Introduction Mississippian Period • Telephone to the Great Spirit • Mississippian triangulars • Cahokia The Woodland Period • Late to middle Woodland • Late to middle Woodland ceramics Archaic Period • Nebo Hill - Our areas indiginous culture The Mercer Site • A multli-occupational site and map. Remnants • Fishing River's disappearing past Contact Me Home Click here for information on Woodland ceramics. The Woodland period The blade pictured here was made from a local chert resource and then heat treated bringing out the reddish brown hue seen here. This chert was not ideal for flaking and heat treating it hardened the pieces and made them knap in a more predictable fashion. Pieces like this are reminescent of earlier woodland period artifacts. The difference is in that these pieces were more varied and seemingly manufactured for a multitude of purposes. Less emphasis seems to be placed on continuity. This would make one suspect that the communication with other cultures was less well established. One of the best represented periods of time in Excelsior Springs pre-history was between 500-800AD. The artifacts from this period indicate to me a less fruitful period for the inhabitants. Most of the chert used for spears, knives etc. was from local resources rather than the exotic imported varieties. The pottery was thick and mostly sand tempered.* Five hundred years prior to this the Hopewell had already introduced a finer more utilitarian type pottery suitable for boiling. The question of why these advances would have not been used remains a mystery. Some of the speculative ideas are that changes in climate made living more difficult. That people were surviving with the resources at hand rather than producing for trade. Another is that disruptions in the other areas with whom trade was established adversly affected the people here. Possibly people had become reliant on trade and then when something disturbed this economy they were forced to return to a method of living that they had lost touch with because of specializing in a trade based economy. The truth is that we don't know. But from the evidence available, it appears that there was no interuption in the prescence of people who lived here. Their lifestyle was less glamorous, but they continued to live and flourish here regardless of the difficulties.