natural oklahoma Ancient Communities Key Themes Geographical Influences The western plains and the eastern woodlands nurtured two distinct prehistoric cultures in Oklahoma. Multicultural Heritage The way of life of prehistoric peoples became more complex over time. Objectives Trace the path of prehistoric people from Asia to where they settled in Oklahoma Describe how prehistoric people found food Explain the rise and fall of societies based on agriculture Compare the life of the Plains Village Farmers to that of the Caddoan Mound Builders Key Terms Beringia Paleo-Indians Big-Game Hunters carbon dating Foragers Early Farmers artifacts Plains Village Farmers Mound Builders artisans atlatl petroglyphs 30
Overview Oklahoma s earliest human inhabitants come from Asia as part of a vast migration. These hunters, and the foraging and farming cultures that develop later, prove that Oklahoma s natural environment can sustain human society. The first humans to live in Oklahoma arrived a long, long time ago. Where they came from and when they came are matters of guesswork or faith. Many American Indians believe that the Life Force of the World created their ancestors at a special place in North America. A major religious group believes that the first native Americans were ancient Hebrews who migrated to this land across the South Pacific Ocean. Scholars, who work with observed data rather than traditions or religious beliefs, tell another story. That story is told here. The first humans came to North America from Asia. Thousands of years ago during an ice age, small groups walked from one continent to the other across a land bridge that geologists call Beringia. These Paleo-Indians (ancient or first American peoples) hunted large animals and used tools made of stone and bone. From Beringia they slowly moved southward, following herds of prehistoric animals such as mammoths, mastodons, bison, horses, and camels. Several thousand years later, the earth warmed, and much of the ice melted. The water from the melting ice raised the level of the sea and flooded Beringia, creating the Bering Strait. By then, the hunters had migrated far from the land bridge. Isolated in a new land, they became the first Americans. Key People and Events 15,000 b.c. Big-Game Hunters arrive in Oklahoma 5,000 b.c. Foragers arrive in Oklahoma a.d. 100 Farming begins in Oklahoma 800 Agriculture emerges on the plains 1200 Spiro Mound culture thrives 31
unit 1 Big-Game Hunters Archaeologists (scholars who study past human life and activities by finding and examining old tools, pottery, and buildings) have studied a group of people they call Big- Game Hunters. These people reached Oklahoma 11,000 years ago or earlier. Evidence of them was found in a canyon near Stecker in southern Caddo County, where ancient hunters trapped and killed game. Digging carefully through layers of dirt at a site they named Domebo, archaeologists uncovered the skeleton of a mammoth. Embedded within its bones were three large, man-made spearpoints known as Clovis points. Carbon dating (tests based on radioactive carbon in very old materials) established that these points were 11,000 years old. Archaeologists have found this type of point at other sites in Oklahoma, so they have been able to assign the same date to other objects discovered there. A smaller type of spearpoint, called the Folsom point, is almost as old. It was found at the Cooper Site in Harper County, where hunters once trapped and killed herds of bison. These archaeological findings have shown that early people in the western part of the state ate seeds, nuts, and roasted meat; told stories about the seen and the unseen; and slept beside an open fire some 6,000 years before the fabled Greek leader Odysseus wandered the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The following chart is a general chronology (timeordered sequence) of prehistoric human society in Oklahoma. Not all scholars would agree with the dates or the classification of peoples, however. I. Paleo-Indians 30,000 15,000 b.c. II. Big-Game Hunters 25,000 5000 b.c. III. Foragers 5000 b.c. a.d. 1 IV. Early Farmers a.d. 1 1000 V. Golden Age of Prehistory A. Plains Village Farmers a.d. 800 1400 B. Caddoan Mound Builders a.d. 1000 1500 Foragers Chronology of Prehistory After reaching Oklahoma, the Big-Game Hunters stayed. Over time, their descendants, the Foragers, developed a more complex society that was based on foraging. Hunting was still very important, but the Foragers no longer followed migrating animals. Instead, the Foragers hunted in a smaller area, returning to some places again and again. During the spring and summer, they camped Kenton Caves Cr. Beaver Waugh (Folsom) Jake Bluff (Clovis) Cooper (Folsom) Cimarron Arkansas Verdigris Tulsa Grand Studied Paleo Sites of Red Fork North Washita North Fork of Canadian Canadian Oklahoma City McKellips (Dalton) 0 50 100 miles 0 80 160 kilometers Red Domebo (Clovis) Blue Quince (Dalton) Fourche Maline Kiamichi Early Big-Game Hunters and Foragers (10,000 b.c. 1 a.d.) 32 the story of oklahoma
along creeks and rivers, usually near freshwater springs. In the fall and winter, they lived in caves and under rock ledges. Archaeologists have excavated some Forager camps in the Ozarks of northeastern Oklahoma, on Calf Creek in Caddo County, and near Kenton in the Panhandle. The materials they have found reveal much about the Foragers. Bone fragments indicate that they hunted modern species of buffalo and deer instead of mammoths and mastodons. Bones of smaller animals turkey, raccoon, opossum, and squirrel suggest that they were more skillful hunters than the Big-Game Hunters. The invention of the atlatl, a wooden throwing stick, allowed the Foragers to throw a spear or a dart farther and more precisely than ever before. To their meat diet, the Foragers added nuts, berries, sunflower seeds, and roots gathered from the forests, streams, and grasslands. They cooked some of these foods in pits lined with rocks; some of it they stored in pits lined with leaves or stone slabs. They also began to make baskets, nets, string, and even canoes. These items made it much easier to transport food and other goods. In a cave near Kenton, the Foragers left petroglyphs (wall paintings) that suggest an appreciation of art. Paleo-Indian Big-Game hunters worked in groups to surround and attack monsters of the Great Plains such as the mammoth. The skeletons of the elephant-like mammoths resembled this one, which is displayed in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. unit 1 HOW ITWorks Carbon Dating Archaeologists and anthropologists (scientists who study the origin and behavior of humans) have at least three techniques for measuring the age of prehistoric material. Dendrochronology involves counting tree rings. The FUN method measures the ratios of fluorine, uranium, and nitrogen in an object to find out how long it has been buried. The third technique, carbon dating, is a test that uses radioactive carbon, or carbon-14. Formed in the upper atmosphere, carbon-14 is absorbed by all living things, both plants and animals. At their death, the amount of carbon-14 in their remains begins to decrease at a rate that can be measured. A sample 1,000 years old, for example, will have more carbon-14 in it than one that is 2,000 years old. After nearly 6,000 years, a skeleton will contain only half the carbon-14 it did when the animal was alive. After 19,000 years, all carbon-14 will be gone. To determine the age of a mammoth skeleton, scientists would need to find out how much carbon-14 remained in it. Bits of the skeleton would be taken to a laboratory, where a sophisticated Geiger counter would measure the carbon-14 in them. ancient communities 33
unit 1 Early Farmers The Clovis point is the type of spearpoint that generally defines Big-Game Hunter cultures. This long Clovis point identifies a people that lived about 11,000 to 12,000 years ago. A people who lived and hunted the Great Plains some 10,500 years ago made Folsom points like this one. Around the time of the birth of Christ, Oklahoma s Foragers became farmers. These people are now called the Early Farmers. Maize (corn), a plant native to the Western Hemisphere, had been grown as a crop in central Mexico since about 5000 b.c. About 2,000 years later, Native peoples were growing corn in New Mexico and Arizona. From there, the growing of corn spread eastward and transformed other Native American societies. At first, farming was limited in Oklahoma. In small fields along rivers and creeks, the Early Farmers planted a few hills with corn, along with beans, pumpkins, and squash. Now they needed to watch their fields, so they left their rock ledge and cave shelters and built houses nearby. Usually these houses had a frame of poles driven into the ground and covered with grass thatch or cane matting. In the Panhandle they used rock slabs for walls. Usually two or three houses were built at each settlement. Excavations of these settlements, especially along Fourche Maline Creek (LeFlore County) and the Red River, show that these early farmers did not totally abandon their former lifestyle. They continued to hunt and to gather in the forest and prairies near their fields. In their trash pits are remnants of atlatls, spearpoints, animal bones, and seeds. But something new is there too: pottery fragments, called shards. Early Farmer pottery was probably made by women. It is known for its oval bottom and for the coil method used to make it. The potter handrolled clay into strips, stacked them in coiled layers, and then smoothed the clay with fingers or a shell. Pottery transformed early societies in Oklahoma. It helped with preparing and storing food, and it made it easy to carry water. But it was also a means of artistic Cr. Beaver Roy Smith (Plains Villagers Antelope Creek) Cimarron Arkansas Verdigris Tulsa Grand Documented farming Sites Washita Phase Caddoan Mound Builders Heerwald (Plains Villagers Turkey Creek) 0 50 100 miles of Red Fork North Washita North Fork of Canadian Canadian Oklahoma City Spiro Mounds (Arkansas River Caddoan) Blue Kiamichi 0 80 160 kilometers Red Grobin Davis Mounds (Red River Caddoan) Arthur (Plains Villagers Washita River) Early Farmers (a.d. 1 1450) 34 the story of oklahoma
HOW ITWorks Making a Coiled Pot Oklahoma s first farmers were also its first potters. They made pots by using the coil technique. With this method, clay is rolled in the hand to form worm-shaped strips of clay. Coils of these strips are then built up layer by layer on the base of the pot. When the desired height is reached, the potter smoothes the coils by gently pressing them with the fingers and by rubbing them with a smooth shell. During this process, the fingers and shell are kept wet so that the clay will not dry too quickly. Designs are added with a pointed stick, a sharp rock, or a mussel shell. The pot is dried by the sun or a fire. unit 1 expression. For these peoples, pots were containers for food and water. For us, they are some of the first clues to the personality of these early Americans. Golden Age of Prehistory About 1,100 years ago (a.d. 900), the life of early farmers in Oklahoma became more complex. They entered what some have called the Golden Age of Prehistory. A striking development was that people became more social; that is, they began to live together in larger groups. But the farming societies on the plains in the west differed from those in the woodlands and on the prairies in the east. Plains Village Farmers Along the Washita River and its tributaries, archaeologists have found the sites of more than 200 villages, each with at least 12 dwellings. The houses were square. Their stick walls were plastered with a mixture of clay and grass, and their roofs were of grass thatch. The sites have also yielded artifacts (human-made tools, weapons, and ornaments) that were not made locally, showing that the villagers called the Plains Village Farmers traded with people who lived in distant communities. The people living along the Washita and other western rivers, especially in the Panhandle, were much more skilled at farming than their ancestors. The villagers planted a greater variety of crops, including tobacco, and tended them with improved bone, stone, and wooden tools. Large storage pits indicate that the villagers had bountiful harvests. The Plains Village Farmers also were more effective hunters, mainly because they had mastered the bow and arrow. The accuracy of this technique allowed hunters to kill not only large game (bison, deer, elk, and antelope) but smaller animals as well (rabbit, squirrel, wolf, raccoon, beaver, opossum, turkey, duck, and crow). Of these the bison was the most important, judging from the large amount of remains found. Its skin furnished material for clothing, bedding, fibers, and containers. Its bones could be fashioned into tools and household items. The villagers also fished, collected mussels and other shellfish, and gathered more types of plants for foods, dyes, and medicines. Among the plant items they used were hickory nuts, walnuts, hackberry seeds, wild cherries, plums, and persimmons. Clearly, Plains Village Farmers also began to both celebrate and think about the mysteries and meaning of life. Archaeologists have found that these people created plain pottery and small figurines. Cemeteries next to villages contained grave goods. These small objects, which the living believed the dead would need in the next world, suggest a growing spiritual life. But their simplicity shows that these people did not have elaborate ceremonies or a society divided into classes. Nor did they build mounds. ancient communities 35
unit 1 A B C D These artifacts date from Oklahoma s Golden Age of Prehistory. (A) Spearpoint from Delaware County, Oklahoma, a.d. 1000 1500. (B) Drills from eastern Oklahoma, a.d. 1300 1400. (C) Spearpoints from Reed Mound in eastern Oklahoma, a.d. 500 1500. (D) A ceremonial knife found in Arkansas, a.d. 1300 1400. It is made from chert, a type of rock quarried in Kay County, Oklahoma, and traded to sites in Arkansas. The productive lifestyle of the Plains Village Farmers lasted 600 years, or until a.d. 1400. About that time, Oklahoma experienced a drier climate, and crops failed. The villagers stopped farming, ending their former way of life. They became full-time bison hunters instead. Their homes and fields soon fell into ruin. We know of these early villagers now only because they left behind some diaries in the dirt. Caddoan Mound Builders Meanwhile, on the other side of Oklahoma, Native people organized an even more complex society. It was part of a culture that had developed in the Mississippi River valley and spread east and west. These people are called Mound Builders because of the huge earthen mounds in some of their communities. Generally these mounds were foundations for temples, public buildings, or the homes of chiefs. In Oklahoma they were also used as burial sites for wealthy leaders of the community. Craig Mound at Spiro is 33 feet high and more than 400 feet long. Williams Mound on Fourche Maline Creek is only 5 feet tall, but it covers 17,000 square feet. How did people build these mounds without bulldozers and dump trucks? The first Spanish explorers to the A pendant for a necklace, this shell illustrates some of the beliefs of the Caddoan Mound Builders of eastern Oklahoma. The entire shell represents the earth, or This World. The inner cross suggests the four directions. The Spiro people live in the center circle, to which they are tied with beaded belts and fringed skirts. Note that the human figures wear ear ornaments and have diamond-shaped eyes highlighted by zigzag lines. 36 the story of oklahoma
southeastern part of the United States saw some Mound Builders at work and supplied the answer. Native workers carried dirt to the mound one basketful at a time. Archaeologists have identified many sites in eastern Oklahoma built by a group known as the Caddoan Mound Builders. The most important of these is Spiro, a great ceremonial center of 11 mounds on the Arkansas River in northeastern LeFlore County. Excavations there in the 1930s yielded a fabulous treasure of artifacts, including baskets and objects made of wood, cloth, copper, shell, and stone. These items reveal much about the lives and culture of the Spiro people and their neighbors between a.d. 900 and 1450. The Caddoan Mound Builders lived near streams and rivers in villages that either surrounded their mounds or were some distance away. The number of permanent houses in each settlement ranged from several dozen to several hundred. In small, shared fields, these people raised the same crops as the Plains Village Farmers did, using the same kinds of tools. They even hunted the same animals with the same weapons, although they did not depend on bison as much as their western neighbors did. But the Mound Builders were much more than farmers and hunters. They were busy traders too. Artifacts found at Spiro came from as far away as northern Wisconsin (copper), southern Florida (conch shells), central New Mexico (cotton cloth), and northwestern Nebraska (painted pottery). These items suggest that Spiro, located on the Arkansas River, was a commercial center that linked people in the Mississippi Valley with those on the Southern Plains. Some of Spiro s leaders made a profit as middlemen in that trade. The Caddoan Mound Builders were talented artisans (skilled craftspeople) who influenced the works and ideas of people living elsewhere. Shell and copper jewelry (they had no gold or silver), pottery, and stone pipes found at Spiro are elaborately decorated with scenes of dancing and games and with images of warriors and mythical creatures. Early designs of a feathered serpent, a horned serpent, a spider, and a catlike monster decorate objects from sites east of the Mississippi River. Workers there probably saw the Spiro designs, liked them, and copied them. No doubt these foreigners understood and believed what the designs represented. They even passed those beliefs on to their descendants among American Indians in the southeastern United States. The Cherokees, for example, believed in a horrible monster that had a snake s body, a deer s horns, and a bird s wings. Known as The Spiro people used this whole shell, probably imported from the Gulf of Mexico, as a drinking cup. The delicately carved images along the edges of the shell represent spiritual forces. The figure at the top of the photograph may represent a priest. Spiro artisans fashioned this pipe bowl into the form of a human figure. It was placed in the grave of a Spiro elite for his use in the next world. Craig Mound today, part of the Spiro Mounds Archeological Center unit 1 ancient communities 37
unit 1 Spiro craftsmen carved this unique, perfectly proportioned ax from a single piece of stone. Given its excellent condition, it was probably used in ceremonies or placed in the grave of an honored member of the community. This shell necklace piece reflects the artistic skills of the Spiro people and the importance of religion to them. Notice the cross-incircle design in the palm of each hand. What point do you think the artist was trying to make? This Spiro artifact is unusual because it was made from copper imported from east of the Mississippi River. The plate decorated a headdress, but the meaning of its symbol of a bird with a human head is uncertain. Uktena, this monster had been ordered to kill the Sun, the most sacred god of the Cherokees. When it failed to do so, it became angry at all human beings and spent its days creating trouble for them. Objects decorated by people at Spiro suggest that they were fascinated by a similar creature long before the Cherokees. Some of the designs used by the Spiro artisans (a feathered serpent, a cross in a circle, and a human eye with a zigzag line) are often associated with the native peoples of Mexico. After finding the designs there and in the southeastern United States, many archaeologists thought that Spiro had been in contact with Mexico. Some scholars have since challenged that idea. They think that the designs and the beliefs represented by the designs originated in North America. The Spiro treasures show that the Oklahoma Mound Builders were a very religious people. The images on their jewelry expressed their faith much in the way that the star of David and the symbol of a fish express the faith of some other peoples today. The objects that the Mound Builders buried with their dead show that they believed in life after death. Because the relics in certain graves are so elaborate and come mainly from one mound, it is clear that the Spiro community also honored and followed a wealthy class of priests. For two to three centuries, Spiro and its nearby villages flourished as centers of trade and religion. But by about a.d. 1250 the same drought that changed the Plains Village Farmers into nomadic hunters affected the Mound Builders too. The large community around the mounds went away, although the priests still used the mounds as ceremonial centers and burial sites during the next 200 years. Smaller communities also were abandoned. By a.d. 1500, the people whose sophisticated culture had once influenced the entire area of today s southeastern United States were gathered in little villages along the Grand and Arkansas rivers. They lived in small houses and supplemented their meager harvests with meat from buffalo hunts. Today the ceremonial center of their community, the Spiro Mounds, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated as an archaeological park by the Oklahoma Historical Society. 38 the story of oklahoma
THE REST OF THE STORY Desecrating History As early as the nineteenth century, the Spiro Mounds were recognized as a prehistoric Indian site. In 1917, Joseph Thoburn, an Oklahoma historian and archaeologist, excavated one of the smaller mounds. Beneath the soil, he found two sets of graves and the remains of a house with a roof held up by four center poles. Because of these artifacts, Thoburn quickly recognized the importance of the site and its connection to the prehistoric cultures of the Mississippi Valley. significance of their discovery. They were interested only in finding and selling artifacts for profit. Thus, irreplaceable information about Oklahoma s past was lost forever like pages ripped from a rare book, as one archaeologist wrote. On top of that, these treasures were sold to buyers outside Oklahoma. If you want to see the best of the Spiro material, you must go to Chicago, New York, or Europe. One positive benefit came out of this tragedy. In 1935, the Oklahoma state legislature passed a law to preserve antiquities (ancient relics) such as these. Revised several times, that law makes it illegal to disturb prehistoric sites containing skeletal remains or burial material. Anyone who discovers such a site must report it to law enforcement officers and to the director of the Oklahoma Archeological Survey at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. So if you ever find skeletal remains near your home, contact the police department and the survey office right away. Don t destroy irreplaceable information or desecrate history as the pot hunters of Craig Mound did. An artist s conception of a Spiro farmer s house. In 1933, a group of men in eastern Oklahoma started the Pocola Mining Company. They leased Craig Mound, the largest burial mound on the Spiro site, from the owners of the property. For the next two years, the men carelessly dug into the four lobes of the mound. They discovered spectacular relics, the most exotic and best-preserved objects of any Mississippian ceremonial center in the United States. Unfortunately, the diggers were not concerned with preserving the In sharp contrast to the digging by pot hunters a few years earlier, the Works Progress Administration used scientific methods to excavate Craig Mound around 1938. ancient communities 39