Sometimes newcomers essay to live peaceably with the natives and a new cultural blend is developed. If fundamental changes are made in the [economy] by internal development or by imitating another [culture], social and religious customs are very likely to change too, though usually at a slower pace.
As time went on, the [Archaic] way of life slowly changed and finally disappeared, but probably not so suddenly as might at first appear; for many Archaic customs, tools, and weapons continued to be made and used in the “new” [culture] by the descendants of rugged earlier [people] or were adopted by newcomers to the region. Other changes were added through new inventions and incoming people from other regions producing a new culture now generally known as [Woodland].
THE INITIAL [WOODLAND] CULTURES[9] (2500-500 B.C.)
After 5000 B.C. the temperatures continued to rise producing a climatic interval known as the [Thermal Maximum] when it was warmer and drier than at the present time. After reaching its high point, the temperature gradually declined and probably ended in southern Illinois about 2100 B.C. or later in a climate much like that of today.
By projecting the rate of deposit from the eight- to the eleven-foot level of the [Modoc Rock Shelter] up to the five-foot level where the [Archaic] remains appear to end, we secure a date for its upper limit of about 2100 B.C. (Deuel 1957, p. 2). The remains between the five- and eight-foot depths are scantier and less varied than in the earlier (lower) layers and may indicate a cultural group in a losing struggle to maintain itself under changing conditions.
Fig. 11. Potsherds from the [Lake Baikal] in southern Siberia resemble those of Initial and [Classic] [Woodland] (Hopewellian) in Illinois. The letters with subscripts refer to Siberian pottery. A-E, reduced to ½ actual size; F-H, reduced to ¹/₁₆ actual size. (Siberian pottery from Richthofen in ANTHROPOS, 1932: 128, 129, 130; Illinois pottery from Illinois State Museum collections.)
In northern Illinois, similar climatic conditions were developing. There, possibly as early as 2500 B.C., a new [culture], the Initial (early) [Woodland], was coming into existence. At any rate, groups living there some time prior to 1000 B.C. made pottery, placed their dead in cemeteries and in low burial mounds in a [flexed] or “doubled-up” position, occasionally with food, personal ornaments and other funeral offerings.
Fig. 12. A [flint] [dagger] or hunting knife from “Red Ochre [subculture]” of Initial [Woodland]. (B.B.)