The Story of Formative Stage

An early sub-stage of the Formative is period called Woodland, which lasted from about 500 BC to roughly AD 1000 and was characterized by ceremonialism; people of this period made burial mounds and used crude, often cord-marked pottery. The Woodland was followed, especially in the U.S. South and Southeast, by a second sub-stage, distinguished by temple mounds, more advanced agriculture, incised pottery, and large palisaded villages, similar to those of the later Classic stage.

Perhaps the most typical culture of the Formative stage, however, is that of the Pueblo of the U.S. Southwest and their various predecessors, including the Cliff Dwellers (agricultural villagers, who planted corn, beans, and squash and made beautiful black-and-white and polychrome pottery with geometric designs). Among the Pueblo, the Formative stage lasted from about the beginning of the Christian era up until the present.

Contemporaneous with the Pueblo in the eastern U.S. were people who used unpainted pottery and practiced subsistence agriculture. Although they grew the same plants, their farming was less intensive, and their villagers were not built of stone or clay but of wood and bark.

Among the peoples of the Great Plains of the U.S. and Canada, the Formative stage started later than elsewhere, even after time of Christ. These people also made crude, unpainted pottery, but many of them had little or no agriculture; their economy was based on buffalo hunting. Only along the Missouri River did large villages and agriculture develop just before historic times.

Farther north were other groups that appeared to be of the Formative stage but really were not. The Inuit, for example, used pottery, and both they and the Aleuts lived in villagers, but instead of agriculture, they developed a maritime economy based on whale hunting.

The people on the northwest coast also looked toward the sea for their subsistence; they used even better sea-craft and lived in plank-house villages. They had no pottery. However, they are famous for their totem poles and other carved wooden objects. Because none of these groups had any agriculture – the major trait of the Formative stage – they were actually highly developed Archaics.

The real Formative stage was found mainly in and on both sides of Central America, in the nuclear area from Mexico to Peru. The peoples of this area developed village life, with permanent houses, distinctive pyramids, well-painted pottery, and clay figurines. They practiced a subsistence agriculture that included many other species besides their staples – corn, beans, and squash. In Mexico, they grew amaranth, avocado, runner beans, and several other plants. In Central America, northern South America, and the Antilles manioc, or tapioca, was added to the three basics. In Peru, potatoes, peanuts, and quinoa were cultivated, and the Ilama, alpaca, guinea pig, and Muscovy duck were all domesticated.

In the nuclear area, all these developments of the Formative stage ripened in the more complex cultures of the later stages, but outside it – for example, to the south, in the Amazon, northern Chile, and Argentina – villagers remained who maintained the Formative way to life up to historic times.

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The Story of Archaic Stage

The Archaic stage was signed with the extinction of the mega fauna and other Pleistocene animals, many groups abandoned big-game hunting and became collectors. This afforded them many choices for subsistence that often led to a seasonally scheduled way of life. Perhaps the most typical way of life at the Archaic stage was that adopted in the eastern U.S. between 9000 and 4000 years ago. Here, groups often settled along rivers, developing special techniques for hunting small and big game with darts propelled by spear-throwers. They also made use of aquatic resources, frequently using gill nets with sinkers. Seeds were collected as well and ground with milling stones. Many kinds of thumbnail end scrapers were used for a variety of tasks.

Somewhat akin to these specific groups were the collectors I the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska and along the Arctic coast as far as the Bering Strait. Invaders from Asia, they represented a new way of life in northern North America. Characteristic among their implements were various micro-blade tools made from tongue-shaped cores, similar to those often found in Siberia, Mongolia, and Japan. They hunted big game with spears and darts, garnered small game in traps, and fished in the lakes. People of this “Northwest Micro-blade” tradition, who lived mostly inland, contrasted with those living on the coasts that were of the “Small Tool” tradition. The latter also used delicately made micro-blade tools, arrow points, and other implements, but adapted them both to inland caribou hunting and to harpooning of marine animals.

During this stage, throughout both North and South America, many peoples adapted themselves to life on the seacoasts, and great shell mounds were formed. Obviously, however, many regional differences existed among these coastal Archaics. Groups on the northwest Pacific coast used ground slate and developed watercraft; those in California became seed and shellfish collectors; people on the U.S. Atlantic coast used decorated bone daggers, as well as ground slate, and buried their dead with elaborate ceremonies featuring red paint. In Meso-America, some groups began making boats that may have brought them to the Antilles.

Others, such as those in Peru, exploited the inland coastal regions (lomas) in one season and the sea in another.

In general, the Archaic peoples of the U.S. southwestern desert, highland Mexico, and highland Peru contrasted sharply with the collectors described above. Although they too may be considered plant collectors, their environment contained potentially domestic-able plants, and their seasonal round of activities, exploiting different environments, and necessitated storage.

Some of these peoples, consequently, began to cultivate and domesticate plants. Eventually, such horticultural practices led to agriculture and, with it, village life and pottery, all characteristics of the next stage - the Formative stage.

In many areas, however, such as the tropical lowlands, California, the Great Basin of the U.S., and the pampas of Chile and Argentina, as well as the forests of northern Canada, people never developed the agricultural village life of the Formative but remained in an extended Archaic stage.

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Prehistoric Time: The Story of The Lithic Stage

The Lithic stage was the earliest stage that began with the first arrival of Asian hunters in the New World. Probably Mongoloids, the earliest arrivals began crossing the Bering Strait over an ice-age land bridge, possibly more than 30,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests four waves of migration, although linguistic studies of modern tribes suggest three.

Archaeologists have been sharply divided over when these earliest people first arrived. Some maintain that there is no firm evidence of a human presence before 11,500 years ago, the age of spearpoints found near Clovis, N. Mex. Others consider that archaeological evidence from places such as the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Monte Verde in Chile, which they date at 16,000 and 13,000 years ago respectively, establish a pre-Clovis presence and lends credence to even older dates attributed to other artifacts of a more fragmentary nature.

From spare, scattered finds, the tools of the Lithic stage show a general progression, over the course of some 20,000 years, from unifacial chipped stone and bone to bifacial leaf-shaped points and blades, to the fluted projectile points used by the Clovis people. Clovis points were used in killing mammoths and other big game until the close of the Pleistocene epoch, but in some places, such as Tierra del Fuego, the Lithic stage lasted into the Recent epoch, that is until historic times.

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The Story of Agincourt Battle

There was a military engagement during the Hundred Years’ War known as The Battle of Agincourt (Agincourt Battle), fought in France on October 25, 1415, between an English army under King Henry V of England and a French one under Charles d’Albret (1415), constable of France. The Agincourt Battle took place in a narrow valley near the village of Agincourt (now Azincourt, in Pas-de-Calais Department), Henry, a claimant to the French throne, had invaded France and seized the port of Harfleur. At the time of the action (Agincourt Battle), Henry’s army, weakened by disease and hunger, was en route to Calais, from which Henry planned to embark for England.

In the course of the march to Calais the English force, which numbered about 6000 men, for the most part lightly equipped archers, was intercepted by d’Albret, whose army about 25,000 men consisted chiefly of armored cavalry and infantry contingents. The English king, fearful of annihilation, sought a truce with the French, but his terms were rejected.

In the battle (Agincourt Battle), which was preceded by heavy rains, the French troops were at a disadvantage because of their weighty armor, the narrowness of the battleground, the muddy terrain, and the faulty tactics of their superiors, notably in using massed formations against a mobile enemy (English army).

The French cavalry, which occupied frontal positions, quickly became mired in the mud, making easy targets for the English archers. After routing the enemy cavalry, the English troops, wielding hatchets, billhooks (a type of knife), and swords, launched successive assaults on the French foot soldiers were completely overwhelmed. D’Albret, several dukes and counts, and about 500 other members of the French nobility were killed; other French casualties totaled about 5000. English losses numbered fewer than 200 men.

French feudal military strategy, traditionally based on the employment of heavily armored troops and cavalry, was completely discredited by Henry’s victory. Although Henry returned to England after Agincourt, his triumph on the Agincourt Battle paved the way for English domination of most of France until the middle of the 15th century.

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Historical Relic: Ancient Armor Short Review

Armor is any equipment of various materials, but generally of metal, used to protect a body in combat, covering for the body, worn when fighting. The oldest of protective devices is the shield; the earliest body armor was a wide belt to protect the abdomen.

Ancient armor in ancient Egypt (c. 3000 BC) was a belt that was developed into a wraparound garment extending from armpits to knees, reinforced by quilting, and held up by shoulder straps. In Syria (c. 1400 BC), ancient armor was a form of their own national costume, a sleeved shirt, was reinforced with bronze scales and used as armor for charioteers, who with both hands occupied were unable to hold a shield. The scales were sewn onto a fabric backing or were laced together in flexible rows of lamellae. Helmets, in the form of tight-fitting caps of beaten copper, were first used of ancient armor by the Sumerians (c. 3000 BC). In Assyrian, the form of ancient armor was Assyrian helmets. Assyrian helmets were conical bronze caps with small earflaps.

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The Story of Chinese Civilization Roots

A river basin nurtured the early Chinese. Between 3000 and 1600 BC, the Huang He (Yellow River) plain sustained large communities of farmers who raised silkworms and spun silk thread and cloth, which they sent across the camel trails of Central Asia. They had and advanced society, but written records did not appear until the 16th century BC under the Shang dynasty. The Shang ruled over a number of kings of walled city-states. They co-operated to repulse the raiding northern nomads, who then dislodged other tribes, setting off a chain of migrations such as that of the Aryans into India.

The Chou, who displaced the Shang, continued the feudal organization. Under the Eastern Chou (770-256 BC), China advanced in political, economic, and social life. Chinese territory more than doubled to include south Manchuria and the Yangtze River Basin, with probably the highest population concentration in the world. The Chou used iron weapons, expanded irrigation, and built roads and canals to improved communication and commerce. An educated civil service replaced hereditary officials. The major strands of Chinese thought crystallized: Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism.

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The Story of Indian Civilizations

It began at 2300 BC, an advanced civilization in the Indus Valley with Mesopotamia. As in Mesopotamia, irrigation produced crop surpluses and required an advanced social and political system. The two major cities, Mohenjodaro (q.v.) and Harappa, had straight streets lined with large, two-story homes equipped with plumbing. The Indus peoples had written languages, used wheeled carts, and exhibited a high level of creativity in their art, jewelry, and toys.

Waves of tall, fair-haired Aryans from Central Asia destroyed the Indus cities between 1500 and 1200 BC, afterward setting in the Ganges Valley of northeast India. They spoke Sanskrit, and Indo-European language related to Persian, Greek, and Latin, Still nomadic, they fought in horse-drawn chariots and composed an epic literature, the Vedas.

Between 900 and 500 BC, the Indo-Aryan that is, people speaking Indic languages-settle into city-states under absolute monarchs. They depended on irrigated farming, including rice culture (possibly imported from Southeast Asia). Their Hindu religion, as embodied in the Vedas, provided for an elaborate caste system that stratified society.

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The Story of Mesopotamia

The land that fostered the Sumer-Akkad culture of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley that is Mesopotamia, often called the cradle of civilization. By 3000 BC, the Sumerians irrigated bronze as well as polished stone tools, made textiles and wheel-turned pottery, built great temples and palaces, and traveled in wheeled carts and sailing ships. Their accurate calendars predicted seasons, and their cuneiform writing was an international script until the 4th century BC. They worship a sun god, and they lived by written laws.

Although the Sumer-Akkad Kingdom fell to northern invaders, Mesopotamia remained the center of western Asian civilization until 6th century BC. Most important of the later rulers were the Babylonians (C. 1900-1600 BC), the Assyrians (C. 9th-7th BC), and the Chaldeans (C. 7th-6th BC). It was the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar II who destroyed Jerusalem and deported the Jews. (Already, however, Judaism was a major religious force.) After 1600 BC, nomads from Central Asia swept into Babylonia, sometimes to destroy but overall to build and advance the civilization founded by the Sumerians.

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