Ancient Communities

1. Ancient Communities Chapter 3

2. Beringia • An ice age created a land bridge connecting Asia w/ North America. • The first humans came to North America by crossing that bridge. • When the ice age ended, the land bridge flooded, becoming the Bering Strait.

3. Paleo Indians • 1961: scientists discover evidence of Paleo Indian hunters in Oklahoma. • Thousands of years ago, six-foot tall bison, camels, horses, and sloths the size of elephants lived in the area that is Oklahoma. • Columbian mammoth bones were found at the Cooperton site in Kiowa County. • Soil deposits date to about 30,000 years ago at Burnham site.

4. Paleo Indians: Clovis People • The Clovis people, named after the New Mexico site where first artifacts were reported, were known for their spears (spear point usually 3-4 inches long) • There is an important Clovis site near Stecker in Caddo County. • The Clovis people first hunted mammoths and then switched to bison as the mammoth population declined. Click for information on Jake Bluff.

5. Big Game Hunters • Reached Oklahoma 11,000 years ago • Domebo: archaeologists find skeleton of a mammoth w/ Clovis points still within it’s bones. • Caddo County • Ate seeds, hunted, told stories, and slept beside open fire.

6. Paleo Indians: Clovis People • The Clovis people, named after the New Mexico site where first artifacts were reported, were known for their spears (spear point usually 3-4 inches long) • There is an important Clovis site near Stecker in Caddo County. • The Clovis people first hunted mammoths and then switched to bison as the mammoth population declined. Click for information on Jake Bluff.

7. Archaic Culture Foragers • Descendants of the Big-Game hunters • More complex society, based on foraging. • Hunted modern species of buffalo and deer. • More skilled than BGH. • Atlatl: wooden throwing stick. • Made baskets, nets, string, canoes. • Petroglyphs

8. Archaic Culture Foragers • As climate changed, the people adapted and their culture changed. • They become hunters and harvesters and made flour and stored it in baskets. • Pieces of bone and antler became spear points, needles, awls, punches, and atlatl hooks. • They ate a variety of wild animals and knew how to start a fire with a wood drill.

9. Woodland Culture/ Early Farmers • Planted corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash. • Built houses using poles w/ thatch roofs. • Still hunted and gathered on prairie close to farms. • First pottery in area. • Made by women • Coil Method • Helped w/ food preparation and storage • Water gathering

10. Bow and arrow were developed about this time and made hunting easier. • Because farming meant growing crops, people moved less and villages began to develop.

11. Golden Age of Prehistory • A.D. 900 • People become social • Plains Village Farmers • Archeologists have found more than 200 sites w/ at least 12 dwellings along Washita River. • Houses square w/ clay and grass plaster and thatch roofs. • Traded w/ people in distant communities.

12. Plains Village Farmers • Archeologists have found more than 200 sites w/ at least 12 dwellings along Washita River. • Houses square w/ clay and grass plaster and thatch roofs. • Traded w/ people in distant communities. • Planted greater variety of crops • Tobacco • tools • More effective hunters • Bow and Arrow • Pottery • Early religion? • No elaborate ceremonies • No social classes • No mounds

13. Caddoan Mound BuildersSpiro 600-1500 AD

14. Caddoan Cultures • Advanced, sedentary society • Unprecedented horticultural activity and population growth. • Complex social and political hierarchies, ceremonialism, long distance trade • Spiro is one of the best examples of North American Caddoan culture.

15. Geography… what does it mean that Spiro was a “gateway” civilization? • Located on the Arkansas River, where it is constricted by Ozark and Ouachita Mountains. • Excellent spot to monitor and control the flow of people, commerce, and information between the bison hunting plains people and farming centers in the southeast • Evidence suggests that by 850 the “Spiro” mound builders were in complete control of the area.

16. How do we know this? • There is no evidence of defensive works/structures or strife with neighbors.

17. The Mounds • The Spiro site was a ceremonial-burial center surrounded by small hamlets. • Mounds are full of burials including STATUS GOODS. • Status Goods: items denoting wealth, power or prestige that are interred with an individual.

18. Craig Mound • The largest of the Spiro Mounds it is 33 feet tall, 400 feet long and 115 feet wide. • It holds approximately 700 burials.

19. Trade • We know that Spiro mastered a great network of trading partners. • How do we know this???

20. Galena from SE Missouri and Iowa • Quartz from central Arkansas • Flint from Kansas • Copper from eastern Tennessee and the Carolinas • Conch shell from Florida • Which of these status goods was considered most valuable??

21. Copper and conch shell because they were from the farthest areas • There was more copper and marine shell at Spiro than at any other North American site. • Exotic goods arrived finished, suggesting they were sent as TRIBUTE to seal political alliances or as payment for religious rituals.

22. Demise • An extended period of drought probably moved the villages south to the Red River Valley and the mounds were generally abandoned over many decades. • Over many, many, many generations, these people re-organized themselves into what is today known as the WichitaIndian Tribe.