Archaic Hunters, Gatherers, and Fishers

Archaic peoples descended from the earlier Paleoindians. They lived across the Eastern Woodlands (including Kentucky) from about 10,000 years ago until about 3,000 years ago. At the end of the Paleoindian era, about 10,000 years ago, climatic shifts led to significant changes in plant and animal communities. Large animals like the mastodon and the mammoth became extinct. Evergreen forests and moist grasslands gave way to stands of hardwood trees. The climate of Kentucky became much like it is today.

Small family groups depended mainly on deer and nuts for food, but they also hunted other animals and birds, gathered various wild plants, and collected mussels and fish from rivers. Throughout the year, they moved around their home territories, establishing temporary camps in places where seasonal resources were available. In late summer or fall, groups of related families joined together at base camps where they shared news, socialized with friends, and took part in religious ceremonies. Through time, Archaic populations increased in size. By the end of the Archaic period, many groups lived at the same base camp throughout the year, with brief collecting and hunting trips to more distant lands.

Nearly 3,000 Archaic sites have been recorded in Kentucky. Remnants of small camps occupied for short periods during hunting or collecting trips, are found on ridgetops, along rivers and streams, and in rockshelters. Places that people returned to on a seasonal basis year after year are larger, like some of those along the Green River where there are enormous piles of freshwater mussel shells that are the result of a gradual build-up of trash discarded by the peoples who returned to these spots time and again.

Archaic foragers made chipped stone spearpoints that were smaller than those of their Paleoindian ancestors. The earliest Archaic spearpoints have notches on the sides. Gradually, side-notched forms were replaced by corner notched forms and spearpoints with bifurcated bases. The latest Archaic spearpoints have stemmed bases.

There were a number of important innovations during the Archaic Period. One of these was the spearthrower (sometimes called the atlatl). It worked like a lever to increase the accuracy, speed, and distance of a spear. This tool made it possible for hunters to efficiently kill quick-moving prey such as deer. Archaic foragers also made a greater range of tools than their Paleoindian predecessors. Archaic peoples pecked and ground granite and other stones into tools such as pestles for processing plant food, bannerstones for atlatl weights, plummets used as weights for nets and bolas, and grooved axes and celts for woodworking. Archaic peoples used bone and antler to make awls and fishhooks. They also carved and decorated bone pins that were used as hairpins and to pin clothing together.

By around 5,000 years ago, Kentucky's Archaic peoples began to trade with outside groups. They received marine shells from groups living along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic seacoast, copper from groups living near the Great Lakes, and personal ornaments made of stone from other distant sources.

About 4,500 years ago, Archaic peoples were growing gourds, probably to use as containers. Over the next 1,000 years, Archaic peoples began to cultivate such starchy and oily-seeded plants as goosefoot, marshelder, and sunflower, eventually domesticating them. All of these plants probably had grown wild on the enriched soils of trash dumps at the edges of campsites. Early Archaic peoples initially tolerated these weeds and then began to encourage their growth by gathering, storing, and then intentionally planting seeds in informal gardens.