1. Watson Brake and Poverty Point: Early Moundbuilding Cultures of Eastern North America
Watson Brake, LA
4000 BC
Poverty Point, LA BC

2. *Early Woodland (800-200 BC) – Adena
Middle Woodland (200 BC – AD 400) - Hopewell

3. heartland (epicenter) was in Ohio but extended over vast area
Adena & Hopwell
heartland (epicenter)
was in Ohio but
extended over vast area
of eastern NA
Adena and Hopewell
societies had broad
trade relations,
Including:
Copper (Great Lakes)
Mica (S. Appalachians)
Chert (Midwest)
Obsidian (Wyoming)
Shell (S. Atlantic &
Gulf Coast)
Followed by Late
Woodland complex
Societies, notably
Mississippian cultures
after AD 1000, a period
of rising chiefdoms

4. House structure at Crigler Mound (Ohio Valley)
Adena effigy pipe
House structure at Crigler Mound (Ohio Valley)

5. Adena Mound

6. Wooden burial structure
in Adena earthen mound

7. Blocked-end tobacco smoking pipes (Shamanism)

8. exotic materials, which are found in mounds but not settlements
Middle Woodland (200 BC to AD 400), associated with the Hopewell complex,
which was socially highly complex, based not only on complex mounds and
enclosures (exclusive), elaborate burials, and finely crafted artifacts, often of
exotic materials, which are found in mounds but not settlements
Hopewell (epicenter in Ohio), like Adena, had diverse mounds, including
circles, squares, and other shapes, as well as fortress-like enclosures,
but Hopewell times was marked by
proliferation and elaboration of mounds
Great serpent mound,
Ohio, 700 BC-AD 200

9. Newark Earthworks

11. Hopewell's special burial treatment
with fine objects and mound structures,
focused on adults and men, but included
women and children
Low inter-group hostilities are suggested
during the Hopewell era by
relatively few skeletal injuries
Hopewell Mounds

12. Animal effigy platform pipes
Human skull rattles
Animal effigy platform pipes

13. During Late Woodland inter-group relations worsened, as reflected in
Reduced long-distance trade, violent deaths, increased small arrowheads and in some areas iconography
Late Woodland Fort Ancient Culture
in the Ohio Valley (AD )

14. Mississippian cultures in Midwest & SE, after AD 1000,
Late Woodland
Mississippian cultures
in Midwest & SE,
after AD 1000,
represent a period
of rising chiefdoms,
the highest expression
of social complexity in
North America

15. Cahokia at AD 1100

16. Cahokia
Cahokia Mounds site occupied between AD 800 and The “Golden Age” occurred from AD 1000 and 1275, at which time the site had a population of 20,000 to 30,000 (estimates range from under 15,000 to over 40,000).
Over 100 mounds, included platform (flat-topped) temple mounds, conical mounds, and ridgetop mounds, such as the mound 72, which contained spectacular remains associated with elite individuals

18. Mound 72 held an important position by its orientation and alignment with various other mounds.
Many of 272 burials in mound were sacrificial offerings and placed there as either extended or bundle burials. Two very high status burials in mound 72, the “beaded burials” are located in base of mound; one individual was buried under a layer of over 20,000 beads and one individual on top of the beads. These beads were laid out in a design of a bird similar to other Mississippian art work.

19. “litter-burials,” dated to AD 1000

20. Burial pit with 53 females estimated between 15 to 30 years
Burial pit with 53 females estimated between 15 to 30 years. Other burial feature with four males missing their heads and hands.

21. Arrowhead caches from Mound 72
Primary mound 1,
burial in feature 102
Primary mound 1,
burial in feature 102
(413 points)
Arrowhead caches from Mound 72
Primary mound 2
(451 points)

22. Mississippian artifacts

23. Many of the most elaborate Mississippian artifacts, often dating from AD , are collectively called the Southern Cult or Southeastern ceremonial complex, which includes artifacts indicating an aggressive ideology and warrior iconography, including motifs such as weeping eyes, warriors, supernatural composites, and severed heads, as well axes, maces, and other weapons
(again suggesting that inter-group relations involved more tension in Late Woodland than early Middle Woodland (Hopewell) times)

25. Anasazi or “Ancestral Pueblo”
Pueblo I AD 750 to 900
Dispersed household settlement pattern in most areas, but in the San Juan River valley (SW Colorado & SE Utah) aggregates of multiple households herald the formation of relatively permanent villages
Cotton was introduced (from the south), and cotton (loom-woven) blankets replaced fur and hide robes
Potter's art greatly developed - after AD 800, regional variation in ceramic designs may signify the existence or increased importance of group boundaries
Pit houses, as dwellings, gradually replaced with aboveground houses made on stone mortared with mud &arranged in rows
Pit houses evolved into special round subterranean ceremonial chambers (kivas)
Pueblo II: AD
The Chaco Phenomenon
Great houses were constructed in San Juan valley, where large quantities of water and sediment were available for farming
Pueblo Bonito major spiritual center
Emulation of great house architecture at numerous smaller outlying communities, who would journey to Chaco for major ceremonial events
Pueblo III - A.D to 1300
Dramatic changes in architecture, including end of major building in Chaco Canyon
Political and social influence shifted to areas north of Chaco
Pueblo IV - Post A.D. 1300
Abandonment of Colorado Plateau, which many attribute to a severe drought ( ); many sites abandoned & many geographical regions saw an enormous loss of population
Removal of some population to the Rio Grande Valley in central New Mexico as well as to the mesas of north central Arizona

26. Chaco Canyon
(AD )
Pueblo Bonito

27. Chaco Canyon Great Houses

28. Pueblo Bonito, largest of the great houses in
Chaco Canyon (AD )
Major spiritual center

29. A.D.
A.D.
1085 A.D.

30. Great Kiva at Pueblo Bonito

32. Hohokam
Pre-classic and Classic Hohokam were pottery making farmers in the Sonoran Desert of south central Arizona and northern Mexico (AD ).
Many small-clusters of houses but also large settlements that were well organized around plazas, ball courts and platform mounds, such as Casas Grandes.
Classic period Hohokam platform mound settlements in the Phoenix, Tuscon, and Tonto area were organized in linear systems along major canals, were discrete political units, and were the site of increasingly centralized ritual and political events
The Hohokam people built the largest prehistoric canal system in North America. Their canal irrigation seems to be affected by the deepening and widening of the Gila River between AD , and may have led to salinization in fields
Mexico had a strong influence among the Hohokam in both trade and culture. For instance, rubber from the Mexican lowlands was used to make balls that were used on their elaborate ball courts, which also show Mesoamerican influence.

33. Casas Grandes
(Mexico)

34. Mimbres Ceramics

35. The greatest cause of declines in Native North America (throughout the Americas) was highly contagious, fever producing diseases