Paleo & Archaic Periods

Commitment Expectations The major topic I have decided to research is the topic of the progression of the ancient people from the Clovis Period to the Late Archaic Period as represented by the artifacts and art that have survived them.

Specifically, the paper will use the spear points of the Clovis Period found in Iowa from 11,000 BC and the White Shaman Mural found in West Texas from 2000 BC to describe the evolution of the ancient world—an evolution that begin with the people’s need simply to survive by hunting and using the spear points as a tool; after the progression of thousands of years and the migration of peoples to a region where they had new tools—rock walls—to tell stories and communicate ideas about where life came from, the people were able to address higher needs, such as the establishment of authority in the community and a myth about where they came from and why their spiritual leaders should be respected.

The lens through which these works of art and artifacts and the cultures that produced them can be viewed is the theory of the hierarchy of needs. Preliminaries Expectations Outline I. Introduction a. The story of the ancient world can be pieced together by the artifacts which have survived it. b. The spear points and the White Shaman Mural serve as two points of reference that tell a story of progress for the ancient world. c.

From tools used to survive to tools used to create a myth for the people to believe in, this story can be seen. d.

Thesis: This paper looks at the ancient spear points of the Clovis Period in Iowa, U.S., and the White Shaman Mural of the Late Archaic Period in West Texas, U.S., to show how the early people of this part of the world developed over the course of centuries and moved from a society focused on hunting and killing to survive (represented by the spear points) to a people interested in ideas and communicating a message of creation and where they came from (represented by the White Shaman Mural).

II. Body a. Spear Points i. Stone hunting tools—functional rather than aesthetic use ii. Found in Iowa iii. Clovis Period b. White Shaman Mural i. Found in West Texas ii. Late Archaic Period iii. Aesthetic and communicative use c. The progression of civilization in the ancient world i. Meeting different needs ii. The need to survive in the Clovis Period iii. The need to communicate ideas and establish a hierarchy in the community complete with an origin story in the Late Archaic Period III. Conclusion a.

The progress of the ancient world can be represented by the art and artifacts left behind. b. These works tell us about who these people were, what their needs were, and how they developed over time. From the Spear to the Mural: The Development of the Ancient World The story of the ancient world can be pieced together by the artifacts which have survived it.

Thousands of years have passed since cultures and civilizations of the past disappeared, and yet a handful of artifacts remain to offer some insight into who these people were and what they believed or what their focus in life was all about.

This paper looks at two art different art pieces from two different time periods of the ancient world and from two different places; it uses these works to show how as time passed, the peoples of the world developed the tools and ideas needed to form stable societies—which is reflected in the art and artifacts that have been left behind.

Specifically, this paper looks at the ancient spear points of the Clovis Period in Iowa, U.S., and the White Shaman Mural of the Late Archaic Period in West Texas, U.S., to show how the early people of this part of the world developed over the course of centuries and moved from a society focused on hunting and killing to survive (represented by the spear points) to a people interested in ideas and communicating a message of creation and where they came from (represented by the White Shaman Mural).

The spear points of the Clovis Period located in Iowa, U.S. date from approximately 11,000 BC. These artifacts had a functional rather than an aesthetic use and their function was to enable the person using them to hunt and kill. They are flat with stony ridges and sharp edges and points that could easily be used to pierce the flesh of an animal when attached to a long rod or stick or projected with some force and velocity through the air.

The spear points were likely attached to the end of a spear and were a much needed tool for survival for the people who lived in this region some 13,000 years ago.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Justice, Noel D. Stone Age spear and arrow points of the midcontinental and eastern United States: a modern survey and reference.

Indiana University Press, 1995.] As Tuck notes, these spears would have been used to hunt and kill bison in the prairies of the ancient Midwest.[footnoteRef:3] Long before the Europeans arrived with the rifles and exterminated the bison herds by the hundreds and thousands, the ancient people of the Clovis Period in Iowa hunted these animals with stone. The bison were part of the life and their flesh kept these people alive.

The focus on these individuals, from what is known about them through artifacts like these spear points is that they lived a life filled with most primal of all purposes—hunting and killing to survive. They would use the bison for meat, for food; its bones likely for other tools; its hide for clothing and shelter from the environment. [3: Tuck, James A. "Early archaic horizons in eastern North America." Archaeology of Eastern North America 2, no.

1 (1974): 72-80.] Theirs was a much different life from the people who came after them in the following years. As the people of this early period introducing stabilizing customs and practices into their society, different foci began to develop. The people could spend more time telling stories and communicating ideas about their past, about the world before they came into being. They had time to imagine, to think, to create, and to express themselves and whatever innate thoughts and desires they had within.

These ideas can be seen in the White Shaman Mural paintings of Late Archaic Period in the Trans-Pecos Culture located in West Texas, U.S., from the time 2000 BC. The significance of the White Shaman Mural is in its message: it serves as a creation story; its theme is the story of how the world began.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Boyd, Carolyn E., and Kim Cox. The White Shaman Mural: An Enduring Creation Narrative in the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos.

University of Texas Press, 2016.] The White Shaman Mural is important in understanding the progression of the people of the ancient world in terms of how they advanced. If one thinks about this time period from the perspective of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, one can better understand how the emergence of this rock art and its thematic subject make sense.

Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs states that human beings first have to satisfy their basic, most fundamental needs first before they can begin to focus on fulfilling higher level needs, like the need to have relationships with others, start families and ultimately become self-empowered.[footnoteRef:5] The White Shaman Mural suggests that the people of the Late Archaic Period had developed sufficiently enough from the Clovis Period to be able to leave behind artifacts of their development up the hierarchy of needs. [5: McLeod, Saul.

"Maslow's hierarchy of needs." Simply Psychology 1 (2007).] Feeney suggests that the White Shaman Mural also represents a spiritual development among this community, that the artist has a spiritual function at this time.[footnoteRef:6] Indeed, the spiritual function of art throughout the centuries has always been a quality of the function, whether it is the people of the ancient Indian world, the ancient Greeks, the Romans, or the Christians of the Middle Ages.

Art and spirituality tend to be intertwined, and that is what is seen in the White Shaman Mural. The mural depicts a creation myth that informs the people of their origins. It interweaves the physical world with the spiritual world. These ideas may have been present among the people of the Clovis Period, but what is known primarily about the latter is that they were hunters and focused their society on meeting the basic needs of their group—obtaining food and shelter, warmth and stability. [6: Feeney, Kevin.

"Texas Peyote Culture." Cactus and Succulent Journal 90, no. 1 (2018): 29-38.] In other words, the ancient artworks and artifacts of the Paleo and Archaic periods reveal a narrative about the peoples of the past—a narrative that has an arc that is best understood by the psychological perspective provided by the hierarchy of needs. In the beginning of these peoples’ history, the most basic needs had to be met.

That is why what is left behind from these people are the tools they used to hunt—the spear points that served as the weapon of the Clovis Period people in Iowa. Their homes were in the prairies, under the immense sky. Rock walls were not part of their shared experience—so the idea that they would keep a record of their ideas in wall art is inappropriate for the people of this time and place.

Their ideas about where they came from were not recorded and did not figure into any sort of communal expression—not in the same way it did for the Texas Peyote culture a few thousand years later. In Texas in the Late Archaic period, the people had developed an urge to communicate visual compositions, using the rock walls of the caves in their region as canvases for communicating their stories.

The fact that they had these materials ready at hand was what allowed them to begin to engage in this sort of expression. Just as technology today enables people to communicate in ways they never before imagined, the awareness of the people of the Late Archaic period of their surroundings and environment gave them the incentive.

As Powell notes, the White Shaman Mural tells a story that was used to assert “claims of leadership” by the shamans over the people.[footnoteRef:7] This would indicate that the Mural was used at the very highest level of the needs hierarchy—as a way for leaders within the community to assert themselves and make a claim of authority of the others in the community.

The rock art indicates that whatever meaning and symbolism the Mural conveyed, it had immense significance based just on the size of the painting alone (scaffolding would have been needed to complete the painting as the Mural reaches up over 13 feet high) and the clustering of shapes and images as well as well as the variety of colors used in the painting.[footnoteRef:8] All this detail and differentiation indicates that something very significant was transpiring in this communicative text.

Regardless of what it was, the progression over the centuries and millennia from hunting and.