|
Paleolithic
|
20000BC
|
8000BC
|
Note: paleo - old; lithic - stone. This culture
is noted for its stone tools, most notably arrowheads. At Topper
in South Carolina and Georgia, microtools are the earliest known
evidence of this culture in North America (more).
Man ("homo sapiens") probably pre-dates the development
of stone tools in North America by 20,000 years. |
| |
Early |
20000BC |
13000BC |
Early paleolithic North Americans are highly-mobile
nomadic hunters who use stone to make crude tools and weapons
to hunt mega-fauna. |
| |
Late |
13000BC |
8000BC |
Some gathering occurs. Occupation of areas may
be seasonal. |
| Archaic |
8000BC |
1000BC |
The great leap of the Archaic period is the first
cultivation of crops. |
| |
Early |
8000BC |
5000BC |
|
| |
Middle |
5000BC |
2000BC |
Start of sustained agriculture. |
| |
Late |
2000BC |
1000BC |
|
| Woodland |
2000BC |
1000AD |
Woodland Indians began to develop pottery and carving
that tend to indicate an increasingly complex trade structure
with individuals having to spend less time hunting and gathering
food. |
| Moundbuilder |
2500BC |
1560AD |
This unique cultural development arose in northeast
Louisiana during the late Archaic era, spreading inland along
the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio River complex. In the Ohio River
valley the Adena moundbuilders constructed effigy mounds. Later
the Hopewell once again spread moundbuilder control. Around
800AD a final group of Moundbuilders, the Mississippians, moved
east from the Mississippi and extended its control to the broadest
ever, from present-day New Mexico to New York and from Minnesota
to Louisiana, |
| Creek |
1500 |
1836 |
Confederacy of about 12 independent tribes
in Georgia; Name comes from the "Ocheessee Creek" Indians, English
name for a group of Indians who lived near Ocmulgee River. They
merely dropped the "Ocheessee" when referring to the Indians.
For more information see History
of the Creek Indians |
| Cherokee |
1450 |
1838 |
For 400 years the Cherokee not only ruled present-day
north Georgia, but significant areas of North and South Carolina,
Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Ohio. When they were removed
on the tragic "Trail
of Tears" most of the Eastern Cherokee were living
in Georgia, their "Enchanted Land." |
