LATE HOLOCENE LANDSCAPES AND PRECONTACT SETTLEMENT PATTERNS: AN EXAMPLE FROM SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA

Fluvial activity in the Upper Mississippi River region during the Late Holocene suggests that alternating periods of erosion, sedimentation and stability occurred. Concurrently, indigenous societies inhabiting the Upper Midwest during this period experienced profound cultural transformations. In southeastern Minnesota, a number of technological innovations and sociological changes occurred from approximately 2,500 to 1,900 years before present. Classified as the Late Archaic-Early Woodland Transition Period, these changes included gradual incorporation of domesticated plants into their diet, burial of the dead in earthen mounds, and the adoption of pottery for storage and cooking. These cultural changes correspond with a period of floodplain stability in the region occurring between approximately 2,500 and 2,000 years before present. This is reflected in the archaeological record through settlement patterns and other cultural signatures. With stable floodplain surfaces, site density increases on floodplain landforms during the Early Woodland. In addition, Early Woodland sites on floodplain landforms are predominately villages, suggesting occupations that are more permanent as opposed to more mobile, specialized activity areas that are more common during the Late Archaic. Therefore, floodplain stability and other environmental variables appear to be a factor in stimulating the Late Archaic-Early Woodland cultural transition.