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Quick study: Archaic Period

A “cheat sheet” covering basic information about the Archaic Period and its key characteristics.

Intrigue of the Past

Lesson plans and essays for teachers and students explore North Carolina's past before European contact. Designed for grades four through eight, the web edition of this book covers fundamental concepts, processes, and issues of archaeology, and describes the peoples and cultures of the Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.

Format: book (multiple pages)

First peoples

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.1

Beringia was a wide land bridge between Alaska and Siberia that was periodically exposed during the last Great Ice Age. According to a widely-held theory, the first people to live in North America were Asians who followed animal herds across Beringia. The Paleoindians living in North Carolina by 9000 BCE were descendents of these first North Americans. Nobody knows how long it took before the first Paleoindians reached North Carolina, but the few artifacts they left create an image of their past.

Format: article

The forest people

In Intrigue of the Past, page 3.3

Paleoindian culture died out across North America by 8000 BC. Archaeologists say this was bound to happen. The Ice Age had ended, the megafauna were extinct, and the boreal forests faded as deciduous ones spread across the East in the warmer climate. Faced with significant environmental changes, the Native Americans adapted. Archaeologists call their way of life and the time in which they lived Archaic.

The pathfinders

In Intrigue of the Past, page 3.2

An essay covering the pathfinders of the Paleoindian Period. Learn about the trek across Beringia and the lifeways of these early American Indians.

The natural history of North Carolina

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 1.2

If the five billion years of the earth's history were condensed into a single day, humans would have arrived in North Carolina just two tenths of a second before midnight! This article summarizes the major biological and geological events in North Carolina's history and explains how the land and environment of today came to be.

Format: article

By David Walbert.

Resources on the web

Geologic Time - The Story of a Changing Earth

Learn about the formation of Earth, dating the age of rocks, geologic time, plate tectonics, climate change, ocean circulation, evolution, extinction, ecology, and topics related to paleobiology. (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History