Late Woodland

Minnesota is on the western edge of the Woodland cultural area. The Late Woodland area is dated to have existed @ 1500 to 500 BP.

The Late Woodland pattern is further divided by location into the Upper Mississippian, the Plains, and the Lake Michigan phases.

The Late Woodlands' major cultural features included the use of pottery, burials in earth mounds and the formation of permanent villages or settlements..

Copper artifacts are scarce. The utilization of tools included chipped stone points with small side notches, bone and antler tools and the most common was a grooved maul used to pound dried meat and berries. Major food resources included local vegetation, water fowl and mammals of all sizes.

The fluctuation of the weather was often rapid and violent. The temperature averages ranged from 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit in January to 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit in Jul (Kuttruff, p.10).

References

Kuttruff, Louis Carl Jr., Late Woodland Settlement and Subsistence in the Lower Kaskaskia River Valley. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology. Southern Illinois University, April, 1974.