Traveling Resource Trunks

Lifestyle Changes Over Time: A.D. 1470 to 1570

Suggested Adaptations for Puzzles from the Past: Problem Solving Through Archeology

This time period is represented on the peach colored stratigraphy cards. Additional information for each is available on the card itself. Use the following objects from the trunk:

Stone arrow point - The bow and arrow were introduced by eastern Woodland tribes. Stone arrow tips were used until metal tips became available.

Grassing needle - The ancestors of the Wichita Indians used this tool when building grass houses. It was used to sew the long prairie grasses onto the wooden pole frame of the grass lodge.

Bison scapula hoe blade - This tool became very common when Native Americans began growing crops. Scapula hoes worked so well that some Indians continued to use them even after metal hoes were introduced and traded by Europeans and Americans.

Sherd - Native Americans in Kansas began making pottery about the same time they got access to the bow and arrow, around A.D. 1. They stopped making and using clay pots after metal and ceramic containers became available through trade.

Trash filled storage pit - (This is a photograph on the card. No object is available for this card.) Storage pits were originally built to store dried food in for later use. Over time they became infested or water began to leak. As this happened, new pits were dug and old pits became used as a place to throw trash.

The people living at this site between A.D. 1470 and 1570 continued to work hard to provide for their basic needs, but they had some advantages over the people of layer 1. For one thing there were more people living in the region now known as Kansas by 1470. The amount and nutritional value of the food available to these people was greater than had been available 2,000 years earlier. The shape and function of the tools changed, but stone, wood, and bone continued to be the materials used to make them. Three of the most important changes between the cultures of 640 to 480 B.C. and these people were the bow and arrow, plant cultivation, and pottery.

By 1470 the bow and arrow had completely replaced the atlatl and dart. People continued to hunt the same types of animals as the did in earlier times, but they had an easier time doing this. In addition to hunting, the people living between 1470 and 1570 had acquired the ability to cultivate crops. This allowed more food to be accumulated, which meant that the surplus could be stored for use during the winter when fresh produce was not as abundant, as evidenced by storage pits. In order to cultivate crops, it is important to have a suitable location. This usually means a village with permanent housing and a ready supply of water. The grassing needle is evidence that these people lived in substantial houses. From past research archeologists know that grassing needles were used to construct circular, dome-shaped houses, thatched with bundles of grass. The ability to make pottery meant that these people could cook in pots over the fire and carry water more effectively from rivers and streams. A great deal changed during the 2,000 years between layers 480 B.C and 1470 A.D., but the next several hundred years brought even greater changes for Native Americans living in the Central Plains. The agents of momentous change were the first Europeans, the Coronado expedition, who traveled through the region known today as Kansas in 1541.

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Lifestyle Changes Over Time

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