft Rockshelter, a site in southwestern Pennsylvania intermittently occupied for thousands of years (possibly as early as 17,000) is used heavily from 2000.