THE ARCHAIC CULTURES AND THE ADENA
PEOPLE*
by WILLIAM
S. WEBB
Head, Department of Anthropology,
University of Kentucky
The Early Hunters
Early man in America cannot boast a
record of great antiquity.
There is no evidence to suggest his
development from more primitive
ancestors, in very ancient times, as is
the case of man's record in
the Old World.
Early man in America was a migrant,
coming to this continent
from Siberia as a hunter of big game
some time between 10,000
and 20,000 years ago. This was in the
Pleistocene Period, the
Ice Age. During the last of the four
great periods of glaciation,
the great polar ice cap had pushed down
a thick layer of ice,
which, when it reached its southernmost
thrust about the line of
the Ohio River, had an edge about 800
feet thick. The thickness
increased to the northward, so that at
Chicago the ice has been
estimated to have had a thickness of
1,000 feet. Thus we believe
that the Pleistocene vertebrates,
natives of the North, like the
mammoth and the muskox, had been pushed
southward to mingle
with the herds of the southern species
like the mastodon, wild
pig, various species of antelope,
horse, bison, the giant sloths, and
many others. Below the southern limit
of glaciation these animals
found abundant vegetation for pasture
browsing, and their gather-
ing in some concentration produced a
hunters' paradise.
Early man, in the Pleistocene, had
already learned in Asia how
to live as a hunter of big game by
following the herds of these
great vertebrates as they moved about,
always seeking better pastures.
There is some evidence to show that
some of these species of large
vertebrates migrated to North America
from Asia in the Pleistocene.
Thus early man, by simply following the
herds on which he fed,
may have been led to the great hunting
grounds of central North
* This and the two articles following
were given as papers in a joint session on
"Prehistoric Indians of the Ohio Valley"
at the annual meeting of the Mississippi
Valley Historical Association held at
Cincinnati, April 19-21, 1951.
173
174
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
America. His route to America by way of
Bering Sea has long
been a matter of speculation. He
probably could have come over
the sea by an ice bridge. It is not
impossible that he could have
walked over from Siberia to Alaska dry shod, since
the ocean
level must have been about 250 feet
lower then than it is now,
because so much water was locked up in
the great ice cap piled
high on the continents.
Recent finds of artifacts in the
Mackenzie River Valley suggest
that the Early Hunters came along the
northern shores of Alaska
to the valley of the Mackenzie River
and thence southward through
Canada, spreading out over our great
western plains, and finally
over all the Americas down to the
southern tip of South America.
The proof of the Early Hunters'
presence in America is based
on the finding of certain types of
flint artifacts, projectile points,
and knives in direct association with
the fossilized remains of
Pleistocene vertebrates, now long
extinct. The first evidence of this
direct association of the artifacts of
man with long extinct species
of animals came to light as the result
of a discovery near Folsom,
New Mexico, by Dr. Jesse D. Figgins,
late director of the Denver
Museum of Natural History, only about
twenty-five years ago.
Since that time, other sites showing
similar associations have been
found in New Mexico and Colorado, and
the characteristic artifacts
have been found from Texas northward
through the great plains
into Canada, from the Rocky Mountains
to the Mississippi River.
In the eastern United States east of
the Mississippi River artifacts
not absolutely identical but very
similar to those used by the
Early Hunters of the western plains
have been found widely scattered
eastward to the Atlantic seaboard.
These artifacts are not in asso-
ciation with the remains of Pleistocene
fauna, but sites showing
slight concentrations of these
artifacts are known in Kentucky,
Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, North
Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia.
As yet no skeletal remains of these
Early Hunters have been
certainly identified. Thus we do not
know anything of the man
himself, but the proof of his presence
here rests only on the wide-
spread occurrence over all of central
North America of a small
group of characteristic flint
artifacts, projectile points, knives,
The Archaic Culture and the Adena
People 175
scrapers, choppers, and gravers,
frequently found in association
with the remains of animals long
extinct. Thus the evidence sug-
gests certain conclusions. Early man in
America was a fearless
hunter of big game. He led a nomadic
life, had no permanent home.
He acquired no wealth beyond what he
could carry on his back.
He probably changed his camping place
with the seasons and as the
migrations of the animal herds made
necessary. So far as is known
he did not bury his dead, and he never
had at any one place any
concentration of population beyond the
small group who hunted
together for mutual protection. He thus
left few archaeological
sites, and those generally of quite
small size. Recent dating of
some western sites by the use of
radioactive carbon seems to con-
firm the belief that by 10,000 years
ago the Early Hunters of big
game had reached the western plains.
There they did not continue
overlong, but disappeared, leaving no
known descendants. Their
fate is unknown. The Pleistocene
vertebrate fauna also became ex-
tinct, seemingly not long after man's
appearance in North America.
Thus early man raises the unanswered
question, Did his coming
to America lead to or in any way cause
the extinction of the great
vertebrates, or did their extinction
for some other ecological reason,
cause the disappearance of the Early
Hunter of central North
America?
Archaic Man
Once the possibility of migrations from
Asia in early times is
admitted, it must be reasonable to
suppose that these migrations
did not necessarily all occur at the
same time, nor did they necessarily
have the same point of origin. It is
not astonishing therefore that
we find arriving in North America some
time between 5,000 and
7,000 years ago a people whose culture
presents a strong contrast
to that of the Early Hunters. These
people were of small to average
stature, but of slight, wiry build, who
lived by hunting, fishing, and
gathering of nature's bounty. By 5,000
years ago they were spread
all over the whole United States and
into Canada. Wherever
natural conditions made possible a
sufficient food supply, there
these people gathered in considerable
concentration. Some years
176
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
ago William R. Ritchie, in describing
the remains of a site of this
cultural manifestation in New York
state, suggested the name of
Archaic Man. This term is now widely used. The record of Archaic
Man is in strong contrast to that of
the Early Hunters. He did not
hunt big game, so did not travel across
country following the herds
of large vertebrates, if indeed any yet
remained when he came to
central North America. He seems to have
traveled by the rivers,
probably by simple canoes. Archaic Man
was essentially a river
dweller, having discovered how much
easier it was to travel on the
river and how much easier it was to get
abundant food if he lived
along the river. While evidence of the
occupancy of Archaic Man
is widespread over all of North
America, it is quite abundant in
the Ohio River Valley, particularly
along some of the tributaries
of the Ohio River, where there are
today to be found some of the
largest and most important sites of
this Archaic manifestation. This
is especially true of the Tennessee
River in northern Alabama, the
Green River in Kentucky, and to a
somewhat lesser degree the
Wabash River in Indiana. These large
sites represent a considerable
concentration of population in a
relatively small area, and suggest
a relatively long-continued occupancy
of the same site. This is made
possible by the fact that many of the
rivers of the central United
States such as the Tennessee, Green,
and Wabash, are not too deep
and frequently have shallow portions or
shoals with rock bottoms for
many miles, where the stream velocity
is relatively slow because
the gradient is not steep. This
permitted, in prehistoric times, the
growth of great mussel beds in these
shallow sections of the river.
Archaic Man found these great
accumulations of shell fish and
recognized them as a natural and never
failing source of food, the
year round. Thus if he lived on a river
near a shoal, he did not
need to wander far from home, since
this food was close at hand,
always abundant, and easily accessible.
Thus Archaic Man, coming
to the central United States, traveling
by the waterways, soon became
relatively sedentary, dwelling on the
river bank always near a shoal
in the river where there was a mussel
bed. These shellfish he took
in great quantity, both the pelecypods
and gastropods, and ate them,
tossing away the shells. Thus began the
building of great shell
The Archaic Culture and the Adena
People 177
middens, which grew in area as
population increased and in depth
as time went on. It is not uncommon to
find these great middens
having areas from ten to fifteen acres
in extent, and some middens
have been excavated which were
twenty-seven feet deep. At specially
favorable sections of a river, these
middens are found on both
banks, and a traveler on the river can
frequently travel twenty to
thirty miles and never be out of sight
of a great shell midden.
Archaic Man lived in a very primitive
society. His domestic
life centered about a fireplace built
on the midden, frequently on
clean clay carried in from the outside
and spread in a flat layer
two to four inches thick over an area
some twenty-five feet or more
in diameter. He did not hunt the large
vertebrates, such as the elk,
buffalo, and bear, if we are to judge
by his campfires, the ashes of
which contain many partially burned and
charred bones of deer,
wild turkey, ducks, geese, and many
other river fowl; along with
the bones of small mammals, such as
squirrel, rabbit, opossum,
coon, fox, and many aquatic animals, as
well as fish and the shells
of pelecypods and gastropods. To this
diet of meat he added roots,
nuts, and acorns, as shown by their
charred hulls, which, by being
carbonized, are well preserved in the
ashes. These ashes suggest
that Archaic Man practiced no
agriculture, and such food as he had,
other than fish and flesh, he gathered
from nature's bounty
with no effort at production. About
every campfire on the middens
there is usually to be found a cache of
heavy artifacts, made up of
several hammerstones, conical or
cylindrical pestles, and fully
grooved axes. These artifacts seem to
have been the household tools
used in the preparation of food and in
the other activities about the
campfire. Celts are not found in the
Archaic. Sometimes on his oc-
cupational levels there are found
scattered postmolds of small size
showing no meaningful pattern. This
suggests the use of skin-
covered shelters or tents.
Archaic Man buried his dead in
"round graves" in the midden,
near his fire hearth, or in circular
pits in the earth below the midden.
Rarely he placed artifacts which could
be preserved, with the dead,
but frequently covered the body with
red ochre. His skeletal remains
reveal that he was rather small of
stature and slight in physique.
178
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Archaic skulls have well-formed faces
and jaws, and show no
deformation. These skeletons show the
result of a poor and prob-
ably unbalanced diet. He was afflicted
with arthritis, rickets,
osteoporosis, and dental abscesses from
the consumption of his
usual gritty fare. Infant mortality was
high and the average life
span was short, averaging about
twenty-seven to thirty years. Few
ever reached the age of fifty. On one
site, only three in more than
800 individuals attained that age.
He did not make or use pottery except
possibly in small variety
at the very close of his period. He
used chipped flint extensively
for artifacts such as spearpoints,
knives, drills, and gravers. He
made spearpoints of bone and antler. He
seems not to have used
the bow and arrow, but cast his spear
with a throwing stick, or
atlatl. This instrument he made of
wood, often with an antler hook
and an antler handle, and frequently
added a highly polished stone
or atlatl weight of varied forms. He
was a skilled worker in shell,
antler, and bone, both animal and
human. He made very little use
of copper. The age of archaic sites in
Kentucky has recently been
determined by the use of radioactive
carbon as from 4,900 to 5,700
years.
Archaic Man of the shell middens
represents the oldest cul-
tural manifestation from which we have
available for study the
skeleton of the man himself.
The Adena People
Some time about the beginning of the
Christian era there came
into the Ohio Valley, perhaps from
Mexico or elsewhere in Central
America, a people who built large
earthworks, lived a sedentary
life in fairly large communities, and
practiced rudimentary agri-
culture. These were the Adena people,
the name being derived
from the name given to the beautiful
estate on the Scioto River
near Chillicothe, Ohio, by its owner,
Thomas Worthington, gover-
nor of Ohio, 1814-18. William C. Mills
in 1902 excavated on this
estate an earth mound built by these
people, and called the cul-
tural complex he had found there Adena.
The Archaic Culture and the Adena
People 179
These people had a highly developed,
well organized society,
capable of accomplishing large communal
public works; and they
evidently lived under a well
understood, widespread, and closely
followed system of rules, regulations,
and ceremonial practices.
This people lived practically over the
entire drainage area of the
upper Ohio Valley, and large sites are
to be found in Indiana, Ohio,
Kentucky, West Virginia, and western
Pennsylvania.
They were the first agriculturists in
this region, having introduced
beans, squash, pumpkin, and sunflowers.
There is no evidence that
they had corn. Sunflower seed seems to
have been the basis of their
stable economy. They cultivated
sunflowers, stored the seed against
a time of need, and consumed large
quantities of it.
Adena people were the first to make
grit-tempered pottery in
prehistoric times in the Ohio Valley.
They were the first to build
large earthworks. These were of such
nature that they could hardly
have served for military purposes,
which leads one to suspect they
may have had some ceremonial
significance. The extent of these
earthworks at any site is often
impressive, and is a proof of an or-
ganized society which could produce the
manpower able to do a
huge manual task, and could also
produce the drive to carry on for
a sufficient time to complete the
labor.
That this organization of society was
not something peculiar
to a single site but was well
understood and effectively adminis-
tered throughout the whole cultural
group is borne out by finding
types of earthwork of similar size,
form, and construction at many
sites hundreds of miles distant from
each other throughout the
Adena area in the Ohio Valley. The
so-called "Sacred Circle" of
Squier and Davis is a good example of
this uniformity of con-
struction.
The Adena people had very exact burial
customs of several forms
for the disposal of the dead. The great
majority of the dead were
cremated and the remains buried in a
small, low, rectangular log
tomb in their village. These tombs were
covered by a low earth
mound. Artifacts of rare forms and, to
them, of great value
were frequently buried with the
cremated remains. Such arti-
facts were not burned in the crematory
fires, but frequently
180
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
were intentionally
"ceremonially" broken before placement with
the dead. A small minority of the Adena
dead, a selected group-
how selected we do not know-were
reserved for inhumation ex-
tended in the flesh, in somewhat larger
log tombs, over each of
which an earth mound was later erected.
Frequently large mounds
were the result of the successive
addition of the burials in log
tombs, each covered by a new earth fill
over it. These log tomb
burials of bodies extended in the flesh
were often accompanied by
many beautiful artifacts, showing high
artistic ability. Frequently
the whole grave was covered by red
ochre. This trait Adena shared
with the earlier Archaic peoples.
Their dwelling houses were circular,
varying in diameter from
about thirty-five to fifty-five feet.
The posts were set in the earth
in pairs about one foot apart, the
pairs being about four and a half
feet apart. The roof was made of bark
and there was a smoke pole
for a central fire on the house floor.
Similarly constructed houses of about
sixty-five to ninety feet
in diameter were used for community
service and have been con-
sidered townhouses.
The fact that many characteristic Adena
traits are found in
somewhat diluted form in late Archaic
suggests that early Adena
man may have been contemporary with the
late Archaic sites.
Equally characteristic Adena traits,
sometimes more highly
specialized and showing long
development, are found on sites of
Ohio Hopewell, which suggests that late
Adena may have had con-
tact or other cultural relations with
early Ohio Hopewell.
Since most Adena people at death were
cremated, there remains
for study by the physical
anthropologist only the skeletons of those
selected individuals who for reasons
unknown were entitled to, or
who received, log tomb burials in the
flesh.
Adena skeletons from this select
company show that they were
a larger, more robust, head deforming
group. Their flat back heads
are in contrast to the Archaic dwellers
on the shell mounds. This
head deformation suggests to the
physical anthropologist Central
American influence.
From these Adena log tomb burials,
which are often covered with
The Archaic Culture and the Adena
People 181
red ochre, we learn that Adena man had
considerable copper,
although not nearly as much as was
possessed by Hopewell people
in Ohio. From this copper he made
bracelets worn on the forearm,
sometimes copper pendants, finger
rings, small breast plates, copper
"reel" shaped plates, and
copper sheets cut into forms to represent
deer antlers, probably used as parts of
a headdress. Sheet mica was
cut into crescent forms which were
frequently buried with the dead,
as well as thick uncut blocks of mica.
Recent attempts to date Adena sites by
radioactive carbon have
not been fully satisfactory because of
the poor samples of carbon
available for use, but such results may
indicate that some time prior
to A.D.
1000, Adena's dominance in the Ohio
Valley had come
to an end.