Time before History

The Archaeology of North Carolina

H. Trawick Ward, R. P. Stephen Davis Jr.

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780807847800, 9780807824979
• eBook ISBN: 9781469647777
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Storia nordamericana

North Carolina’s written history begins in the sixteenth century with the voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh and the founding of the ill-fated Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. But there is a deeper, unwritten past that predates the state’s recorded history. The region we now know as North Carolina was settled more than 10,000 years ago, but because early inhabitants left no written record, their story must be painstakingly reconstructed from the fragmentary and fragile archaeological record they left behind.

Time before History is the first comprehensive account of the archaeology of North Carolina. Weaving together a wealth of information gleaned from archaeological excavations and surveys carried out across the state — from the mountains to the coast — it presents a fascinating, readable narrative of the state’s native past across a vast sweep of time, from the Paleo-Indian period, when the first immigrants to North America crossed a land bridge that spanned the Bering Strait, through the arrival of European traders and settlers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

1.Introduction

Most people react with awe and surprise when they first learn that North Carolina was settled more than 10,000 years ago. And this reaction is understandable given the brief and usually superficial treatment the unwritten past is given in elementary and high school curricula. For most people, history begins in North Carolina with the voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh and the ill-fated English settlement on Roanoke Island in 1585. Few realize that this “history” only scratches the surface of the real but unwritten history of our state. How these early North Carolinians lived and how they changed through the centuries cannot be discovered from lost documents and the written word. Instead, this history has to be painstakingly reconstructed from the fragmentary and fragile record these early settlers left buried beneath our feet. The shovel and trowel of the archaeologist must be used to recover and decipher our unwritten past.

Cultural-Historical Overview

Most archaeologists working in North Carolina recognize five major cultural traditions. From earliest to latest, these are Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, and Historic. These traditions reflect general cultural patterns and changes through time. Sometimes they are defined by precise chronological brackets, other times they are not. In some regions of the state, a tradition may begin at one point in time, while in another region, the same tradition may start later or earlier. As the reader will soon come to realize, most things archaeological are shaped by fuzzy, unfocused boundaries rather than by sharp, clearly defined lines.

Paleo-Indian Period (before 8000 B.C.)

The Paleo-Indian period represents the initial stage of human presence in the Western Hemisphere. The first immigrants to North America came from northeast Asia across a land bridge that spanned the Bering Strait. Exactly when the initial wave of settlers arrived is a subject of considerable debate among archaeologists, but there is firm evidence that they occupied most of the continent by around 10,000 B.C. Evidence of these first people, or Paleo-Indians, was first discovered at “kill sites” such as Clovis and Folsom in the southwestern United States. There, distinctive, fluted spear points were found in direct association with now-extinct Ice Age mammals. In North Carolina, and throughout most of the eastern United States, we know of the Paleo-Indians’ presence primarily from scattered, usually isolated, surface finds of Clovis- and Folsom-like spear points (Perkinson 1971, 1973).

The oldest site that has been excavated in North Carolina is the Hardaway site, which, based on the kinds of artifacts that occur there, can be dated to the close of the Paleo-Indian period. However, because no radiocarbon dates were obtained from the site, there is some disagreement regarding the precise age of its earliest use and whether the early Hardaway complex should be placed within the Paleo-Indian period or subsequent Archaic period.

Archaic Period (8000–1000 B.C.)

The Archaic period is much better known than the Paleo-Indian period. While most Paleo-Indians hunted animals that lived during the last stages of the Ice Age, the Archaic period heralds the final retreat of the glaciers and a moderating of climatic conditions. It is believed that Archaic peoples settled into an environment similar to what exists today and lived by: (1) hunting mostly animals that can still be found, like the white-tailed deer, black bear, and wild turkey; (2) fishing and collecting both freshwater and saltwater shellfish; and (3) gathering a variety of plant foods such as acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts, seeds, greens, and berries. Because these food resources did not always occur at the same time or place, it was necessary for Archaic peoples to move among several different campsites during the course of a year. Given this mobile way of life, they probably lived in small bands composed of extended families or groups of families.

Archaic peoples used a variety of tools that permitted them to survive successfully and efficiently within their environment. Although many tools were made from perishable materials such as plant fibers, wood, bone, and animal skins, in most instances only their stone tools and the waste flakes from making these tools have survived the ravages of time. Archaic hunters did not possess the bow and arrow but instead used a highly efficient weapon called the atlatl, or spear-thrower. The distinctive notched and stemmed points that tipped their spears commonly occur at Archaic campsites. Because of their relative abundance and the fact that their shapes, or styles, evolved over time, these spear points have been used successfully by archaeologists in North Carolina and elsewhere to develop a chronological sequence of Archaic cultures.

Woodland Period (1000 B.C.–A.D. 1600)

In general, the Woodland period is viewed as a time when peoples throughout the eastern United States began the gradual shift toward agriculturally based economies and their settlements correspondingly became larger and more per manent. It is also seen as a period during which societies became more internally complex, developed elaborate mortuary rituals, sometimes constructed earthen burial mounds and house platforms, and engaged in far-reaching trade and exchange of exotic items. However, the degree to which North Carolina’s Woodland peoples engaged in these activities varied greatly from the mountains to the coast.

From a practical standpoint, North Carolina archaeologists usually define the onset of the Woodland period by the appearance of pottery-making, and they use the various styles of the potters to chronologically order artifact assemblages and to study relationships among Woodland period cultures. Potsherds found on early Woodland sites that date prior to about A.D. 200 mostly represent conoidal cooking pots that were stamped with cord-wrapped or fabric-wrapped wooden paddles before they were fired, whereas those from later Woodland sites often reflect a greater range of vessel forms, functions, surface treatments, and decorations. Despite the technological innovation that pottery-making represented, the remaining stone artifacts from early Woodland sites indicate the continuation of an Archaic way of life heavily based upon hunting and gathering.

Because of the dramatic cultural changes that occurred during the course of the Woodland period, it is necessary to summarize it by subperiods. In addition to the introduction of pottery, the Early Woodland period (1000 B.C.–A.D. 200) was also marked in some areas by the incipient development of small villages in localities considered favorable for crop production. Although there is no direct evidence of gardening in North Carolina during the Early Woodland, there is ample evidence from surrounding states that by this time some tropical and indigenous southeastern plants were being cultivated. Squash, maygrass, sunflower, chenopod, and sumpweed were all being planted in small garden plots around Early Woodland houses (Yarnell and Black 1985:99).

During the Middle Woodland period (A.D. 200–800), gardening continued to grow in importance and influences from vigorous cultural developments taking place elsewhere in the East began to affect some local Woodland groups. This influence was perhaps greatest in the mountains where Middle Woodland peoples were engaged in trade with Hopewell societies in the Ohio Valley and Swift Creek cultures in central Georgia. Elsewhere in North Carolina, equally distinctive cultural traditions emerged as groups in each region responded in their own way to increasing population density, greater economic sophistication, and their own increasingly unique history and network of external relationships. By the end of the Middle Woodland period, each of the major physiographic regions within the state had developed into a culturally distinct area.

One of the hallmarks of the Late Woodland period (A.D. 800–1600) was a broadening of agricultural pursuits. Corn became a staple for the first time, and around A.D. 1200 beans were added to the inventory of cultivated plants. Throughout most of the state, this was a time of growth. Population size increased, and villages became larger and more complex. The intensification of agricultural practices also caused broad fertile bottoms to become prized locales for the establishment of villages.

Along with this growth came conflict. Stockades were constructed around villages to ward off attacks by outsiders. Perhaps these hostilities resulted from conflicts over favored agricultural lands, or maybe they came as a consequence of villages containing stores of surplus produce that could be looted by less industrious neighbors. Sources of conflict may even have been rooted in social or ideological differences that must have accompanied the emergence of regionally distinct cultural traditions earlier in the Woodland period. For whatever reasons, large- and small-scale tribal conflicts were probably commonplace during much of the Late Woodland period.

During the latter half of the Late Woodland period, several elaborate and complex cultures developed throughout the heart of the Southeast. These Mississippian cultures were typified by massive ceremonial mound centers, villages containing several hundred inhabitants, and a highly stratified society with political, religious, and craft specialists. These developments only touched the western fringe of North Carolina in what has been described as the South Appalachian Mississippian complex (Ferguson 1971). Although mounds were constructed and villages grew in size and complexity from Marion to Murphy, Mississippian culture in North Carolina never reached the heights it obtained in the neighboring states of Tennessee and Georgia. The only area outside the Appalachian Summit that exhibits evidence of Mississippian influence is the Piedmont Sandhills, where the Pee Dee culture developed around the ceremonial center at Town Creek State Historic Site.

Historic Period (after A.D. 1540)

Following the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Spanish exploration of the Western Hemisphere began in earnest during the sixteenth century. After establishing a foothold in the Caribbean, the Spanish, in their search for wealth and power, quickly turned their attention to Mexico, the Peruvian Andes, and the southeastern United States. During the first few decades of the century, the Spanish explorers restricted their activities to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Spanish Florida, never venturing very far inland. However, when they failed to find riches comparable to what had been found by Hernán Cortes in Mexico and Francisco Pizarro in Peru, they began to mount expeditions into the interior Southeast.

The first of these, led by Hernando de Soto from 1539 until his death in 1541, passed through southwestern North Carolina. A quarter century later, Juan Pardo retraced the portion of de Soto’s route that took him into the state. While there is much debate concerning the exact routes taken by these intrepid Spanish explorers and how they impacted the native populations, there is little evidence to suggest that their presence had any lasting effects on the native tribes. They did not introduce the scourge of diseases that apparently followed their trail in other areas of the Southeast, nor did they attempt to establish permanent forts and missions like they did along the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

The story of English exploration in North Carolina is quite a different tale. Unlike the Spanish, the English were not looking for gold and treasure. They were looking for land to settle and new markets for their goods. Although Jamestown was established in 1607, it was half a century later before the English adventurers began to explore the Carolina backcountry in search of new trading partners. During the brief era that followed, native peoples from the coast to the mountains were ravaged by a host of Old World diseases that accompanied the English traders. Shortly thereafter, most native villages east of the mountains were vacated. The remaining native population either left or dispersed, and the land was laid open for the waves of settlers that poured down the Shenandoah Valley into the Carolina heartland.

Unlike the Piedmont and coastal tribes, the Cherokees, ensconced in the southern Appalachian mountains, not only managed to survive, but they also retained at least part of their ancestral lands. Even after many were killed and others forcibly removed in the 1830s, some of the Cherokees still managed to avoid capture. Today, their descendants continue to live in their mountain homeland west of Asheville.

A Brief History of North Carolina Archaeology

Exploring Indian Mounds

The beginning of archaeology in North Carolina dates back to the last century and was closely tied to the scientific debate that was raging in academic institutions and museums over who built the numerous earthen mounds that dotted the landscapes of eastern North America. Many believed that the mounds and other earthworks were constructed by an ancient civilization of “Mound Builders” unrelated and superior to the American Indians. Only a minority of scientists were convinced that the ancient earthworks were built by Native Americans. The only way to find out for sure was to dig into the mounds and see what clues their builders had left behind.

Not all of the early interest in mound exploration was fueled by scientific curiosity. Mounds were easily recognized by the trained as well as the untrained eye, and many were dug into by relic collectors interested only in the exotic artifacts they contained. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, these specimens began to line the shelves of museums.

Except for J. Mason Spainhour’s excavation into a small mound in Burke County (Spainhour 1873:404–6), most of the early archaeological activity in North Carolina was conducted by individuals from outside the state. Many of these early excavations were inspired by a Virginian, Mann S. Valentine, and his sons. During the 1880s, the Valentines and their North Carolina agent, A. J. Osborne of Haywood County, dug into several mounds located in the western part of the state, including the Peachtree Mound in Cherokee County, the Garden Creek mounds in Haywood County, the Cullowhee Mound in Jackson County, and the Kituwah, Nununyi, and Birdtown Mounds in Swain County (Valentine 1883).

The Valentines were searching for artifacts that would later be exhibited in the Valentine Museum in Richmond, but they were also caught up in the question of who built the mounds. By examining the pottery dug from the mounds and comparing it with the clay pots that were being made by Cherokee women on the Qualla Reservation at the time, the Valentines quickly recognized similarities between the two. These similarities led Mann Valentine to surmise that the mounds were made by a race of people ancestral to the Historic Cherokees. This was a remarkable revelation for the time, especially considering that Valentine was an art collector and not a scientist or student of ancient history.

FIGURE 1.1. Fake artifacts from western North Carolina. These carved steatite sculptures of a bear eating a man (left) and an angel (right) are two of the many fake Indian artifacts that were purchased by Mann Valentine in the North Carolina mountains. (Courtesy ofthe Research Laboratories of Archaeology)

Unfortunately, Mann Valentine became the victim of an elaborate hoax that tainted his otherwise sound archaeological interpretations. Realizing that Valentine would pay top dollar for Indian artifacts, some North Carolinians began to create their own versions of relics they thought would be most appealing to the wealthy Virginian. Using the soft soapstone readily available throughout the western mountains and their fertile imaginations, these local artisans produced an abundance of elaborately carved figurines representing everything from angels to camels (fig. 1.1).

The Valentines were completely duped and concluded that these artifacts were products of an ancient race distinct from the Cherokee and their ancestors. When the fraud was finally exposed, an embarrassed Mann Valentine decided to get out of archaeology altogether and afterward devoted his museum to displaying the fine arts of Richmond (see Coe 1983:162–64).

At about the same time the Valentines were making the folks of Haywood County rich by buying their fake artifacts, Cyrus Thomas of the Smithsonian Institution sent John W. Emmert and John R Rogan into the mountains and western Piedmont of North Carolina to explore mounds there (Thomas 1887:61–75; 1894:333–50). Thomas was motivated by a desire to debunk the Mound Builder myth. His efforts in North Carolina were minor compared to other expeditions he directed throughout the eastern United States as the head of the Smithsonian’s Division of Mound Exploration (Thomas 1887, 1894).

Probably the most significant sites examined were the Nelson Mound and Nelson Triangle in Caldwell County. These were excavated by Rogan with the aid of J. M. Spainhour. Although Rogan’s interpretation of the archaeological record revealed at these nearby sites must be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism, he did make one notable observation. One of the many human burials uncovered by Rogan and Spainhour contained three chisel-like objects made of iron (Thomas 1887:65–66).

Cyrus Thomas used this evidence to bolster his argument that the mounds were built by the recent ancestors of living Indians who had been in contact with early European explorers. After reviewing the ethnohistoric record, Thomas further concluded (1887:87–95) that the North Carolina mounds were built by the Cherokees.

The pots and potsherds collected by Rogan in Caldwell County and at sites in nearby Wilkes County were later studied by William H. Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution. In his important substantive work on aboriginal pottery in the eastern United States, Holmes (1903) interpreted these artifacts as representing ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1.Introduction
• 2. The Paleo-Indian: An Elusive Quarry
• 3. The Archaic Period: A Time of Regionalization and Specialization
• 4. The Woodland Period in the Piedmont
• 5. The Woodland and Mississippian Periods in the Appalachian Summit Region
• 6. The Woodland Period on the Coast and Coastal Plain
• 7. The Contact Period: Tribes, Traders, and Turmoil
• References Cited
• Index
• Back