The interesting aspect of the project area is that some of these things (e.g., the bow and arrow and pottery) appear to have been adopted, but not others, including the settled village life, agriculture, earth works and social complexity of other prehistoric peoples to the east and north (e.g., the prehistoric Caddo Indians). In many ways, it appears that the relatively simpler life of Archaic times persisted, with a few items borrowed from more advanced outsiders. This pattern is one that deserves an explanation.
Neo-American Stage
(A.D. 800 to 1500)
The Neo-American stage, also called the Mississippian stage in the eastern U.S., was the last prehistoric culture stage, and the one with the most complex culture. During this stage, large pyramid-shaped earthen mounds, complex ceremonialism, long-distance trade, heavy reliance on crops such as corn and squash, and a complex social order, with powerful chiefs at the top of the ranking system, all merged. The prehistoric Caddo Indians of East Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana are an excellent example of this type of culture.
Fig. 6. Pieces of prehistoric earthen pottery ([potsherds]) that were made during the Neo-American cultural stage in the project. Note the different types of surface decorations.
Yet, for all of the vigor and influence of this type of culture, its influence was not felt to the same degree everywhere. In the project area, there are only a few [sites] that suggest substantial contact with the most developed Neo-American cultures. In those cases we find certain kinds of prehistoric pottery vessels that, if not actually obtained from more culturally advanced peoples to the east and north, were modelled after ceramics of neighboring peoples.
These facts raise many questions. Were the inhabitants of the project area during Neo-American times carrying on an older style of life, modelled economically after the earlier Archaic-type of economy? Were the resources available in the project insufficient to support a thoroughly agricultural type of economy? Equipped only with simple hand tools, only certain kinds of soils allowed agriculture by these ancient peoples. The tough prairie grasses, for example, would have made certain kinds of soils difficult, if not impossible to cultivate.
Fig. 7. This trench is one of those excavated in two “Wylie focus” pits discovered in the project. Since these prehistoric pits are about 100 feet in diameter, it is difficult to show their extent in a photograph. Much information on the age, construction sequence and content of the pits was gained from [test trenches] such as this one.
There is also the question of environmental influences. We know that over a period of thousands of years the climate of Texas, in fact of all of North America, has changed a great deal. Part of the ongoing research in the RCAP is the study of past environments. Some of the most promising results here are from the fields of geology and palynology (the study of pollen records). Many people do not know that pollen from ancient plants may be preserved in the soil for thousands of years, and can be recovered with certain laboratory methods. If this pollen from past periods is found, it can help to understand the kinds of vegetation that were present at different points in time. The present evidence from the project is exciting. It suggests, for example, that a drought far worse than anything recorded in the history of Texas occurred sometime between A.D. 1000 to 1300. The severity of the drought may have caused prehistoric people to change their way of life, including abandoning the project area.