Archaic Indians- “old”
• Three periods: Early, Middle , and Late
• Early Archaic Period, 8000 B.C.- 5000 B.C.
-began hunting smaller game such as bear, turkey, deer, and rabbit
- made tools such as: choppers, drills, and chipping tools made from deer antlers
- archeologists believe they may have traded with different Indian groups
- they moved each season: Fall-found berries, fruit, and nuts; Summer- fished; always to find food
Middle Archaic Periods
5000 B.C.
• Area began to grow warmer, waters receded, and people began eating shellfish
• Books made from animal bones have been found from this period
• Indians made hooks attached to end of weighted spears
• This made gathering food easier and people didn’t move as often in search of food.
• small groups banded together to form camps
Late Archaic Period
• 4000 B.C -1000 B.C.
• Made a grooved axe, developed horticulture, depended on shellfish as main staple of diet
• Villages became more permanent
• Food was prepared using pottery for cooking, storing, and serving food
• **greatest contribution to Native American culture (pottery)
• Believed to have used a grinding stone to make flour
Woodland Indians
• 1000 B.C. – 1000 A.D.
• Tribes formed (several hundred families banded together)
• Lived together in small villages
• Made huts from small trees and bark, roofs made from grass or bark with holes at top to let smoke out
• Slept on fiber mats
Woodland Indians (cont.)
• Bunted with bow and arrows
• Arrows made from stones, shark teeth, and deer antlers
• Gathered nuts and berries
• Farmed squash, sunflowers, and wild greens
• Made pottery last longer by cooking in a fire
• Had elaborate religious ceremonies/burials- life after death belief
Mississippian Indians
***Highest prehistoric civilization in Georgia***
700 A.D.
• Also called the ‘Temple Mound Period’; a time when people villages, farmed, and were every religious
• Grew Maize (corn), beans, squash, pumpkins, and tobacco (they used this in their ceremonies)
• Planted in different fields each year to preserve soil fertility
Mississippian Indians
• Wore more ornate clothes with beads
• Wore ear ornaments (earrings)
• Wore hair differently
• Painted or tattooed their bodies
• Feather headdresses
What happened to the Mississippian Indians?
• Villages grew as several thousand families banded together
• Built centers for religious purposes
• Had wooden fences (palisades), and moats around villages with guard towers
• 1600 A.D. A mystery occurred-people left villages and no one knows why or where they went