Woodland Period - 1,000 to 3,200 Years Ago

Early Farmers

The Woodland period is often characterized by increasing cultural complexity, population growth, and innovative inventions. Believed to be the most indigenous prehistoric culture in the Southeast, the Woodland people move around seasonally to efficiently exploit the resources in their environment for survival. Plant seeds, arrowheads, and pottery sherds were found in the layers of Russell Cave during this period.

Chenopodium seed pods (shown) were found during the excavation of Russell Cave.

NPS Photo

During this time, people began to settle along flood plains to benefit from the abundance of native seed-bearing plants that thrive in this type of environment such as sunflower, chenopodium (lamb's quarters), sumpweed, pigweed, knotweed, giant ragweed, and maygrass. The seeds of these plants were collected extensively, which naturally led to their cultivation for better accessibility. The cultivated sunflower, chenopodium, and sumpweed yielded much larger seed pods than the wild species. While sunflower are still being grown by people, this variation of chenopodium and sumpweed are now extinct, which further suggests that they were domesticated and were dependent on people for their propagation. Evidence shows that squash, gourd, and corn were also cultivated by the Woodland people. Along with the grown seed plants, nuts and fruits were continued to be collected from trees such walnut, hickory, oak, hazel, beech, chestnut, persimmon, paw paw, and black berry. The seeds and nuts were gathered in large quantities and stored in underground pits. At Russell Cave, one of such pit was found containing the remains of a couple handfuls of chenopodium seeds, suggesting that the inhabitants also utilized such practice. The stored surplus foods allowed the Woodland people to live a more sedentary lifestyle, only leaving as needed to hunt, fish, or forage in the surrounding areas.

Woodland pottery sherds found during the excavation of Russell Cave.

NPS Photo

People in North America have been modifying earthen materials for personal use as early as 3,500 BCE (late Archaic period). However, it was during the Woodland period that pottery became more elaborate and widespread. Instead of tempering their pottery with fibrous materials like the ones found in the earlier period, the Woodland people tempered their pots and other vessels with grit (coarse sand), crushed limestone, crushed bone, and grog (crushed potsherds). This technique prevents the material from cracking as it dries. Everything would then be hardened in an open-pit fire, resulting in sturdier vessels that can be used for longer period of time. The final products were usually decorated with intricate stamped, pinched, brushed, or incised designs. Stamped designs were produced by pressing an engraved paddle or a paddle wrapped in cord or fabric onto the surface of wet clay. Pinched designs were mainly done by hand, while incised and brushed designs typically produced by sharp instruments. The Woodland people also made “luxury items” that are not for practical use but instead for leisure and/or ceremonies use. Gorgets and beads were made for personal adornments, stone tablets and animal effigies were made for decoration and/or ceremonies, and pipes were made for smoking.

The stone disc on the pump-drill helps preserve the momentum of the spin while increasing the overall weight making the drilling action effortless and efficient.

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While the hand drill and bow drill were still being practiced, the Woodland people developed a new drilling method that is even more effortless. The pump drill is arguably one of the most complex tool to come out of the prehistoric periods. By winding the rope around the top of the spindle then pushing down on the handle in a specific rhythm, the user would be able to drill continuously. This new contraption was especially good at boring incredibly precise holes through most materials. While it is possible to start a fire using the pump drill, people still preferred the bow drill method. As the population and the number of settlements continued to increase, competition for resources also became more prominent. It was around 500 – 1,000 CE (common era) that a new weapon began to make way and eventually became the preferred weapon over the spears and atlatls. This is none other than the bow and arrows, a more portable, accurate, and powerful projectile weapon that has a much faster reload time. Projectile points were made shorter, thinner, and more triangular. Due to the increased efficiency of the new weapon, hunting became less of a collaborative effort but instead became more competitive. The origin of the bow in North America is still shrouded in mystery due to the lack of irrefutable archeological data. There are two prominent theories for the origin of the bow in North America. The first states that it was introduced to North America, and the second states it was conceived by the Woodland people independent of outside influences. Nevertheless, by the time the first Europeans arrived in North and South America, the bow had already become widespread throughout the two continents.

A mixture of small and medium size stone points was found in the Woodland layers during the excavation, suggesting that the inhabitants did not abandon the atlatl completely but used it alongside the bow and arrows.

NPS Photo

The collective developments of semi-permanent camps, better-quality pottery, surplus food, and improved weapons and tools marked changes in society that were vastly different from how people had lived up to that point. The nomadic lifestyle led by the previous inhabitants was gradually abandoned and replaced with a more community-like structure. People gradually stopped wandering the land searching for resources and instead began establishing routes from their camp to the source location. These changes set the stage for further developments that would take place in the Mississippian period.