Die Wurzeln der formativen Kulturen im östlichen Nordamerika

Abstract

Recent archaeological research in the Midwestern United States has shown that the roots of the Formative of this area lie embedded in the autochthonous late Archaic cultures (Lake Forest and Central Archaic ), where local wild plants (sunflower, sumpweed, chenopodium) were domesticated and a burial cult had developed. Except for cucurbits tropical plants (maize and beans in several varieties) did not change Woodland economy to any great extent until the beginning of the Mississippi Period (seventh century A.D .). Likewise, the earliest pottery in the Ohio region (dated at the middle of the last millennium B.C.) developed locally after steatite or sandstone prototypes. Adena culture thus appears now as a result of local developments, not of Mesoamerican influences.