Time Periods

Although the majority of this blog will be events which have taken place in the Contact Period (about 500 years ago to the present day), it's important to know what the time periods are since I will also be writing about the Native Peoples of North America.


~~Paleoindian Period (about 11,500-10,000 years ago)--This period marks the most recent glacial retreat. During it, small groups of hunting, fishing, and gathering peoples entered what is now New York. The landscape they confronted differed from today's. Mastadons and other now extinct mammals roamed here.

~~Archaic Period (10,000-3,000 years ago)--Around 6,000 years ago, the region's climate and environment were beginning to be like today's after gradually moderating for 4,000 years. Human populations and the size and number of their communities grew. Soapstone vessels and ceramic pots were first used near the end of this period.

~~Woodland Period (3,000 to 500 years ago)--By the beginning of the Woodland Period, trade networks linked Upstate Native Peoples with communities on the Atlantic Coast and in the Upper Great Lakes regions. Towards the end of thhis period, tobacco pipes and ceramics became more common and the bow and arrow replaced the spear as the primary hunting tool. Native People began to cultivate corn, beans, and squash-what they called the "Three Sisters".

~~Contact Period (about 500 years ago-present)--European contact and the fur trade introduced new factors to Native Peoples' communities. New York's history during the past 500 years is a story of confrontation and accomodation in this altered cultural environment. Artifacts, oral traditions, written records, maps, drawings, and photographs document this story.