Specific Pages for Chapters on test
• Chapter 8 (Pacific): pp. 277-301
• Chapter 10 (Africa): 356-369; pp. 380-391
• Chapter 17 (South America, only
Amazonia): pp. 668-677
• Chapter 18 (Complex Societies of NA):
– Adena & Hopewell (pp. 681-685)
– Mississippian (pp. 687-691)
– The Southwest (pp. 691-702)
– Native American Population (p. 713)
Watson Brake and Poverty Point:
Early Moundbuilding Cultures of Eastern
North America
Watson Brake, LA
4000 BC
Poverty Point, LA
1700-1200 BC
*Early Woodland (800-200 BC) – Adena
Middle Woodland (200 BC – AD 400) - Hopewell
Adena & Hopwell
heartland (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 cultures
after AD 1000, a period
of rising chiefdoms
Adena effigy pipe
House structure at Crigler Mound (Ohio Valley)
Adena Mound
Wooden burial structure
in Adena earthen mound
Blocked-end tobacco smoking pipes (Shamanism)
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
Great serpent mound,
Ohio, 700 BC-AD 200
Newark Earthworks
Hopewell Mounds
Hopewell'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 suggested
during the Hopewell era by
relatively few skeletal injuries
Human skull rattles
Animal effigy platform pipes
During Late Woodland inter-group relations worsened, as reflected in
Reduced long-distance trade, violent deaths, increased small arrowheads and
in some areas iconography
Late Woodland Fort Ancient Culture
in the Ohio Valley (AD 1000-1650)
Late Woodland
Mississippian cultures
in Midwest & SE,
after AD 1000,
represent a period
of rising chiefdoms,
the highest expression
of 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 1,
burial in feature 102
(413 points)
Arrowhead
caches from
Mound 72
Primary mound 2
(451 points)
Mississippian artifacts
Many of the most elaborate Mississippian artifacts, often dating from AD 12001400, 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
•
Chaco Canyon
(AD 900-1150)
Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Canyon Great Houses
Pueblo Bonito, largest
of the great houses in
Chaco Canyon (AD
1150-1300)
Major spiritual center
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)
• The greatest cause of declines in Native
North America (throughout the Americas)
was highly contagious, fever producing
diseases