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