2.
People of the Archaic Period made woodworking tools such as chipped stone axesand adzes, advanced knives and scrapers, and punches that sped up the processof turning animal skins into clothing. Archaeologists found bison bones, the skeletonof a domestic dog, and stone tools at a campsite in Itasca State Park dating backto about 6000 BC. Archaeologists inferred that hunters drove the bison into theswamp and speared it while it was struggling in the dirt. A female skeletonfrom the Archaic Period was discovered at Pelican Rapids.
The Skeleton wasknown as Minnesota Man but changed to Minnesota Woman in 1968. She was datedback to 6700 BC. With the remains were an antler tool and the shell of asalt-water clam that probably came from the Gulf of Mexico. 3.Woodland people began to make pottery and bury their dead in earthen moundssome time before 1000 and 500 BC. One of their most familiar tools was agrooved hammerstone.
It was a spherical stone surrounded by a shallow groove,so it could be used to pound dried beef and berries together. They used coppertools, hide scrapers, awls and punches, carved dice for games, whistles made ofbird bone, and barbed points for spearing. Eventually, they started using thebow and arrow for hunting and protection This allowed hunters to kill game fromgreater distances. Themounds were small, low, and round. The mounds contained human bones, tools, andremains of pottery.
The largest mound in the state was built by the Laurelpeople on the Rainy River. It is one hundred feet in diameter and forty feethigh. One of the earliest excavated Woodlands sites is on Grey Cloud Island inthe Mississippi River bottoms. Thick walled flower shaped clay vessels werefound. There were no handles and little decoration on them. They were placed ina bed of hot coals and used for cooking. The Laurel people made thin-walledpottery fired hard and decorated with from a toothed stamp.
4.People of the Mississippian culture built big settlements with central plazasand large earthen mounds. They built temples and held religious ceremonies. Theygrew crops of corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers in fields. The Mississippiansestablished a major population center at Cahokia, Illinois. The biggestceremonial mound measures 700 feet by 1,000 feet. The whole compound took upsixteen acres.
Settlements spread out into the areas that became Minnesota andWisconsin. Larger settlements dug deep underground storing pits for storingvegetables. The Mississippian people hunted deer and speared fish from therivers. They made substantial use of animal bones and horns. A hoe made from abison shoulder blade, a spatula made from a rib, a ladle made from a turtleshell, clamshell spoons, and carved fishhooks and sewing needles are some ofthe things recovered from their village sites.
