Chapter 3: After Clovis - Post-Ice Age North American Archaeology

Vocabulary flashcards covering key cultural stages, site names, technological traditions, and concepts from Chapter 3 of post-Clovis North American settlement.

Beringia

A land bridge and core continent that joined extreme northeast Siberia and Alaska during the last glaciation.

Beringian Standstill Hypothesis

A hypothesis based on genetics and other sources proposing that Central Beringia served as a refuge for broad-spectrum hunter-gatherers of Siberian origin.

Clovis Tradition

A Paleo-Indian culture known for its distinctive fluted points that spread widely across North America between 13,050 and 12,800 years ago.

Great Bison Belt

A vast tract of grassland in the rain shadow east of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the frontiers of Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico.

Paleo-Indian

A generalized cultural stage (generally before 8000 BCE) encompassing human cultures ancestral to later Archaic developments, including Clovis and first Americans.

Archaic

A cultural stage evolving from Paleo-Indian cultures, characterized by hunting smaller animals, greater reliance on plant foods, and specialized processing toolkits.

Woodland

A cultural stage in the Eastern Woodlands (c. 1000 BCE onward) featuring hunter-gatherers with initial cultivation, clay vessels, elaborate tools, and cemetery burials in earthen mounds.

Mississippian

An Eastern Woodlands cultural tradition (after 800 CE) that replaced Woodland culture in the Midsouth between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians.

Folsom Tradition

A post-Clovis cultural tradition whose hunters pursued bison across the Great Plains using fluted points made with a long flute struck from a prepared base.

Hanson site

A Folsom site in Wyoming's northern Bighorn Basin containing three hard-packed circular lodge structures radiocarbon dated to at least 8000 BCE.

Hell Gap

A valley site in southeastern Wyoming with a long record of repeated Paleo-Indian occupation between c. 9000 and 5500 BCE, used for processing bison carcasses and hides.

Olsen-Chubbock site

A bison drive kill site near Kit Carson, Colorado (c. 7400 BCE), where 180 bison were driven into an arroyo and systematically butchered.

Pemmican

A food made of dried and pounded meat, consumed while on the move.

Plano points

A collective term for unfluted and stemmed lanceolate projectile heads used by various Paleo-Indian groups after Clovis and Folsom times.

Kin cliques

Mobile camp groups in the arid Western Interior whose social organization revolved around mapping onto seasonal food resources.

Pickleweed

A low-growing succulent that flourishes on the edges of salt pans and dried-up lake beds, harvested by ancient visitors to Danger and Hogup Caves.

Dalton Culture

A Late Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic culture (c. 8500 to 8000 BCE) in the Central Mississippi Valley known for saw-edged lanceolate points and heavy woodworking adzes.

Sloan site

An ancient sand dune location in northeastern Arkansas containing thirty adult and child burials along with clusters of stone tools, demonstrating early territorial ties.

Icehouse Bottom

An Archaic base camp site on the Little Tennessee River (occupied starting c. 7000 BCE) where inhabitants processed hickory nuts to make hickory milk.

Bannerstones

Elaborately worked stone objects that served as atlatl weights to add heft and range to spear throwers, also functioning as valuable exchange items in social networks.

Windover site

An Early Archaic waterlogged pond burial site near Titusville, Florida (6000 to 5000 BCE), which preserved human brain tissue, woven textiles, and early domesticated gourds.

Sedentism

Permanent settlement at a single location, which developed in regions where food supplies were predictable and abundant.

Watson Brake

A major mound complex in northeastern Louisiana constructed as early as 3900 BCE and used seasonally by forager groups.

Black Earth site

A rich Middle Archaic midden site in Carrier Mills, Illinois (after c. 4000 BCE), containing food remains, storage/cooking pits, and 154 burials.