OHIO ARCHAEOLOGY MONTH TIMELINE One of the most well-known extinct Ice Age animals found in was the American mastodon, Mammut americanum. Several nearly complete specimens are on display at museums in the state, including the PALEOINDIAN famous Conway mastodon displayed at the PERIOD Ohio History Center.

12000–8000 B.C.

Paleoindians were the hunting and gathering peoples who originally discovered the Americas. They lived in Ohio in the last centuries of the Ice Age and hunted now extinct species of big game animals such as mammoths and mastodons. They also hunted deer, fished and gathered nuts and fruit ARCHAIC when available. Their distinctive Clovis points, like the one pictured, can be found across . PERIOD 8000–800 B.C. Archaic hunters and gatherers continued the successful way 800 B.C.–A.D. 900 of life of their Paleoindian ancestors, but moved about in a smaller area. They found new ways to harvest the natural The Woodland Period marks bounty of Ohio’s forests, which grew as the climate warmed an increase in the use of after the Ice Age. As with other time periods, one of the more pottery and cultivated plants, important natural resources was flint. It was mined from several and the appearance of settled locations in Ohio including Coshocton and Licking County. village life and building in eastern North America. In addition, the pace of cultural The Early Woodland Period was dominated change began to quicken. EARLY by the . The sandstone tablet This effigy pipe, representing pictured is engraved with stylized human faces a duck, was excavated from WOODLAND on the heads of stylized birds. It was made by Tremper Mound, a Hopewell PERIOD the people of the Adena culture and found in culture site located five miles 800–100 B.C. Clinton County, Ohio. This tablet is one of only north of Portsmouth in 13 made by the Adena people existing today. Scioto County.

A.D. 900–1650 MIDDLE LATE WOODLAND PRECONTACT PERIOD PERIOD The Late Precontact Period refers to the time 100 B.C.–A.D. 500 immediately before Europeans moved into the . The American Indian cultures occupying Ohio during this period lived in large villages often The Middle Woodland Period is noteworthy because of the surrounded by a stockade wall. They grew widespread construction of large geometric earthwork complexes, (or corn), beans and squash in their fields and concentrated in central and southern Ohio. These ancient continued to hunt and fish. The culture American Indians were connected to far away places. For example, thrived in southern Ohio and northern . this effigy of a hawk claw pictured was cut from a sheet of mica These bone awls pictured were excavated from from North Carolina was excavated from the Hopewell Mound Feurt Mound and Village in Scioto County Ohio, Group in Ross County, Ohio sometime between 1922–1925. which was built by the Fort Ancient culture.