Paleo-Indians

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Main other {{#invoke:infobox|infoboxTemplate | bodyclass = vcard

| titleclass = fn org | title = {{#if:Paleo-Indians|Paleo-Indians|Template:PAGENAMEBASE}}

| aboveclass = nickname | abovestyle = font-size:115%; font-weight:normal;

| above = {{#if: |

{{{native_name}}}

}}

| image1 = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage |upright=|image=|alt=|border={{#ifeq:no|||yes}}}} | caption1 =

| image2 = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage |upright=|alt=|image={{#if:|{{{rawimage}}}|Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont
Heinrich Harder (1858–1935), Template:Circa.
File:Glyptodon old drawing.jpg
The Paleo-Indians, also known as the Lithic peoples, are the earliest known settlers of the Americas; the period's name, the Lithic stage, derives from the appearance of lithic flaked stone tools. }} }} | caption2 =

| headerstyle = background-color:#b0c4de; color:inherit; | labelstyle = font-weight:normal;

| header1 = {{#if: |Total population}}

| data2 = {{#if:|(Template:Comma separated entries)}} {{#if: | (including those of ancestral descent)}} | label3 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data3 = | label4 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data4 = | label5 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data5 =

| header6 = {{#if: |Regions with significant populations}} | data7 = | header8 = | data9 =

| label11 = | data11 = | label12 = | data12 = | label13 = | data13 = | label14 = | data14 = | label15 = | data15 = | label16 = | data16 = | label17 = | data17 = | label18 = | data18 = | label19 = | data19 = | label20 = | data20 = | label21 = | data21 = | label22 = | data22 = | label23 = | data23 = | label24 = | data24 = | label25 = | data25 = | label26 = | data26 = | label27 = | data27 = | label28 = | data28 = | label29 = | data29 = | label30 = | data30 = | label31 = | data31 = | label32 = | data32 = | label33 = | data33 = | label34 = | data34 = | label35 = | data35 = | label36 = | data36 = | label37 = | data37 = | label38 = | data38 = | label39 = | data39 = | label40 = | data40 = | label41 = | data41 = | label42 = | data42 = | label43 = | data43 = | label44 = | data44 = | label45 = | data45 = | label46 = | data46 = | label47 = | data47 = | label48 = | data48 = | label49 = | data49 = | label50 = | data50 = | label51 = | data51 = | label52 = | data52 = | label53 = | data53 = | label54 = | data54 = | label55 = | data55 = | label56 = | data56 = | label57 = | data57 = | label58 = | data58 = | label59 = | data59 = | label60 = | data60 = | header61 = {{#if: |Languages}} | data62 = | header63 = {{#if: |Religion}} | data64 = | header65 = {{#if: |Related ethnic groups}} | data66 = {{#if: | Template:Main other }}

| belowstyle = padding-top:0.5em;text-align:left;

| below = {{#if: |

{{{footnotes}}} }}

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox ethnic group with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | caption | flag |flag_alt | flag_border | flag_caption | flag_upright | footnotes | genealogy | group | image |image_alt | image_caption | image_upright | langs | languages | native_name | native_name_lang | pop | pop_embed | pop1 | pop10 | pop11 | pop12 | pop13 | pop14 | pop15 | pop16 | pop17 | pop18 | pop19 | pop2 | pop20 | pop21 | pop22 | pop23 | pop24 | pop25 | pop26 | pop27 | pop28 | pop29 | pop3 | pop30 | pop31 | pop32 | pop33 | pop34 | pop35 | pop36 | pop37 | pop38 | pop39 | pop4 | pop40 | pop41 | pop42 | pop43 | pop44 | pop45 | pop46 | pop47 | pop48 | pop49 | pop5 | pop50 | pop6 | pop7 | pop8 | pop9 | popplace | population | rawimage | ref1 | ref10 | ref11 | ref12 | ref13 | ref14 | ref15 | ref16 | ref17 | ref18 | ref19 | ref2 | ref20 | ref21 | ref22 | ref23 | ref24 | ref25 | ref26 | ref27 | ref28 | ref29 | ref3 | ref30 | ref31 | ref32 | ref33 | ref34 | ref35 | ref36 | ref37 | ref38 | ref39 | ref4 | ref40 | ref41 | ref42 | ref43 | ref44 | ref45 | ref46 | ref47 | ref48 | ref49 | ref5 | ref50 | ref6 | ref7 | ref8 | ref9 | region1 | region10 | region11 | region12 | region13 | region14 | region15 | region16 | region17 | region18 | region19 | region2 | region20 | region21 | region22 | region23 | region24 | region25 | region26 | region27 | region28 | region29 | region3 | region30 | region31 | region32 | region33 | region34 | region35 | region36 | region37 | region38 | region39 | region4 | region40 | region41 | region42 | region43 | region44 | region45 | region46 | region47 | region48 | region49 | region5 | region50 | region6 | region7 | region8 | region9 | regions | related | related_groups | related-c | religions | rels | tablehdr | total | total_ref | total_source | total_year | total1 | total1_ref | total1_source | total1_year | total2 | total2_ref | total2_source | total2_year | total3 | total3_ref | total3_source | total3_year }}Template:Main other

Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix paleo- comes from Template:Langx. The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.<ref group="note">Paleolithic specifically refers to the period between Template:C. million years ago and the end of the Pleistocene in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is not used in New World archaeology.</ref>

Traditional theories suggest that big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from North Asia into the Americas over a land bridge (Beringia). This bridge existed from 45,000 to 12,000 BCE (47,000–14,000 BP).<ref name="Sonneborn-2007">Template:Cite book</ref> Small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. From Template:C. BCE (Template:C. BP), ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America.<ref name=Firsta>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} page 2 Template:Webarchive</ref> This allowed land animals, followed by humans, to migrate south into the interior of the continent. The people went on foot or used boats along the coastline. The dates and routes of the peopling of the Americas remain subjects of ongoing debate.<ref name="WardDavis1999">Template:Cite book</ref> There were likely three waves of ancient settlers from the Bering Sea to the American continent.<ref name="McCoy Fountain 2017 p. 3">Template:Cite book</ref>

Stone tools, particularly projectile points and scrapers, are the primary evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas. Archeologists and anthropologists use surviving crafted lithic flaked tools to classify cultural periods.<ref name=Phillips>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Scientific evidence links Indigenous Americans to eastern Siberian populations by the distribution of blood types, and genetic composition as indicated by molecular data, such as DNA.<ref name="AshRobinson2011">Template:Cite book</ref> There is evidence for at least two separate migrations.<ref name="Pitblado2011">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Paleoindians lived alongside and hunted many now extinct megafauna (large animals), with most large animals across the Americas becoming extinct towards the end of the Paleoindian period as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. The potential role of human hunting in the extinctions has been the subject of much controversy.

From 8000 to 7000 BCE (10,000–9,000 BP) the climate stabilized, leading to a rise in population and lithic technology advances, resulting in a more sedentary lifestyle during the following Archaic Period.

Migration into the AmericasEdit

Template:Further

File:Early migrations mercator.svg

Map of early human migrations based on the Out of Africa theory; figures are in thousands of years ago (kya)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Researchers continue to study and discuss the specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled.<ref name="White2006">Template:Cite book</ref> The traditional theory holds that these early migrants moved into Beringia between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska 17,000 years ago,<ref name=SpencerWells2>Template:Cite book</ref> at a time when the Quaternary glaciation significantly lowered sea levels.<ref name=Smithsonian>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> An alternative proposed scenario involves migration, either on foot or using boats, down the Pacific coast to South America.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Evidence of the latter would have been submerged by a sea-level rise of more than a hundred meters following the end of the Last Glacial Period.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The time range of the peopling of the Americas remains a source of substantial debate. Conventional estimates have it that humans reached North America at some point between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.<ref name="Wells2006">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Relethford2017">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Birx2010">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="KiczaHorn2016">Template:Cite book</ref> However, some groups of humans may have reached South America as early as 25,000 years ago.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One of the few areas of agreement is the origin from Siberia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the Last Glacial Period, and more specifically after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum around 16,000 to 13,000 years before present.<ref name=SpencerWells2/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

PeriodizationEdit

Template:See also

File:High res mastodon rendering.jpg

The Mammut americanum (American mastodon) became extinct around 12,000–9,000 years ago due to human-related activities, climate change, or a combination of both. See Quaternary extinction event and Holocene extinction.

The Palaeoindian culture lasts 4000 years, from 12,000 to 8000 BP. It is divided into Early Palaeoindian (12,000-10,000 BP) and Late Palaeoindian (10,000-8000 BP), ending with early events of the Early Archaic period in some regions.<ref name="d778">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Sites in Alaska (eastern Beringia) exhibit some of the earliest evidence of Paleo-Indians,<ref name="JohansenPritzker2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="HranickyRpa2010"/> followed by archaeological sites in northern British Columbia, western Alberta and the Old Crow Flats region of the Yukon territory.<ref name="HerzGarrison1998">Template:Cite book</ref> The Paleo-Indians would eventually flourish all over the Americas.<ref name="LewisJurmain2008">Template:Cite book</ref> These peoples were spread over a wide geographical area; thus there were regional variations in lifestyles. However, all the individual groups shared a common style of stone tool production, making knapping styles and progress identifiable.<ref name="HranickyRpa2010">Template:Cite book</ref> This early Paleo-Indian period's lithic reduction tool adaptations have been found across the Americas, utilized by highly mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 60 members of an extended family.<ref name="Wishart2004">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Walker2008">Template:Cite book Template:Dead link</ref> Food would have been plentiful during the few warm months of the year. Lakes and rivers were teeming with many species of fish, birds and aquatic mammals. Nuts, berries and edible roots could be found in the forests and marshes. The fall would have been a busy time because foodstuffs would have to be stored and clothing made ready for the winter. During the winter, coastal fishing groups moved inland to hunt and trap fresh food and furs.<ref name="BastianMitchell2004m">Template:Cite book</ref>

Late ice-age climatic changes caused plant communities and animal populations to change.<ref name=Pielou>Template:Cite book</ref> Groups moved and sought new supplies as preferred resources were depleted.<ref name="LewisJurmain2008"/> Small bands utilized hunting and gathering during the spring and summer months, then broke into smaller direct family groups for the fall and winter. Family groups moved every 3–6 days, possibly traveling up to Template:Cvt per year.<ref name="Starbuck2006">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Fiedel/> Diets were often sustaining and rich in protein; clothing was made from a variety of animal hides that were also used for shelter construction.<ref name=Alabama>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During much of the early and middle Paleo-Indian periods, inland bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct megafauna.<ref name="LewisJurmain2008"/> Large Pleistocene mammals included the giant beaver, steppe wisent, giant muskox, mastodon, woolly mammoth and ancient reindeer.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Folsom point.png

Folsom projectile point

The Clovis culture, appearing around 11,500 BCE (Template:C. BP) in North America, is one of the most notable Paleo-Indian archaeological cultures.<ref name="CavanaughPayne2006">Template:Cite book</ref> It has been disputed whether the Clovis culture were specialist big-game hunters or employed a mixed foraging strategy that included smaller terrestrial game, aquatic animals, and a variety of flora.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Zeman2002">Template:Cite book</ref> Paleo-Indian groups were efficient hunters and carried a variety of tools. These included highly efficient fluted-style spear points, as well as microblades used for butchering and hide processing.<ref name="Sturtevant1985">Template:Cite book</ref> Projectile points and hammerstones made from many sources are found traded or moved to new locations.<ref name="KeokePorterfield2005">Template:Cite book</ref> Stone tools were traded and/or left behind from North Dakota and Northwest Territories, to Montana and Wyoming.<ref name="upper"/> Trade routes also have been found from the British Columbia Interior to the coast of California.<ref name="upper">Template:Cite book</ref>

The glaciers that covered the northern half of the continent began to gradually melt, exposing new land for occupation around 17,500–14,500 years ago.<ref name=Pielou/> At the same time as this was occurring, worldwide extinctions among the large mammals began. In North America, camelids and equids eventually died off, the latter not to reappear on the continent until the Spanish reintroduced the horse near the end of the 15th century CE.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As the Quaternary extinction event was happening, the late Paleo-Indians would have relied more on other means of subsistence.<ref name=Southeast>Template:Cite book</ref>

From Template:C. BCE (Template:C. BP), the broad-spectrum big game hunters of the Great Plains began to focus on a single animal species: the bison (an early cousin of the American bison).<ref name=Mann>Template:Cite book</ref> The earliest known of these bison-oriented hunting traditions is the Folsom tradition. Folsom peoples traveled in small family groups for most of the year, returning yearly to the same springs and other favored locations on higher ground.<ref name=Manitoba>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There they would camp for a few days, perhaps erecting a temporary shelter, making and/or repairing some stone tools, or processing some meat, then moving on.<ref name=Mann/> Paleo-Indians were not numerous, and population densities were quite low.<ref name=Beginn>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

ClassificationEdit

File:Projectile point types.png

Different types of Projectile points, from the Paleo-Indian periods in southeastern North America

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Paleo-Indians are generally classified by lithic reduction or lithic core "styles" and by regional adaptations.<ref name="HranickyRpa2010"/><ref name="Holliday1997">Template:Cite book</ref> Lithic technology fluted spear points, like other spear points, are collectively called projectile points. The projectiles are constructed from chipped stones that have a long groove called a "flute". The spear points would typically be made by chipping a single flake from each side of the point.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The point was then tied onto a spear of wood or bone. As the environment changed with the ice age ending around 17–13 Ka BP on short, and around 25–27 Ka BP on the long,<ref name="BergerShor2009">Template:Cite book</ref> many animals migrated overland to take advantage of the new sources of food. Humans following these animals, such as bison, mammoth and mastodon, thus gained the name big-game hunters.<ref name=buffalo>Template:Cite book</ref> Pacific coastal groups of the period would have relied on fishing as the prime source of sustenance.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Archaeologists are piecing together evidence that the earliest human settlements in North America were thousands of years before the appearance of the current Paleo-Indian time frame (before the late glacial maximum 20,000-plus years ago).<ref name="albert">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Evidence indicates that people were living as far east as Beringia before 30,000 BCE (32,000 BP).<ref name="ice">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Until recently, it was generally believed that the first Paleo-Indian people to arrive in North America belonged to the Clovis culture. This archaeological phase was named after the city of Clovis, New Mexico, where in 1936 unique Clovis points were found in situ at the site of Blackwater Draw, where they were directly associated with the bones of Pleistocene animals.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Recent data from a series of archaeological sites throughout the Americas suggest that Clovis (thus the "Paleo-Indians") time range should be re-examined. In particular, sites such as Cooper's Ferry in Idaho,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cactus Hill in Virginia,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bear Spirit Mountain in West Virginia,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Catamarca and Salta in Argentina,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pilauco and Monte Verde in Chile,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Topper in South Carolina,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Quintana Roo in Mexico<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> have generated early dates for wide-ranging Paleo-Indian occupation. Some sites significantly predate the migration time frame of ice-free corridors, thus suggesting that there were additional coastal migration routes available, traversed either on foot and/or in boats.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Geological evidence suggests the Pacific coastal route was open for overland travel before 23,000 years ago and after 16,000 years ago.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

South AmericaEdit

Template:Further In South America, the site of Monte Verde indicates that its population was probably territorial and resided in their river basin for most of the year. Some other South American groups, on the other hand, were highly mobile and hunted big-game animals such as gomphotheres and giant sloths. They used classic bifacial projectile point technology, such as Fishtail points.

The primary examples are populations associated with El Jobo points (Venezuela), fish-tail or Magallanes points (various parts of the continent, but mainly the southern half), and Paijan points (Peru and Ecuador) at sites in grasslands, savanna plains, and patchy forests.<ref>TOM D. DILLEHAY, The Late Pleistocene Cultures of South America. Evolutionary Anthropology, 1999</ref>

The dating for these sites ranges from Template:C. BP (for Taima-Taima in Venezuela) to Template:C. BP.<ref name="CummingsJordan2014">Template:Cite book</ref> The bi-pointed El Jobo projectile points were mostly distributed in north-western Venezuela; from the Gulf of Venezuela to the high mountains and valleys. The population using them were hunter-gatherers that seemed to remain within a certain circumscribed territory.<ref>José R. Oliver, Implications of Taima-taima and the Peopling of Northern South America. Template:Webarchive bradshawfoundation.com</ref><ref>Oliver, J.R., Alexander, C.S. (2003). Ocupaciones humanas del Plesitoceno terminal en el Occidente de Venezuela. Maguare, 17 83–246</ref> El Jobo points were probably the earliest, going back to Template:C. BP and they were used for hunting large mammals.<ref name="SilvermanIsbell2008">Template:Cite book</ref> In contrast, the fish-tail points, dating to c. 11,000 B.P. in Patagonia, had a much wider geographical distribution, but mostly in the central and southern part of the continent.<ref name="SilvermanIsbell2008b">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Dillehay2008">Template:Cite book</ref>

ArchaeogeneticsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Global frequency distribution map of haplogroup Q-M242 (Y-DNA).png

Frequency distribution of haplogroup Q-M242.<ref name="pmid28251872">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The haplogroup most commonly associated with Amerindian genetics is Haplogroup Q-M3.<ref name=demographic>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Y-DNA, like (mtDNA), differs from other nuclear chromosomes in that the majority of the Y chromosome is unique and does not recombine during meiosis. This allows the historical pattern of mutations to be easily studied.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The pattern indicates Indigenous Amerindians experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes: first with the initial peopling of the Americas, and secondly with European colonization of the Americas.<ref name=Genebaseb>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The former is the determinant factor for the number of gene lineages and founding haplotypes present in today's Indigenous Amerindian populations.<ref name=Genebasea>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Unreliable source?

Human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from the Bering sea coast line, with an initial layover on Beringia for the founding population.<ref name="Roberts2010">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Firstb>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} page 2 Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=first2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The micro-satellite diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicates that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.<ref name=subclades>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Na-Dené, Inuit and Indigenous Alaskan populations, however, exhibit haplogroup Q (Y-DNA) mutations that are distinct from other Amerindians with various mtDNA mutations.<ref name=NaDene>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Zhivotovsky>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=inuit>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This suggests that the earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America and Greenland derived from later migrant populations.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Evidence from full genomic studies suggests that the first people in the Americas diverged from Ancient East Asians about 36,000 years ago and expanded northwards into Siberia, where they encountered and interacted with a different Paleolithic Siberian population (known as Ancient North Eurasians), giving rise to both Paleosiberian peoples and Ancient Native Americans, which later migrated towards the Beringian region, became isolated from other populations, and subsequently populated the Americas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Debate about megafauna extinctionEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Paleontological landscape painting, White Sands National Park, United States.jpg

Environment of what is now White Sands National Park in New Mexico, with Columbian mammoths, a ground sloth, dire wolves, lions, camels, and saber-toothed cats.

Due to the evidence that Paleoindians hunted now extinct megafauna (large animals), and that following a period of overlap, most large animals across the Americas became extinct as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, it has been argued by many authors that hunting by Paleoindians was an important factor in the extinctions,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> though this suggestion is controversial, with other authors placing the blame on climatic change.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In a 2012 survey of archaeologists in The SAA Archaeological Record, 63% of respondents said that megafauna extinctions were likely the result of a "combination of factors".<ref name=":10">Amber D. Wheat "Survey of professional opionions regarding the peopling of the Americas." The SAA Archaeological Record Volume 12, No. 2 March 2012</ref>

Transition to archaic periodEdit

File:Poverty Point gorgets atlatl weights HRoe 2009.jpg

Atlatl weights and carved stone gorgets from Poverty Point

The Archaic period in the Americas saw a changing environment featuring a warmer, more arid climate and the disappearance of the last megafauna.<ref name="CampbellWhittle2017">Template:Cite book</ref> The majority of population groups at this time were still highly mobile hunter-gatherers, but now individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally. Thus with the passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization like the Southwest, Arctic, Poverty, Dalton, and Plano traditions. These regional adaptations would become the norm, with reliance less on hunting and gathering, and a more mixed economy of small game, fish, seasonally wild vegetables, and harvested plant foods.<ref name=Fiedel>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many groups continued to hunt big game but their hunting traditions became more varied and meat procurement methods more sophisticated.<ref name=Pielou/> The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social differentiation based upon status in some groups.<ref name="icaage">Template:Cite book</ref>