WOODLAND PERIOD

Photo courtesy: Michigan State University https://anp452msu.wordpress.com/eastern-woodlands-midwest/

WOODLAND PERIOD. The Woodland period, lasting from about 3,000 BC to 1000 AD, is an archaeological classification of Native American cultures of North America prior to European contact. The term was introduced in the 1930s for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agricultural Mississippian cultures. The classification is further divided into three more periods based on changes in the way people lived, including their settlement patterns, trading activities, subsistence, the tools they used, and mortuary practices. (1)

During the Woodland period, the climate approached modern averages, and landform development stabilized in most places except in flood plains and stream channels. Woodland peoples made heavy use of fish and clams in major river valleys and continued to hunt deer and bison. Woodland farmers developed domesticated varieties of some native plants including gourds, sumpweed, goosefoot, sunflower, knotweed, little barley, and maygrass. (2) The advancement of stone and bone tools happened during this time as well as leather making, cultivation, the discovery of metals (copper, iron ore, etc…) and the widespread use of pottery. This is where tribes started to settle down based on the good conditions and ample resources that were in close range. (3)

Early Midwestern Woodland settlements (500-100 B.C.) were small and seasonally occupied. Early Woodland subsistence patterns in Iowa are not well known, but they probably involved broad-based procurement of mammals, birds, and aquatic species. Early Woodland peoples built large burial mounds similar to some in Ohio, and they interacted with groups throughout the Midwest, as evidenced by artifacts made of exotic raw materials. The typical Early Woodland spear point was a straight stemmed or contracting stemmed point, and pottery of the period includes both a thick, flat-bottomed type (500-300 B.C.) and a thinner, bag-shaped type often decorated with incised lines in geometric patterns (300-100 B.C.). Early Woodland sites are relatively common in the Mississippi Valley but are difficult to identify in central and western Iowa. (4)

By the Middle Woodland period (100 B.C.-A.D. 300) the people were tending gardens and gathering shellfish from the local rivers. This allowed them to live in one place for long periods of time without having to hunt for food as often. However, an increase of exotic artifacts at Middle Woodland sites indicates that there was more interaction between different regions than there had been during the Early Woodland. (5) The time is also noted for its refined artworks, a complex mortuary program, and well-developed networks archaeologists refer to as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The Hopewell Interaction Sphere involved the spread of ideas about social organization and relationships, technology, and economic activities from centers of Hopewellian culture in Illinois and Ohio. Hopewell network participants exchanged exotic raw materials such as Knife River flint from North Dakota and obsidian from the Yellowstone Park area. They also traded artifacts of Gulf coast marine shell, Great Lakes copper, mica from Appalachia, galena from the Dubuque and Galena areas, and several pipestones from Minnesota, Illinois, and Ohio. High quality ceramic vessels with elaborate decoration were produced for trade, personal use, and mortuary purposes. Hopewell-related populations spread into Iowa from settlements along the Mississippi River, establishing small outposts at points along the major rivers in eastern Iowa, and may have ventured into southwestern Iowa from a Hopewellian center near Kansas City. (6)

An elaborate mortuary program included more extensive mound construction. Individuals who were buried in mounds may have occupied positions of high status among Middle Woodland societies. Mound excavations have frequently found skeletal remains with fine pottery, stone tools, pipes, and other items produced from exotic raw materials. If variation in burial treatment reflects different status, a class of social or religious leaders developed among Hopewell-related populations. (7)

Most Middle Woodland people probably lived in small communities. Typical Middle Woodland tools included broad, corner-notched spear points and finely made, thin blades. Middle Woodland pottery was characterized by rather thick-walled, conoidal or bag-shaped vessels decorated with combinations of incised lines and/or stamped with a toothed or cord-wrapped stick, usually around the upper part of the pot. The influence of Hopewell culture in Iowa diminished suddenly after about A.D. 200. (8)

Middle Woodland pottery in western Iowa was thick-walled conoidal vessels that were often heavily cord-roughened on the exterior surface. The pots were not as elaborately decorated as the Middle Woodland pottery found in the Mississippi valley. Projectile point styles were similar to those found in eastern Iowa, with broad-bladed, corner-notched knives and straight or contracting stemmed points. Middle Woodland people in central and western Iowa continued the pattern of small, temporary settlements that had developed during the Archaic period. In north-central Iowa, settlements were made near the shores of natural lakes, where native plants such as wild rice and arrowhead could be found along with fish and waterfowl. Compared to the commonly found sites of eastern Iowa, sites of this period are difficult to locate in western Iowa. Artifacts dating to this period in western Iowa are usually found in the channels of streams and rivers, where erosion or channel straightening have cut through buried prehistoric sites. (9)

The Late Woodland period (A.D. 300-1000) showed remarkable change. The continent-wide exchange of goods including the dispersal of flint from the Alibates flint quarries of northern Texas and Pipestone, Minnesota declined. (10) Population levels apparently increased rapidly. In some parts of Iowa, Late Woodland peoples developed into large, planned villages, but in most of Iowa settlements continued to be small and separate. Uplands and small interior valleys became settled or more heavily used. Late Woodland peoples introduced the bow and arrow into the Midwest. Continued native crop horticulture and diversified hunting and gathering provided much of the food through most of the period. Although at this time it did not become a staple crop, corn was introduced to many groups around A.D. 800. (11)

Advancing pottery techniques led to much thinner-walled cooking vessels. Between A.D. 300 and 600, pottery decoration used a fingertip or stamping with a plain or cord-wrapped stick. By about A.D. 600 the use of stamping was replaced by cord impressing. A twisted cord was pressed into the moist clay of the unfired pot or a woven fabric of twisted cords was used to produce a complex design around the rim of a pot. (12)

Mound construction was generally simpler than in the Middle Woodland period, but regular groups for ritual and other purposes resulted in hundreds of Late Woodland mound groups throughout Iowa. Groups of linear, effigy, and conical mounds in northeastern Iowa form a distinctive feature of the Effigy Mound Culture (A.D. 650-1000). Effigy Mound populations may have lived in separate groups in the interior of northeast Iowa during much of the year before regularly moving to the Mississippi valley to use seasonally available resources. Dwelling sites of Effigy Mound peoples show this seasonal settlement pattern with fish and shellfish collection during warm seasons, nut harvesting in the uplands in the fall, and winter use of rockshelters. (13)

Motivations of the mound builders especially why the mounds were constructed where they were remain a mystery. Why they took certain shapes remain a puzzle. (14)

Recent archaeological work has revealed that most of the Native Americans around Dubuque used atlatls, spear-throwers, for hunting. "Arrowheads" found in the tri-state are were too large to be attached to arrows. The object all all hunting was to survive winter. Hunting groups may have traveled to western Iowa or Nebraska to hunt BISON. The meat was dried for storage and bones were used for tools. (15)

As the natives entered into what was later known as the Late Woodland Period, there was an increased use of domesticated plants. By 1000 A.D. a group of people called the Oneota had moved into eastern Iowa. Ancestors of the Ioway, Winnebago, and Ho-Chunk, they are thought to have introduced plants that were domestically in other places. These plants would have included corn, squash, and beans known collectively as the "three sisters." By 1000 A.D. Oneota villages included huge pits to store surplus corns for the harsh winter ahead. (16)

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Source:

1. "The Woodland Period of North America," Online: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/woodland-period/

2. Perry, Walter, "Woodland Period," The Office of the State Archaeologist, Online: https://archaeology.uiowa.edu/woodland-period-0

3. "North American Archaeology," Online: https://anp452msu.wordpress.com/eastern-woodlands-midwest/

4. Ibid.

5. "The Woodland Period...

6. Perry

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. National park ranger presentations at each site.

11. Perry

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Hogstrom, Erik, "The Indigenous Years," Telegraph Herald, August 29, 2021, p. 9A

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.