FARMING ON THE PLAINS

- PWT most pronounced in central, eastern and southern Plains; less so in western and northern Plains

- key Woodland traits:

1. introduction of pottery

2. first use of domesticates, maize and beans

3. more permanent settlement, villages

4. burial mounds

- this combination of traits (esp. 1-3) seen throughout N.America and Mexico (where it is called "Formative")

- reflects general "settling-in" to particular regions, perhaps using knowledge of resources gained in Archaic



- eventually leads to intensification and complex societies in some areas (eg. Mexico, Mississippian)

- PWT thought to be strongly influenced (at least on Eastern and Central Plains) by Hopewell, Eastern Middle Woodland; seen esp. in pottery and burial mounds, and also in use of domesticates

- on Plains, most groups combined farming with bison hunting, and were only semi-sedentary

- Avonlea refers to culture (1,850-850 BP) and diagnostic projectile point (small, well-made, side-notched, arrow points)

- first bison hunting culture on Plains to make extensive use of bow and arrow



- bow and arrow probably introduced to Plains from northwest, probably from Athapaskans, either through Athapaskan invasion of N.W. Plains or trait diffusion

- highly specialized bison hunters, little or no involvement in farming

- technology includes chipped stone end scrapers and unifaces, hammerstones and various other stone tool types; and pottery

- thick-walled, conoidal and globular forms; decoration includes net impression and grooving (often two parallel lines)

- net impressed pottery and parallel grooved pottery have distinct geographical distributions, which may indicate two distinct Avonlea groups

- type site: Avonlea, in S.Sask., a bison drive/jump site

- includes several sites in central Kansas and souht-central Nebraska, dated ca. 1,400-1,100 BP

- most sites are small hunting, gathering locations, but larger villages also exist

- domestic structures are small, circular-to-oval, with semi-subterranean floors (30-45 cm deep)

- some villages include multiple burials; primary and secondary inhumations in mounds and ossuaries

- burials often contain offerings: pottery vessels, utilitarian stone tools, tubular bone beads, shell disk beads and pendants -- possibly indicating status differentiation (?)





- subsistence based mainly on h-g: bison, deer, antelope; also small mammals, freshwater mussels, fish

- grinding stones suggest processing of plant foods, but so far, no cultigens

- pottery: elongated jars, conoidal bottoms, exterior surface cord-roughened; rims occasionally cord-marked

- first proposed by D. Lehmer, based on excavation of Dodd village site, South Dakota, early 1950s

- from about 1,000-500 BP, in Eastern and Central Plains, most groups settled in large villages, based on spring-summer farming of corn and beans, and fall-winter bison hunting



- various cultures in different regions, but all share:

1. use of lodge houses with covered entry passages

2. permanent villages, often fortified (stockades, ditches)

3. food storage in "bell-shaped" and cylindrical pits

4. use of bison scapula hoes in farming

5. use of small tringular stone arrowheads

6. use of globular pottery, grit-tempered, cord-impressed

- PVT divided into three subtraditions: Central Plains tradition and Middle Missouri tradition

-- which later merge into Coalescent tradition

- recognized along Missouri, Kansas, and Platte Rivers in Nebraska, Kansas and western Iowa



- includes five phases that are not seen as a sequence, but overalpping, interacting and influencing each other through time

- settlement pattern based on villages with seasonal mobility

- houses square to rectangular lodges, with rounded corners; extended entry passage; four central roof support posts around central hearth; often several "bell-shaped" storage/refuse pits in house floor; wattle-and-daub wall construction

- wattle-and-daub: pole framework intertwined with branches, vines, covered with mud plaster; often with thatched roofs

- villages range in size from 1 to 10-12 houses, usually scattered along terraces or bluffs overlooking river floodplains



- pottery: cord-roughened, globular pots, often with "collared" rims; ceramic smoking pipes; spindle whorls

- wide variety of stone and bone tools, including: triangular, side-notched points (arrow points), stone pipes, ground and polished celts, bison-scap hoes

- subsistence: broad-spectrum; hunting (deer, antelope, bison (but not hunted extensively)), fishing, shell fishing, plant gathering, and gardening of corn, beans

- burials in ossuaries (secondary), not mounds; few or no grave offerings

- CPT probably developed in south (Kansas area ?), and rapidly spread north, under favourable conditions of Neo-Atlantic climatic episode

- subsequent Pacific episode, brought drier air, and may have contributed to demise of CPT

- thought to be earliest phase of CPT, found in Nebraska and W. Kansas

- fits general description of CPT

- houses nearly squre, wattle-and-daub structures without excavated housepit

- most (75%) range in floor size from 50-100 m2 -- small extended family to multi-family dwellings; adaptation to simultaneous task production?

- lots of evidence of food storage -- bell-shaped storage/refuse pits











- found north of CPT in N. and S. Dakota

- similar in many general respects to CPT (including time period), but...

- thought to have originated from westward movement of late Middle Woodland peoples out of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin

- villages more often fortified than CPT, using stockade walls and ditches, embankments

- village locations usually along stream tributaries of Missouri near bottomlands suitable for gardening (ie., not on high terraces) -- probably a response to deep downcutting of middle Missouri R.

- subsistence based more equally on farming and h&g (perhaps because of use of better alluvial soils)

- gardening or horticulture included maize, beans, squash -- from Eastern Woodlands(?)

- local, supplementary cultigens include sunflower, sumpweed, goosefoot, knotweed (all cultivated by Hopewell)

-dwellings also differ slightly from CPT

- earth lodges long, rectangular in shape (generally larger than CPT dwellings); roof supported by central ridge pole

- large diverse tool assemblage similar to CPT, but key difference includes presence of luxury goods

- Great Lakes copper, conch and other marine shells; catlinite from Minnesota (soft red argillite, used as "pipe stone")







Huff Site

- large village related to Terminal variant of MMT, and dated 450-300 BP

- located on Missouri R. in N. Dakota

- village is rectangular in plan, surrounded by deep ditch that contained palisade wall with bastions at regular intervals

- village includes 103 long, rectangular houses (not true earth lodges), set in irregular rows, around open central plaza

- artifacts are representative of MMT, but trade pottery from Coalescent tradition sites also present and a four-post earth lodge found at site -- both suggest downriver contact with Coalescent tradition antecedents of historic Mandan

- represents coalescence of CPT and MMT cultures, probably under pressure of warfare

- direct antecedent of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Pawnee

- villages often very large, with ditches and palisade fortification

- circular, subterranean earth lodges; built of wood frame, covered by grass, sticks and earth (not wattle-and-daub)

- also change in burial pattern: cemetaries near villages

- artifact inventory rich and varied, including lots of trade goods

- Coalescent villagers were probably "middlemen" in trade between Euroamericans (to east) and nomadic Plains bison hunters (to west)

- profited from this trade, but regularly had to defend themselves

- Coalescent tradition thought to result from up-river movement of CPT groups, who briefly fought with MMT groups, and finally prevailed



Crow Creek Site

- located on Missouri River, central S. Dakota

- includes two components

- lower component: Initial MMT, dated 900 BP, Crow Creek phase

- upper component: Initial Coalescent, dated 600 BP, Wolf Creek phase (* predates Coronado by +100 years)

- Wolf Creek, a bastioned fortified village, with 400 m long ditch, protecting +50 earth lodges

- excavations unearthed evidence of massacre: shallow mass grave of 500 people, many scalped and mutilated

- possible reasons for massacre:

(1) conflict with MMT groups

(2) conflict with unknown nomadic groups

(3) skeletal evidence of malnutrition suggests competition for arable garden land

- Wolf Creek represents largest prehistoric massacre in Americas

- challenges theories of Plains warfare, which link warfare complex to Spanish introduction of horse