Kenneth Sassaman of the University of Florida has produced a much needed synthesis and reevaluation of the Archaic Period east of the Mississippi River. As Sassaman points out, the Archaic Period (ca. 8000-1000 B.C.) is chronologically the longest period, but it is the least researched and written about. When looked at as a series of processes, much of the research of the Archaic period has been limited by the fact that studies have been largely localized, as if Archaic cultures developed in local environmental vacuums. Sassaman, on the other hand, focuses on “the ongoing process of making culture through social interactions” between people from different and distant regions.
Recent research in the Eastern Archaic has undermined the idea of “primitive hunter-gatherers” who merely react to their changing climates and environments. Using his own research in Georgia, South Carolina’s Middle Savannah River Valley, the St. John’s River Valley in northeast Florida, as well as the most recent work at Archaic sites east of the Mississippi, Sassaman reminds us that Archaic peoples had many histories and experiences from which they drew. After all, the diverseness of Archaic cultures was a result of interactions with other people. Environment can play a role, but its people who influence and change each other. —Jessica Crawford
