The pottery of one [Woodland] group (Morton) in the Illinois valley resembled, in shape, surface treatment, design and area decorated, pots made in the [Lake Baikal] region in Asia some 7000 miles distant. The appearance of such striking similarities has long been a puzzle to anthropologists. In the first place the detailed likenesses suggest both were made by one and the same [people]. It seems fairly obvious that the several resemblances did not travel from tribe to tribe from Asia to central North America. The preservation of a pottery tradition during a migration of 7000 miles, probably lasting for several generations, seems equally incredible. Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that two widely separated divisions of a people originating in central Asia with the same cultural background and similar surroundings arrived independently at a remarkably similar but very simple pottery type.
Fig. 13. A copper [gorget], A, (possibly patterned after the double-bitted ax-shaped bannerstone) and shell gorgets, B and C, from “Red Ochre [subculture]” of Initial [Woodland]. All from [Mound] 11, Fulton County, Illinois.
These late migrants probably found groups like the Black Sand (and Red Ochre) peoples in Illinois who were just emerging from the [Archaic] [phase] into Initial [Woodland]. The settlements of all early Woodland peoples were small in extent and poor in cultural remains. The population of these hamlets probably seldom exceeded fifty. No traces of house structures have yet been discerned. Temporary huts, probably built of small poles and brush, may have been conical or hemispherical in shape. The [artifacts] or cultural objects, except for a small amount of [jewelry] (shell and copper beads and pendants) and the few offerings placed in graves, show little evidence of any urge to fine workmanship or much feeling for beauty of line or form. Life was probably too hard and the effort in securing food and other requirements too exacting to leave much leisure for artistic workmanship in durable materials.[10]
THE [FOOD STORERS] (BAUMER AND [CRAB ORCHARD] CULTURES) (1000?-100 B.C.?)
It has been seen that in southern Illinois the [Archaic] way of life may have persisted until 2100 B.C. or perhaps even later. Across the state on the Ohio River a [Woodland] [people] succeeded the earlier Archaic residents. Their [culture] is known as Baumer and their nearest cultural relatives lived south of the Ohio in Kentucky (Round Grave or Upper Valley People). The Baumer [artifacts] do not resemble those of the Archaic [period] very closely, giving one the impression that the Baumer people developed their way of life elsewhere and moved into Illinois, possibly while Archaic groups were still in the region.
The Baumer [culture] differs in several ways from the northern Initial [Woodland]; actually it appears to be more advanced although it has been termed early Woodland by some archaeologists. In the first place, the area of settlement was more extensive which seems to indicate a larger population than do early northern Woodland campsites. Their [artifacts] are numerous and varied, suggesting they were well adapted to their surroundings. Flat forms of polished [stone] (resembling in outline certain [Archaic] bannerstones from which they may have derived) served presumably as breast ornaments or gorgets (as similar pieces did in the Hopewellian [period]). Tear-shaped stone objects (plummets) were made as they had been in Medial and Terminal Archaic. House structures were semi-permanent, large, square, made of poles or logs set in holes in the ground. Huts with circular floors seem to have been in use also. Most important of the cultural habits noted were numerous pits apparently for the storage of food. In these the remains of acorns and hickory nuts were found. These [people], like the acorn gatherers of California and the Eskimo, knew how to preserve food over long periods. Acorns were probably abundant enough for a Baumer [family] to lay up several months’ supply in a short time. This permitted them to live in larger settlements and gave them sufficient leisure to build rather substantial houses and shape symmetrical ornaments from stone. These facts seem to substantiate the hypothesis that they were a sedentary people by virtue of their knowledge of how to store food.
Fig. 14. Housewife storing roasted acorns in a pit near door of her square log cabin dwelling. Characteristic clay vessel (“flower-pot” type) with “mat-impressed exterior.” Baumer [period]. (J.C.)
