| WOODLAND PERIOD of eastern North America continues 1000BCE-1000CE. A developmental stage without significant changes, except that POTTERY begins. Continuous development in stone and bone tools, leather working, textile manufacture, tool production, cultivation, and shelter construction. Hunting and gathering remains primary. Some Woodland peoples use spears and atlatls until the end of the period when they are replaced by bows and arrows. EARLY WOODLAND period (Burial Mound-I) continues 1000-0. True agriculture is absent in much of the Southeast for a couple thousand years after the introduction of pottery. |
| ADENA culture (part of Woodland culture) centered in Ohio valley continues 1000-200. Rich burial mounds. People live in small, scattered villages with round houses, wattle for walls, and thatched roofs. Similar areas exist from Canada thru Minnesota down to the Louisiana-Texas border. |
 ANCESTRAL PUEBLO culture continues 1200BCE-1300CE in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico. They live in a range of structures including small family pit houses, larger structures to house clans, grand pueblos, and cliff-dwellings. They are called Anasazi "ancestors of enemies" by the Navajo. |
map Yuchitown |
| Early Basketmaker-II Era continues 1500BC-50CE. |
| TCHEFUNCTE culture continues 1000BCE-200CE. Hunter-gatherers who lived in small hamlets in the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast. They live in coastal areas and lowlands, usually near slow-moving streams. Food includes clams, alligators, fish but surprisingly not crabs or crawfish which were likely to have been abundant. They also hunt deer, raccoons, and some migratory birds. |
 Point Peninsula Complex continues 600BCE-700CE: An indigenous Hopewell culture in Ontario and New York. Influenced by the Hopewell traditions of the Ohio River valley until 250CE, its ceramics are first introduced in Canada. Thinner and more decorated than existing ceramics, this new pottery has superior clay modeling, is better fired, and contains finer grit temper. |
map: Heironymous Rowe |
| MANASOTA culture continues 550BCE-800CE in Florida. Each settlement contains a few related families. Dead are buried near their home or in nearby cemeteries. No grave goods or indication of differential treatment in death. |
 DEPTFORD CULTURE continues 800BCE-200CE near Savannah, Georgia. Elaborate ceremonial complexes, increasing social and political complexity, mound burial, permanent settlements, population growth, increasing reliance on cultigens. |
at peak: 500BC-200CE (changed): Donald Albury |
| c.300 | Hopewell Exchange system begins in Ohio and Illinois River Valleys - more a system of trading networks among societies than as a single society or culture. | 300 wikHHc |
| MESO-AMERICA: : PRE-CLASSIC Age continues 2000BCE-200CE. Manufacture of ceramics is widespread, cultivation of maize and other vegetables becomes well-established, society starts to become socially stratified. Capacha culture civilizes Mesoamerica, and its pottery spreads widely. Heavy concentration of pottery on Pacific Coast. Maise and pottery in Panama. Unknown culture in La Blanca and Ujuxte, Monte Alto culture, Mokaya culture |
| Zapotec MONTE ALBAN culture continues 400BCE-1521. Phase 1 continues until 100. |
 West side of circular pyramid at Cuicuilco. Photo Matthew T. Bradley |
| c.300 | Mexico: Cuicuilco, now the largest center on the high plateau of the Basin of Mexico, has substantial public architecture, including a circular, stone-faced pyramid. In western Mexico, deeply buried tombs at the bottom of shafts are in use. Located in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima, the tombs contain many ceramic figures and vessels. Stylistic names assigned to the ceramics correspond to the names of the modern states. | 300 eah |
| c.300 | LA VENTA (Tabasco) culture of Meso-America from 900 ends. | 300 B76 VI-86 400 B76 X-14 |
| c.300 | Classic Maya cities of Tikal, Uaxactun, and Seibal, begin growth. | 300 wikMC |
| c.300 | TEOTIHUACAN, first settled. V | 300 wikPCe |
| c. 300 c. 300 |
 CHORRERA Culture in Ecuador from 1300 ends. Spans Pacific lowlands to Andean highlands, and into south Colombia. Noted for ceramics, featuring whistling animal and plant effigies, stirrup spout vessels, human figurines made from molds. Utilitarian pottery is thin with decorated walls and red or black slips highly polished. Surfaces of bowls, bottles, ollas, and other ceramic pieces are incised, painted, pattern burnished, or decorated with rocker stamps. Chorrera is divided into regional phases:
|
left Vassil right Helvetiker 300 wikChC |
| c.300 | Chavin cities in Peru from 900 are suddenly abandoned. | 500 mxfld 300 wikHA 200 bk |
| c.250 |  NUMBERING SYSTEM, 20 based, developed by Mayans. Contains zero. |
260-41 TTS |
| c.250 | Mid-size Maya communities develop in north Maya lowlands. Komchen and Dzibilchaltun are important Preclassic northern sites. | 250 wikM |
| c.250 |  1st written inscription in Maya hieroglyphics appear. Stucco glyphs diplayed in Palenque, Mexico. |
photo Kwamikagami 250 wikM 3-200 wikMWS |
| PARACAS culture continues 800-100 in the Paracas Peninsula of Peru. Known for shaft tombs containing elongated human skulls, knowledge of irrigation and water management. Ceramics include incised polychrome. Textiles include many complex weave structures and elaborate plaiting and knotting techniques. Necropolis of Wari Kayan contains 2 clusters of hundreds of burials set closely together inside and around abandoned buildings on the steep north slope of Cerro Colorado. Burials here continue until 250CE. |
| c.250 | CHAVIN culture of Peru from 1000 ends. | 300 wikPCe 250 wikC, wikCdH 200 bk, jqj |
| c.250 | Jarabarriu (final) stage of CHAVIN culture from 400 ends. Proto-urban settlement pattern, consisting of a center of lowland valley peoples and smaller satellite communities in higher altitude areas. Cultural specialization and social differentiation. | 250 wikC |
Americas 200-100
V