THE SOUTHEASTERN WOODLANDS:
THE ARCHAIC—POVERTY POINT
(MODULE 13A)
Read: (2000:399-402)
(Click here to go directly to the Lesson Overview for Module 13A)
(Click here to go directly to the Syllabus Daily Topics Schedule for this lesson)
A. Moving right along we make a dramatic geographical, ecological, and cultural leap to the ancient south
of the Eastern Woodlands - the Southeast!
B. Why should we distinguish the Southeast as a separate culture area (archaeologically and
ethnographically) — as opposed to merely looking at the southern Eastern Woodlands?
1. An obvious answer—numerous authors treat it as distinct
2. Jon Muller (1978:281) considers the Southeast as the
. . . setting for the development of the most complex social and political organizations north of Mexico.
3. This is the area where Mississippian Culture emerged and flourished.
4. Still, this does not feel the most satisfactory of rationales!
C. Location—Southeast:
1. Basically south of the Northeast—south of the northern Eastern Woodlands
2. Atlantic coastal plain
3. Tennessee and Mississippi—with the core of the culture area existing between the two
4. Southern Appalachians
5. Western boundary was:
a. The Great Plains
b. With some inroads on the edges where Oklahoma and Arkansas met the prairies
D. Ecology—Southeast:
1. Very temperate climate
a. Long, frost-free seasons
b. Plentiful rainfall
2. Lush vegetation with extensive forests and animal life
3. Rivers provided:
a. Rich alluvial soils
b. Aquatic resources
c. Communication networking
E. Chronology—Southeast (bolded is Jon Muller's terminology):
1. ca. ±10,000-6000 B.C.:
a. Southeastern Paleoindian
b. Roughly equivalent to the Archaic in the Northeast
c. Archaic ends earlier in the Northeast
2. ca. 6000-700 B.C.:
a. Southeastern Archaic
b. Roughly equivalent with Early Woodland toward the end of Burial Mound I
3. ca. 700 B.C.-A.D. 700:
a. Sedentary
b. Roughly equivalent to Middle Woodland or Burial Mound II
4. ca. A.D. 700-1540:
a. Late Prehistoric
b. Roughly equivalent to Late Woodland or Temple Mound I and II
F. Paleoindian Southeast:
1. ca. 10,000-6,000 B.C.
2. Like their western and northern cousins, Paleoindians in the southeast made Clovis points—BUT
a. Few kill sites and or habitation sites are known
b. What is known points toward a primarily riverine subsistence orientation
c. Thus, they do not perfectly match our image of traditional "big-game hunters."
3. Paleoindians in the Southeast may have been developing a "broad-spectrum" approach optimizing
"primary forest efficiency"—a jump ahead to what is generally considered an "Archaic" lifestyle.
4. Exemplary of these trends would be the Dalton Complex.
5. Dalton Complex:
a. Emerges out of a Southeast Clovis cultural tradition
b. Late in the Paleoindian period
c. Represents a cultural response to the ecological conditions of the Southeast
(1) Primarily concentrated on hunting deer (with a secondary focus on numerous other species)
(2) Brand Site (northeast Arkansas):
(a) Broad range of artifact types
(b) Thus a broad range of activities were performed
(3) Many sites have large camps maintained by ranging hunting parties (some sites 500
meters across!)
d. Dalton Points were multipurpose tools that were used as both
(1) Projectile points as well as
(2) Knives
G. The Archaic Southeast:
1. Has a broader cultural range than other "generalized Archaics" we have seen
2. Southeastern Archaic Period
a. Is one of focusing on local, broad-spectrum resources plus seasonal scheduling to exploit them
b. Represents a period of shifting from "nomadic" mobility to intensive foraging sedentism
plus growth of regional exchange/trade.
c. Period of emerging emphasis upon increasing social distinction
d. Period of slow, but continual population growth (and with that, accompanying "stressers")
3. Southeastern Archaic sites to be considered include:
a. Eva (Tennessee)
b. Indian Knoll (Kentucky)
c. Stallings Island (Georgia—already briefly discussed)
4. Eva Site:
a. Riverbank shell middens are hallmark (freshwater mussels)
b. Deer also hunted, but a broad-spectrum is still characteristic
c. Substantial post holes indicate "large" structures
(1) But too cluttered to know their exact shape or form
(2) Thus, uncertain if we are dealing with a truly sedentary life, or a situation where a mobile
population periodically reuses the same location
d. Artifacts varied, but made of locally available materials.
5. Indian Knoll Site:
a. "Knoll" here implies a shell midden
b. Midden measures 1.5 by 120 by 60 meters
c. Broad-spectrum subsistence indicated (again!)
(1) Shells
(2) Animals in variety
(3) Mast resource utilization
(a) Hickory
(b) Walnut
(c) Acorn
d. Complex tool inventory comprising chipped- and ground-stone tools:
(1) Points
(2) Pestles
(3) Ground axes
(4) Fish hooks
(5) Netting stones
(6) Atl atl points
e. Burials:
(1) 1100 found
(2) Social distinctions noted
(3) 1-4% of graves contained exotics—objects traded in such as:
(a) Conch shell (Gulf?)
(b) Copper (from Lake Superior?)
(4) Grave goods for children:
(a) Reflects social obligations
(b) Not necessarily determined through achievement but through ascribed status
6. Stallings Island Site:
a. ca 2250 B.C. (ca 4200 B.P.)
b. Discovered by James Stoltman, then of the University of Minnesota (later with University of
Wisconsin-Madison)
c. Pottery:
(1) Fiber tempered
(2) Crude, but is considered the pride and joy of many south Atlantic coast Archaic-ists
(3) Fiber-temper technology and issues with respect to northern South America
H. The Sedentary Period Southeast:
1. The succeeding Sedentary Period reflects a continuation of some of the Archaic traditions, but
with numerous striking innovations as well.
2. Main features distinguishing the Sedentary from the Archaic:
a. General acceptance (and widespread use) of pottery
b. Mound construction
c. Alterations in social organization and settlement
3. Sedentary Period Chronology:
a. ca. 700 B.C.-A.D. 700
b. Can be subdivided into: Early, Middle, and Late Sedentary
(1) Early Sedentary
(a) ca. 700-300 B.C.
(b) Main culture: Poverty Point (Louisiana)
(2) Middle Sedentary
(a) ca. 300 B.C.-A.D. 300
(b) Sites/culture:
i) Marksville (Louisiana)
ii) Santa Rosa/Swift Creek (Florida)
(3) Late Sedentary
(a) ca. A.D. 300-700
(b) Sites/culture
i) Weeden Island (South Georgia and Florida)
ii) Kolomoki (Georgia)
4. Early Sedentary:
a. Dates: 700-300 B.C.
b. Poverty Point:
(1) Site found in Floyd, Louisiana on a bluff overlooking the Bayou Macon
(2) Poverty Point is a mound group consisting of:
(a) Central Group:
i) Poverty Point Mound
ii) Large, semicircular earthwork composed of concentric ridges
(b) Motley Mound
(c) Lower Jackson Mound
(3) Central Group:
(a) Poverty Point Mound:
i) 23 meters high by 216 meters by 195 meters
ii) (Two times the size of the principal mound at the contemporary
Mesoamerican site of La Venta)
iii) (About the height of the Hamline Church roof)
(b) Semicircular Earthworks:
i) Six concentric rows of ridge mounds separated by four outward radiating
aisles (resembling an octagon)
ii) Ridges 3-3.7 meters high by 25 meters wide set 46 meters apart
iii) Central open space is 595 meters in diameter
iv) Staggering post-molds found near center of open plaza (function?))
(4) Motley Mound:
(a) 2.4 km north of Central Group
(b) 20 meters high (like the main mound of the Central Group)
(5) Lower Jackson Mound:
(a) 2.4 km south of the Central Group
(b) Described as small, eroded, "unfinished"
(6) Note the distribution of the Motley and Lower Jackson mounds
(a) Flanking equidistant the main group
(b) With orientations tied to both the main mound, the center of the plaza, and
(c) Connecting baseline between outliers being in middle between 7 and 8 west of north
(lining up with Polaris—the "North Star")
(d) Astronomical orientation seems most likely
(7) Conical mound containing a burial was found 670 m north of Poverty Point Mound
(representing the only burial mound associated with the site!)
(8) Poverty Point subsistence:
(a) Some domesticates are indicated:
i) Squash
ii) Stone hoes (for agriculture or for digging to construct mounds?)
(b) While present, there is no direct evidence that domesticates were important
(9) Poverty Point settlement:
(a) At the site village and house construction is poorly understood
(b) Houses appear to have been small
(c) Nearby villages:
i) In low-lying terrain and in uplands west of bluff
ii) Some suggest such villages housed 2,000 persons
(10) Poverty Point artifact inventory:
(a) "Poverty Point Objects":
i) Unique to Poverty Point Culture
ii) Clay balls, obviously subjected to intense heat
iii) Function?—Most probably for "stone boiling" in an area where stone
was not readily available
(b) Ceramics:
i) Fiber temper with later use of sand temper
ii) Some figurines and effigies
(c) Beadwork—simple and zoomorphic
(d) Microflint prismatic blades from egg-shaped flint cores
(e) Ground stone:
i) Imported
ii) Vessels
iii) Celts
iv) Adzes
v) Atl atl weights
vi) "Plummets" of hematite
(11) Poverty Point: Archaeological issues raised include:
(a) Social complexity being represented archaeologically at Poverty Point
(b) Society and subsistence efficiency
(c) External relationships—especially conjectures tying them with the Formative
Mesoamerican Olmec (?)
(12), Social complexity as an issue at Poverty Point
(a) Mound complex involved a huge labor investment thus organization.
(b) Mound complex exhibits consistent plan, thus organization again—and the
existence of a coordinator.
(c) Evidence exists of long-distance trade (i.e., in steatite, jasper, etc.) thus again
organization (Does this necessarily imply that such trade was coordinated?
organized?)
(d) Thus organizational scale implies the existence of chiefdom-level social
organization.
(e) Thus Poverty Point may have been the first chiefdom in the Eastern
United States.
(f) The dates place it chronologically equivalent with other, more distant, areas
of cultural florescence—Mesoamerica again?
(13) Social Complexity and subsistence at Poverty Point?
(a) Given: Ecological constants of varied and rich environment—constant
(b) Given: Population growth approaching carrying capacity—variable
(c) Thus: There exist a limited range of responses that can result:
i) Population self-regulation (returning to equilibrium through famine,
warfare, etc.)
ii) Increase in human productivity efficiency (i.e. agriculture or intensified
foraging)—or,
iii) Increase in the efficiency of food distribution within the system
(i.e. the creation of a bureaucracy to administer the distribution system)
a) Distribution complexity requires a redistributor—
b) Thus, a chiefdom.
(d) Another angle:Highly organized intensive foragers exert a competitive
pressure on their neighbors.
i) Thus: Neighbors have to either "fight 'em, or join 'em."
ii) Thus: This may account for the spread of complex social strategies
in Poverty Point times (i.e., in Archaic or ca 1200 B.C. times or
thereabouts.)
iii) Such an "organizational stress" approach might also account for
similar social adjustment phenomena in other areas—such as for the:
a) Southwest
b) Adena
c) Hopewell
d) Northwest Coast?
[wonderful essay possibilities!]
(e) Yet still another angle: Trade/exchange also functions as part of a redistributive
system—allowing for further complexity.
i) Thus: Communities and people can rely on distant sources, not only
local ones.
ii) Thus: Trade allows Phoenix to rise out of the desert sands of Arizona.
a) Thus also: Such centers become dependent for their
resources not on the source, but on the system that can
provide it (i.e., "The proper kind of organization can bring the
desired results!" [Sounds a bit like Robert Carneiro?])
b) Think about the fact that much of the world depends upon the
U.S. economy and its ability to insure a particular kind of world
order ("the system that can provide it")
(14) External relationships and the florescence of Poverty Point:
(a) Poverty Point is approximately contemporary with Formative Period
Mesoamerica, especially with that of the Olmec.
(b) Poverty Point Mound is larger (volumetrically) than the Olmec mound at La Venta
(although not nearly as large as the main "Plateau" earthwork at San Lorenzo!)
(c) The Olmec are but one of the Mesoamerican mound-creating peoples, but when
external connections for Poverty Point Culture are sought, people tend to jump
on them.
(15) What are the pros and cons of suggesting the Olmec, in particular, were influential in
stimulating the development of Poverty Point?
(a) Poverty Point versus Olmec: Similarities
i) Both were movers of earth on a monumental scale
a) Central rings area of Poverty Point was 1,200 meters in diameter
b) San Lorenzo main construction is a huge bird effigy measuring
more than 2 km n/s.
ii) Both made complex combinations of earth projects
iii) Both made ceramic figurines
iv) Some ceramic vessel forms are similar
v) Both constituted chiefdoms (if, clearly the case seems to be that
Poverty Point represented one!)
vi) These similarities, while contemporaneous, seem superficial when
compared with what we know about the Olmecs at the same time.
(b) Poverty Point versus Olmec: Differences
i) Olmec had (but Poverty Point lacked):
a) Hieroglyphics (i.e., writing)
b) Mathematics (a written form)
c) Calendar (a written form)
ii) Olmec inhabited a variety of ecosystems (or, at least, were emulated
by peoples ranging from the tierra caliente to the Mexican uplands)
iii) Olmec were stone carvers of jade as well as of monumental pieces
iv) Olmec left a recognizable "great art style"—with recognizable mythical
themes
v) Most probably were maize agriculturalists
vi) Probably had an administrative system beyond that of a chiefdom
vii) Poverty Point had (but Olmec lacked):
a) Clay "stone boilers"
b) Fiber-tempered pottery
(c) Poverty Point ties with the Olmec?:
i) No direct archaeological evidence of contact
ii) Maybe both may have been inheritors of some early mobile peoples
who used fiber-tempered pottery and made mounds
(d) Poverty Point, nonetheless, is remarkable in its own right!
I. Terms related to discussion of THE SOUTHEASTERN WOODLANDS: THEARCHAIC—POVERTY POINT:
1. Archaeology of the Southeast
2. Why distinguish the Southeast from the Northern Eastern Woodlands?
3. Southeast: geographically defined as?
4. Southeast: ecological characteristics? subareas?
5. Southeast: major river systems found there?
6. Southeast: roughly what characterizes the following developmental sequence:
7. Southeast Paleoindian
8. Southeast Archaic
9. Southeast Sedentary
10. Southeast Late Prehistoric
11. Southeast sequence as compared with that for the Northeast
12. Paleoindian Southeast:
13. "Clovis" in the Southeast: like other Clovis you know?
14. "Dalton" as emerging out of Clovis: what's happening?
15. Brand Site (northeast Arkansas): significance?
16. Archaic Southeast:
17. Major shift(s) implied by Paleoindian/Archaic transition?
18. "Broad-spectrum"
19. Mobile to sedentary: implications? kinds of archaeological evidence?
20. Emergent social distinction: archaeological indicators?
21. Eva Site (Tennessee): significance?
22. Indian Knoll Site (Kentucky): significance?
23. Stalling Island Site (Georgia): significance?
24. Archaic shell middens: meaning? significance?
25. "Nutting stones": meaning? significance?
26. Burials at Indian Knoll: description, suggested interpretations?
27. Egalitarian vs. Stratified (or Ranked) societies: meaning? relevance to questions of Southeastern Archaic?
28. Achieved versus Ascribed status: meaning? relevance to questions of Southeastern Archaic?
29. Earliest pottery in eastern North America:
30. Fiber-temper pottery: meaning? suggested cultural implications?
31. Puerto Hormiga Site: where? significance?
32. Sedentary Southeast:
33. Major shift(s) implied by Archaic/Sedentary transition?
34. Sedentary Period subdivisions: Early, Middle, and Late: the logic of such subdivisions (e.g., the rationale)?
35. Southeastern Early Sedentary and Early Woodland: compare and contrast
36. Poverty Point Site (Floyd, Louisiana): general significance?
37. Poverty Point Site: description of layout (e.g., Main group, Motley Mound, Lower Jackson Mound)
38. What makes the Poverty Point mound group so outstanding?
39. Poverty Point mound group and archaeoastronomy?
40. Poverty Point people and subsistence issues?
41. Poverty Point people and settlement issues?
42. Poverty Point artifacts: rough inventory
43. "Poverty Point Objects": specifically, description, interpretations?
44. Poverty Point: consistencies and inconsistencies with what you understand as "Archaic"?
45. Poverty Point issues relating to questions of social complexity?
46. Poverty Point issues relating to external (e.g., "foreign") relationships?
47. Compare and contrast the archaeological inventories of:
48. Poverty Point and the Olmec
49. Poverty Point and Mesoamerica (the Olmec issue):
50. Pros and cons of suggested Poverty Point/Olmec cultural ties?
51. Potential strategies to deal with ecological (subsistence) constants and population growth variables?
52. Chiefdoms: their function(s) and archaeological questions
53. Chiefdoms and redistribution networking?
54. What is referred to as "efficient" in the term "Primary Forest Efficiency"?
55. Organizational stresses: definition? Poverty Point phenomena as example? other potential examples from
what we have discussed
56. Relationship between trade (exchange) and redistribution?
57. What happened to (and after) Poverty Point?
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