Watson Brake and Poverty Point:Early Moundbuilding Cultures of Eastern

North America

Poverty Point, LA1700-1200 BC

Watson Brake, LA4000 BC

*Early Woodland (800-200 BC) – AdenaMiddle Woodland (200 BC – AD 400) - Hopewell

Adena & Hopwellheartland (epicenter)

was in Ohio but extended over vast area

of eastern NA

Adena and Hopewell societies had broad

trade relations, Including:

Copper (Great Lakes)Mica (S. Appalachians)

Chert (Midwest)Obsidian (Wyoming)Shell (S. Atlantic &

Gulf Coast)

Followed by Late Woodland complex Societies, notably

Mississippian culturesafter AD 1000, a period

of rising chiefdoms

House structure at Crigler Mound (Ohio Valley)

Adena effigy pipe

Adena Mound

Wooden burial structure in Adena earthen mound

Blocked-end tobacco smoking pipes (Shamanism)

Great serpent mound, Ohio, 700 BC-AD 200

Middle Woodland (200 BC to AD 400), associated with the Hopewell complex, which was socially highly complex, based not only on complex mounds and enclosures (exclusive), elaborate burials, and finely crafted artifacts, often of

exotic materials, which are found in mounds but not settlements

Hopewell (epicenter in Ohio), like Adena, had diverse mounds, including circles, squares, and other shapes, as well as fortress-like enclosures,

but Hopewell times was marked by proliferation and elaboration of mounds

Newark Earthworks

Hopewell MoundsHopewell's special burial treatment

with fine objects and mound structures, focused on adults and men, but included

women and children

Low inter-group hostilities are suggestedduring the Hopewell era by

relatively few skeletal injuries

Human skull rattles

Animal effigy platform pipes

Late Woodland Fort Ancient Culturein the Ohio Valley (AD 1000-1650)

During Late Woodland inter-group relations worsened, as reflected inReduced long-distance trade, violent deaths, increased small arrowheads and

in some areas iconography

Late WoodlandMississippian cultures

in Midwest & SE,after AD 1000,

represent a periodof rising chiefdoms,

the highest expressionof social complexity in

North America

Cahokia at AD 1100

Cahokia• Cahokia Mounds site occupied between AD 800 and 1400. The

“Golden Age” occurred from AD 1000 and 1275, at which time the site had a population of 20,000 to 30,000 (estimates range from under 15,000 to over 40,000).

• Over 100 mounds, included platform (flat-topped) temple mounds, conical mounds, and ridgetop mounds, such as the mound 72, which contained spectacular remains associated with elite individuals

• Mound 72 held an important position by its orientation and alignment with various other mounds.

• Many of 272 burials in mound were sacrificial offerings and placed there as either extended or bundle burials. Two very high status burials in mound 72, the “beaded burials” are located in base of mound; one individual was buried under a layer of over 20,000 beads and one individual on top of the beads. These beads were laid out in a design of a bird similar to other Mississippian art work.

“litter-burials,” dated to AD 1000

Burial pit with 53 females estimated between 15 to 30 years. Other burial feature with four males missing their heads and hands.

Primary mound 1, burial in feature 102

Primary mound 2(451 points)

Primary mound 1, burial in feature 102

(413 points)

Arrowhead caches from Mound 72

Mississippian artifacts

Many of the most elaborate Mississippian artifacts, often dating from AD 1200-1400, are collectively called the Southern Cult or Southeastern ceremonial

complex, which includes artifacts indicating an aggressive ideology and warrior iconography, including motifs such as weeping eyes, warriors, supernatural composites, and severed heads, as well axes, maces, and other weapons(again suggesting that inter-group relations involved more tension in Late

Woodland than early Middle Woodland (Hopewell) times)

Anasazi or “Ancestral Pueblo”

• Pueblo I AD 750 to 900 • Dispersed household settlement pattern in most areas, but in the San Juan River valley (SW Colorado & SE Utah) aggregates of multiple

households herald the formation of relatively permanent villages• Cotton was introduced (from the south), and cotton (loom-woven) blankets replaced fur and hide robes• Potter's art greatly developed - after AD 800, regional variation in ceramic designs may signify the existence or increased importance of

group boundaries • Pit houses, as dwellings, gradually replaced with aboveground houses made on stone mortared with mud &arranged in rows • Pit houses evolved into special round subterranean ceremonial chambers (kivas)

• Pueblo II: AD 900-1150• The Chaco Phenomenon• Great houses were constructed in San Juan valley, where large quantities of water and sediment were available for farming• Pueblo Bonito major spiritual center• Emulation of great house architecture at numerous smaller outlying communities, who would journey to Chaco for major ceremonial

events

• Pueblo III - A.D. 1150 to 1300 • Dramatic changes in architecture, including end of major building in Chaco Canyon• Political and social influence shifted to areas north of Chaco

• Pueblo IV - Post A.D. 1300 • Abandonment of Colorado Plateau, which many attribute to a severe drought (1276-1299); many sites abandoned & many geographical

regions saw an enormous loss of population • Removal of some population to the Rio Grande Valley in central New Mexico as well as to the mesas of north central Arizona

Pueblo Bonito

Chaco Canyon(AD 900-1150)

Chaco Canyon Great Houses

Pueblo Bonito, largest of the great houses in

Chaco Canyon (AD 1150-1300)

Major spiritual center

920-935 A.D.

1085 A.D.

1040-1050 A.D.

Great Kiva at Pueblo Bonito

Hohokam• Pre-classic and Classic Hohokam were pottery making farmers in

the Sonoran Desert of south central Arizona and northern Mexico (AD 700-1450).

• Many small-clusters of houses but also large settlements that were well organized around plazas, ball courts and platform mounds, such as Casas Grandes.

• Classic period Hohokam platform mound settlements in the Phoenix, Tuscon, and Tonto area were organized in linear systems along major canals, were discrete political units, and were the site of increasingly centralized ritual and political events

• The Hohokam people built the largest prehistoric canal system in North America. Their canal irrigation seems to be affected by the deepening and widening of the Gila River between AD 1020-1160, and may have led to salinization in fields

• Mexico had a strong influence among the Hohokam in both trade and culture. For instance, rubber from the Mexican lowlands was used to make balls that were used on their elaborate ball courts, which also show Mesoamerican influence.

Casas Grandes(Mexico)

Mimbres Ceramics

• The greatest cause of declines in Native North America (throughout the Americas) was highly contagious, fever producing diseases