ABSTRACT
THE CONVERGENCE OF FAVORABLE CLIMATIC conditions and innovations in food production raised the cap on cultural elaboration in the Eastern Woodlands after 5000 BCE. By 1000 BCE the tribal societies of the region were enjoying unprecedented adaptive well-being, with technology and in an environment that encouraged population growth and cultural elaboration. Sea hunters in the Northeast, hunter-gatherers in the Great Lakes region, and villagers in Louisiana were variations on a widespread theme. At the region’s core the domestication of native plants provided the subsistence base for the mound building cultures. The florescence of these cultures lasted for 14 centuries, beginning with what archaeologists call Adena culture and culminating with Hopewell culture. Both were built on a base of tribal societies that came to be linked through a widespread network of trade and exchange. The hallmarks of both are thousands of burial mounds and other earthworks scattered across much of the Eastern Woodlands. Eventually the mound building tradition changed in the face of competition and spreading conflict. The construction of effigy burial mounds continued in the region’s northwest, but earthworks were converted to an entirely new purpose elsewhere.
