Norton tradition
The Norton tradition is an archaeological culture that developed in the Western Arctic along the Alaskan shore of the Bering Strait around 1000 BC and lasted through about 800 AD. The Norton people used flake-stone tools like their predecessors, the Arctic small tool tradition, but they were more marine-oriented and brought new technologies such as oil-burning lamps and clay vessels into use.
Norton people used both marine and land resources as part of their subsistence strategy. They hunted caribou and smaller mammals as well as salmon and larger sea mammals. Their settlements were occupied fairly permanently, as is evidenced by village sites which contain substantial dwellings. During summer months, small camps may have been used as temporary hunting and fishing locations, but the main dwelling place was maintained and returned to at the end of the hunting season. In about 700 BC, the Norton inhabitants of the St. Lawrence and other Bering Strait Islands developed an even more specialized culture, based entirely on the ocean, called the Thule tradition.
Stages
The Norton tradition is divided into three stages of development.
The first, the Choris Stage (ca. 1600—500 BC),[1] consists of coastal sites mostly in northwest Alaska containing fiber-tempered pottery with linear stamping decorating the outsides of the vessels. There is much local variation in this stage, which may indicate relative isolation of communities. The Choris people constructed sizable oval houses, hunted caribou and sea mammals and used Siberian-styled pottery. They may have expanded as far as the Mackenzie River Delta and Banks Island.[1]
The second stage, Norton (500 BC—800 AD), is distinguished by caribou (hunting) and fishing. There developed more refined pottery that included the Choris-style stamps, but also included check stamps applied using ivory paddles. New technology included stone lamps, stone working, asymmetrical knives, and ground stone projectile points made from slate.
The final stage, the Ipiutak Stage (1—800 AD), was a more artistically developed form of the Norton Culture. Their technology was less advanced (no pottery, oil lamps, or slate artifacts), but they used elegant harpoon heads that were ornately adorned. Their art tradition consisted of mainly ivory carvings of animal and human figures. They focused more on marine hunting than the first two stages and their settlements were very permanent.
References
- ^ a b Stern, Pamela (2009). The A to Z of the Inuit. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-8108-6822-9.
- Fagan, Brian. Ancient North America. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005: 191-93.
- v
- t
- e
- Periods
- Lithic
- Archaic
- Formative
- Classic
- Post-Classic
cultures
- Adena
- Alachua
- Ancient Beringian
- Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi)
- Avonlea
- Baytown
- Belle Glade
- Buttermilk Creek complex
- Caborn-Welborn
- Cades Pond
- Calf Creek
- Caloosahatchee
- Clovis
- Coles Creek
- Comondú
- Deptford
- Folsom
- Fort Ancient
- Fort Walton
- Fremont
- Glacial Kame
- Glades
- Hohokam
- Hopewell
- La Jolla
- Las Palmas
- Maritime Archaic
- Mississippian
- Mogollon
- Monongahela
- Old Cordilleran
- Oneota
- Paleo-Arctic
- Paleo-Indians
- Patayan
- Plano
- Plaquemine
- Poverty Point
- Red Ocher
- Safety Harbor
- Santa Rosa-Swift Creek
- St. Johns
- Steed-Kisker
- Suwannee Valley
- Tchefuncte
- Troyville
- Weeden Island
sites
- Angel Mounds
- Anzick site
- Bandelier National Monument
- Bastian
- Benson
- Blue Spring Shelter
- Bluefish Caves
- The Bluff Point Stoneworks
- Brewster
- Cahokia
- Candelaria Cave
- Casa Grande
- Chaco Canyon
- Coso Rock Art District
- Crystal River
- Cuarenta Casas
- Cueva de la Olla
- Cutler
- Eaker
- El Fin del Mundo
- El Vallecito
- Effigy Mounds
- Etowah Indian Mounds
- Eva
- Folsom
- Fort Ancient
- Fort Center
- Fort Juelson
- Four Mounds
- Gila Cliff Dwellings
- Glenwood
- Grimes Point
- Helen Blazes
- Holly Bluff
- Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
- Horr's Island
- Huápoca
- Key Marco
- Kimball Village
- Kincaid Mounds
- Kolomoki Mounds
- Lake Jackson Mounds
- Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site
- L'Anse aux Meadows
- Lynch Quarry Site
- Marksville
- Marmes Rockshelter
- Meadowcroft Rockshelter
- Mesa Verde
- Moaning Cavern
- Moorehead Circle
- Morrison Mounds
- Moundville
- Mummy Cave
- Nodena site
- Ocmulgee Mounds
- Old Stone Fort
- Orwell site
- Paquime
- Painted Bluff
- Parkin Park
- Pinson Mounds
- Plum Bayou Mounds
- Portsmouth Earthworks
- Poverty Point
- Pueblo Bonito
- Rassawek
- Recapture Canyon
- River Styx
- Roberts Island
- Rock Eagle
- Rock Hawk
- Rosenstock Village
- Russell Cave
- Salmon Ruins
- Serpent Mound
- Sierra de San Francisco
- Shell ring sites
- Spiro Mounds
- Stallings Island
- SunWatch
- Taos Pueblo
- Town Creek Indian Mound
- Turkey River Mounds
- Upward Sun River
- Velda Mound
- West Oak Forest Earthlodge
- Wickiup Hill
- Windover
- Winterville
- Wupatki
remains
- Aridoamerica
- Ballgame
- Black drink
- Ceremonial pipe
- Chunkey
- Clovis point
- Container Revolution
- Eastern Agricultural Complex
- Eden point
- Effigy mound
- Falcon dancer
- Folsom point
- Green Corn Ceremony
- Horned Serpent
- Kiva
- Medicine wheel
- Metallurgy
- Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing
- Mound Builders
- N.A.G.P.R.A.
- Norse colonization of North America
- Oasisamerica
- Piasa
- Projectile point
- Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
- Stickball
- Three Sisters agriculture
- Thunderbird
- Transoceanic contact
- Underwater panther
- Water glyphs
- Related
- Genetic history
- Pre-Columbian era