32a - analyze the evolution of Native American cultures prior to European contact: Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian
pre-historic indiands
Paleo People
Paleo-Indians or Paleoamericans is a classification term given to the first people who entered the American continents. The Paleo people moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska. They hunted animals.They used stone tools with projectile points and scrapers to kill the animals. Archaeologists recognize sites dating to each subperiod primarily by the presence of distinctive projectile points found. The Early Paleoindian is characterized by Clovis and related projectile point forms, relatively large lanceolate (lance-shaped) points with nearly parallel sides, slightly concave bases, and single or multiple basal flake scars, or flutes, that rarely extend more than a third of the way up the body.
Archaic indains
The Archaic Period of Georgia prehistory lasted from about 10,000 to 3,000 years ago. At that time most of Georgia was covered with oak-hickory hardwood forests. Large animals such as bison, horses, mastodons, mammoths, and camels had become extinct. Early Archaic people were hunters and gatherers who lived in small groups or "bands" of twenty to fifty people. They hunted white-tailed deer, black bear, turkey, and other large game animals and collected nuts, roots, fruits, seeds, and berries. They also caught or collected turtles, fish, shellfish, birds, and smaller mammals. Archaic bands probably moved around in search of seasonal foods, mates outside of their social group, and sources of stone from which they could make spear points and other tools.
woodland indians
The Woodland Period of Georgia prehistory is broadly dated from around 1000 B.C. to A.D. 900. Ceramic cooking vessels, which were invented during the Late Archaic, became sturdier with the substitution of sand and grit temper for the vegetable fiber that had been used previously. Pots were also more elaborately decorated, with surfaces bearing the impressions of fabric-wrapped or simple carved wooden paddles. In the Middle of the Woodland Settlements appear to have become larger and more permanent. Excavations at a few sites have revealed planned villages, sometimes consisting of a circular arrangement of as many as twenty houses surrounding an open plaza area. Like those from the Early Woodland, houses from this time were typically circular.
Mississippian indains
The Mississippian Period in the Midwestern and southeastern United States, which lasted from about A.D. 800 to 1600. They grew much of their food in small gardens using simple tools like stone axes, digging sticks, and fire. Corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, goose foot, sump weed, and other plants were cultivated. Wild plant and animal foods were also eaten. They gathered nuts and fruits and hunted such game as deer, turkeys, and other small animals. Mississippian people also collected fish, shellfish, and turtles from rivers, streams, and ponds. Their houses were used mainly as shelter from inclement weather, sleeping in cold months, and storage. These were rectangular or circular pole structures; the poles were set in individual holes or in continuous trenches. Walls were made by weaving saplings and cane around the poles, and the outer surface of the walls was sometimes covered with sun-baked clay or daub. Roofs were covered with thatch, with a small hole left in the middle to allow smoke to escape. Inside the houses the hearth dominated the center of the living space.