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What is the Archaic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

William H. Sears
William H. Sears*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Extract

Since its inception by Ritchie1 the term “The Archaic,“ or “The Archaic Pattern,” has seen considerable usage. However, it appears that the definition or delineation of this pattern, as it exists, is not serviceable. If this be true, there is then an anomalous situation in that: (1) Manifestations which have been classified by Webb and Dejarnette, Webb and Haag, Fairbanks, and Lewis and Kneberg, as components or foci of the Archaic, are thereby correlated at the pattern level. (2) The concept in terms of which they have been so correlated is inaccurate.

Ritchie's most concrete formulations are:

The long postulated archaic level in New York recently confirmed by intensive work in the Southeast consists of an aggregate of discrete foci, sharing a hunting-fishing-gathering economy. Its chief characteristics are the absence of horticultural traces, ceramics, and the smoking pipe. (Italics mine.)

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , October 1948 , pp. 122 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1948

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References

Anonymous 1943. “First Archaeological Conference on the Woodland Pattern.” American Antiquity, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 393–400.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, Charles 1942. “The Taxonomic Position of Stallings Island, Georgia.” American Antiquity, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 223–31.Google Scholar
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Lewis, Thomas M. N., and Kneberg, Madeline 1947. “The Archaic Horizon in Western Tennessee.” Tennessee Anthropology Papers, No. 2. Knoxville.Google Scholar
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Ritchie, William A. 1940. “Two Prehistoric Village Sites at Brewerton, New York.” Researches and Transactions of the New York State Archaeological Association, Vol. 9, No. 1. Rochester.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A. 1944. “The Pre-Iroquoian Occupations of New York State.” Memoirs, Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, No. 1. Rochester.Google Scholar
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Webb, William S., and Haag, William G. 1940. “The Cypress Creek Village, Site 11 and 12, McLean County, Kentucky.” University of Kentucky Reports in Archaeology and Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 2. Lexington.Google Scholar