Norwood culture

The Norwood culture was a subculture or subperiod^[1] of the Archaic culture of (12,000 BCE—4500 BCE).

Projectile point for use on knives and other hunting implements

The Norwood culture was located in the Apalachee region, a forested and hilly part of what is now north Florida and was typical of other Archaic cultures using triangular-shaped projectile point knives which showed notches for attaching stone implements to shafts. It is widely accepted that Archaic cultures began using hand held spears to atlatls to more effectively bring down animals for clothing and consumption.

The specific difference between the Norwood and other Archaic cultures was that they were the first people to create and use fiber-tempered pottery of Spanish moss or strands of fiber from the palmetto and decorated by making stick impressions on its outer surface prior to firing. Much of the Gulf coastal shell middens date to this Archaic period however some sites have been covered by rising sea level. Other sites have been destroyed by modern borrowing activities and development.^[2][3]

Sources

1. ^ Kratt, Henry, Thesis
2. ^ Wisenbaker, Michael, Aboriginal Settlement in the Apalachee Region of Florida, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, CARL Archaeological Survey, Tallahassee, Florida 1998
3. ^ Carbone, Victor A., 1983 “Late Quaternary Environments in Florida and the Southeast.” The Florida Anthropologist 36:3-17.