Middle Archaic period

Name:

Lecture:

Course:

Date:

Middle Archaic period

The Middle Archaic period was a drier and warmer time in various parts of eastern North America and it coincided with the Middle Holocene geological era. Some scholars believe that this time was when humans were adapting to the climate interval, there were early middle archaic where they were smaller sites that were similar and while they were found in the different settings of the environment they only had few artifacts. Also, there was the late middle archaic period that was often found in wet areas that had diverse and rich foods which ensured that all year round they were resources to be used. During this period a lot of changes were witnessed; the paper will focus on the archaeological evidence that depicted these changes and the factors that explained the changes.

Firstly, the major change that was experienced was technological innovation. The evidence that depicted this was very clear evidence of the change in the tools where they adopted new ground tools example the plummets and they used antler artifacts example the fish hooks. Additionally, they developed various tools for processing food example the manos and grinding stones that they used for grinding corn foods. The trade pattern also changed from barter trade that had been common to long-distance trade, this change was evidenced by some exotic artifacts, this change also depicted the social networks developed. Also, there was a drastic change in mobility with few people being mobile with the few not involved in residential mobility but logical mobility and they adopted to year-round occupations minimizing the past moving occupations. Also, there were some changes in social organization and settlement where tribes emerged that were not in the earlier period, this can be evidenced by the open mating networks that were seen.

The archaeologists relied on various factors to try to explain the changes that took place during this period they included, the increase in the population where most people occupied the base camps that had various features example, the processing and storage pits. Also, there was the emergence of the making of ceramic pots, people adopted various plant exploitation strategies while they used more riverine resources. The increased strategies employed to fight the post-glacial warming that was being experienced too played a role in the changes and the change from the occasional large killings to regular small killings. These changes were also brought by the decreased use of high-quality materials since the people lacked the opportunity to go too far areas to fetch the products. The decreased mobility is believed to have been caused by the various where rarely people moved during winter since the food reduced and they always settled near the water areas because of lack of surface water. Lastly, their reliance on the local food sources encouraged the change to trading with other people from far areas

From this period, it is evident that the people during this period despite the advancements they experienced where they had better tools that made their work easier they also experienced various problems. During the early middle archaic period, they experienced the lack of eligible mates because of their low population which facilitated that they had to be in keen contact and the constant mobility in search of better resources decreased their population. While it is evident that this period experienced various changes we can say it was the beginning of a cycle that exists even today.

Works Cited

G. Anderson, David, and Kenneth E. Sassaman. Early And Middle Holocene Periods, 9500–3750 BC. 2004, pp. 3-14, http://pidba.org/anderson/cv/Anderson%202004%20Smithsonain%20Handbookpdf.pdf. Accessed 7 Mar 2020.