Show:
Paleoindian
Arctic+Sub-Arctic
Northwest Coast
Northwest Plateau
California
100
The characteristically-fluted projectile points associated with the North American Clovis culture
What are Clovis points?
100
A small blade, generally less than 20 mm long and 5 mm wide.
What is a microblade?
100
Boxes made from cedar planks that have been bent into a rectangle or square with a bottom affixed. They were typically waterproofed using natural resins. They first appeared in the Middle Pacific period.
What are Brentwood boxes?
100
The only prehistoric North American to ever have been featured on the cover of Times Magazine. His fame, comes from being at the center of a gargantuan repatriation debate. He also was found with a projectile point embedded in his hip.
Who is the Kennewick Man?
100
The clay objects, which were made by the archaic Windmiller culture (2300–500 BC) of Sacramento Valley, were substitutes for rocks in stone boiling.
What are clay cooking balls?
200
A narrow sea passage that separates the eastern tip of Siberia in Russia from Alaska
What is the Bering Strait?
200
An all-purpose knife traditionally used by the native people of the Arctic. It is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cutting food and, if necessary, trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo.
What is an ulu?
200
The period in the Northwest Coast lasting from 1,800 to 175 B.P.
What is the Late Pacific period?
200
A plant organ often consumed by the people of the Northwest Plateau. These organs had to be processed, often with a mortar and pestle, before consumption. The consumption of these organs came into vogue during the Middle period.
What is a root?
200
A feature for the grinding of seeds, acorns, and other plant foods located within an outcrop of bedrock; mortar cups, bedrock metates, and other features related to food grinding or crushing. These features serve as horizon markers for the Pacific period.
What are bedrock milling features?
300
The most recent major advance of the North American Laurentide ice sheet
What is the Wisconsin Glaciation?
300
The cold and dry biome that characterizes the northern Arctic
What is the tundra?
300
A Native American village in modern-day Washington that was inundated by a mudslide in the AD 1700s. Due to the remarkable preservation at the settlement, the site has been described as the North American Pompeii.
What is the Ozette site
300
A semi-subterranean oval or quadrangular structure with a central hearth, support posts, and peripheral storage pits. These structures first appeared in the Middle Period and were covered in earth and organic material.
What is a pit house.
300
An area of California, which contains the only known paleo-Indian sites of the culture area.
What are the Channel Islands?
400
An archaeological site in southern Chile which has been dated to 14,800 years BP.
What is Monte Verde?
400
A culture that developed in coastal Alaska by AD 1000 and expanded eastwards across Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. They replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture that had previously inhabited the region. They are the ancestors of all modern Inuit.
What is the Thule culture
400
A famous clovis site. At this site a projectile made of mastodon bone was found embedded in the rib of a different mastodon. This settlement is located on the Northwestern tip of Washington.
What is the Manis site?
400
A shallow mortar on which a conical basket without a bottom is affixed to contain the ground material. This artifact first appeared during the Middle Period.
What is a hopper mortar.
400
A naturally occurring petroleum byproduct found in and around oil seeps. It behaves similar to modern asphalt, binds to mediums, and can seal out water on objects like tomols. This material was used by the Windmiller people to affix shell beads to objects.
What is asphaltum?
500
A warm interstadial period at the end of the last glacial period. This occurred during the Wisconsin glaciation and an explosion of clovis culture occurred after.
What is the Bølling-Allerød?
500
It is the most famous site of a Norse or Viking settlement in North America outside of Greenland. It is located on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland.
What is L'Anse aux Meadows?
500
An obstruction placed in tidal waters or wholly or partially across a river designed to hinder the passage of fish. These first appeared in southeastern Alaska and had spread to the Northwest coast by the Middle Pacific period. They utilized stakes and nets to trap fish in intertidal zones.
What are fish weirs?
500
An enigmatic set of burials from western Idaho with unusual artifacts including turkey-tail points, large, thin bifaces, and trade items, dated between 6000 BP and 4000 BP (Middle Period).
What is the Western Idaho burial complex?
500
A Native American group that historically inhabited the central and southern coastal regions of California. This group had a social organization that can be described as a chiefdom, and also some of the highest population densities for Native Americans during early European contact.
Who are the Chumash?