6,000-1,000 BCE
ARCHAIC PERIOD AMERICA
ENIGMATIC AND MYSTERIOUS ARTIFACTS
Networks of trade and formation of “alliances”
Emblems of prestige and status conferred upon hunters coming of age
Increasing the spear-throwers efficacy
Spiritual survival; part of a cosmological system of belief that varied between archaic peoples
1930’s WPA Project Excavate Indian Knolls Site in Western Kentucky. 880 burials, 42 Bannerstones thought to be Atlati’s
Middens, caches, human burials in subterranean or earthen mounds
6,000 BCE Shell Mound Archaic people created tubular bannerstones. Often in women and children’s graves.
3,200 BCE; Bannerstone styles proliferate
Florida, Georgia, Great Lakes, Atlantic Coast; Virginia to New York; Emblems of ethnic identity
1,500 BCE; Bannerstones disappear and new ritual art appears
3,000 BCE: Indian Knoll Butterfly Bannerstone
Mike Ruggeri's Ancient Bannerstones 