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FIRST PEOPLE TO FIRST FARMERS small groups that moved their Upper: distinctive styles of Paleoindian projectile points found in Iowa.
camps often as they hunted Lower: typical Archaic period projectile points found in Iowa.
For at least 8,500 years, the lifeways of Native and gathered wild plant
people were focused on a hunting and gathering foods. Their sites are most projectile point types that suggest there was
economy. People generally lived in small no- noted for evidence that they probably a substantial occupation in the area by
madic groups. Although they moved often these hunted Pleistocene megafauna the Late Archaic period (Artz 1991).
people were certainly not wandering randomly although recent research indi-
around the landscape. They knew their envi- cates that they hunted smaller Plant remains from Late Archaic contexts include
ronment intimately and changed their camps animals as well. hickory nuts, walnuts, chenopod seeds, wild rice,
systematically to take advantage of resources ragweed, sunflower, and marsh elder. Cheno-
which were distributed differentially across the At the end of the Pleistocene, pod, sunflower, and marsh elder are some of
landscape or whose availability changed season- Iowa’s climate gradually be- the earliest domesticated plants known from
ally. Group size was probably also variable as came warmer and dryer. The Iowa. Their presence in Late Archaic sites in
communities came together or split apart for giant land mammals became Louisa County suggests that people were culti-
seasonal or task-specific activities. extinct, emigrated, or gradual- vating these plants as early as 3,000 years ago.
ly evolved into smaller, better Although strong evidence for horticulture is still
The archaeological record indicates that people adapted species. The cultural lacking, these developments signal the begin-
began moving into Iowa during the Pleistocene period which followed the ning of farming in Iowa (Peterson and Wendt
hunting mammoths, bison, and other giant mam- Paleoindian period is known to archaeologists 1999:12; Asch and Green 1992).
mals. Isolated surface finds of time diagnostic as the Archaic. Archaic people were hunters
artifacts suggest that people were in Van Buren and gatherers relying on a wide variety of plant
and adjacent counties by at least the Late Paleo- and animal resources. They hunted with spears
indian or Early Archaic period 10,500 to 8,000 thrown with a hooked stick known as an atlatl
years ago (Peterson and Wendt 1999:6; Spears and probably used traps and snares as well. Plant
1973, 1978, 1981; Hirst 1985). They lived in foods were processed with heavy grinding and
chopping stones (Peterson and Wendt 1999:10).
Atlatl thrower.
To date there are no
excavated Early
Archaic sites in Van
Buren County; however,
surface finds indicate that
people were indeed living
here 8,000–3,000 years ago.
Private artifact collections from a site in Van Bu-
ren County (13VB610) include several distinctive
The University of Iowa Off ice of the State Archaeologist 11
