Prehistory of Southwestern Virginia

Southwestern Virginia is commonly included as part of the Southeastern culture area and was the location of prehistoric aboriginal groups’ settlements, sharing “many broad cultural and social similarities” (Hudson 1976:10) with other groups located in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida and Alabama. The archaeological evidence collected from southwestern Virginia, including Lee County, suggests a diverse and complicated prehistory estimated to begin around 13,000 B.C (Bense 1994:8). The prehistory of the southeastern United States has been divided into four main periods prior to European contact. Table 1 lists these cultural stages and attributes and cites specific information related directly to Lee County.

The Paleoindian period (Table 1) (13,000 – 8,000 B.C.), was inhabited by mobile bands that used distinctive points to hunt large game which are now extinct (Hudson 1976:39). During the Archaic period (8,000 – 1,000 B.C.) native groups, still organized as bands, transitioned from hunting large game to a more generalized foraging economy. This new economy was slow to develop, and focused on deer, small mammals and wild plants (Hudson 1976:51-52). Increasingly efficient hunting techniques and a plentiful environment led to increased population and eventually plant domestication which ultimately led to a changed economy during the Woodland period (Hudson 1976:54).

Table 1. Cultural Stages of Southeastern Indians Lee County

(adapted from Bense 1994)

Cultural Periods

Chronology

Sociopolitical/

Subsistence

Material Culture/ Technology

Lee County Context

Paleo-Indian

13,000 – 8,000 B.C.

Mobile bands
Hunting and gathering

points Lanceolate

Occupation of lower Cumberland Floodplains

Archaic

8,000 – 1,000 B.C.

Bands
Expansion of settlements and base camps

Notched and stemmed triangular stone points
Containers of stone and pottery
Ground and polished stone artifacts

Woodland

1,000 B.C. – A.D. 1,000

Rise of social inequality and status changes
Villages
Horticulture and Hunting/Gathering

Spread of pottery production
Horticulture

Northern Pottery Tradition: Fine and heavy cord-marked pottery

Mississippian

A.D. 1,000 -1,500

Chiefdoms
Intensive agriculture
Hierarchy
Long distance trade

Shell-tempered pottery
Major socio-political change
Maize agriculture

Riverine Settlements
Closest chiefdoms were Pisgah and Dallas
Carter Robinson Mound
Ely Mound

During the Woodland period (1,000 B.C. – A.D. 1,000) native populations increased. Tribal societies emerged, and with them came the development of sedentary village life. During this period, pottery became widespread, horticulture developed, and elaborate mortuary rituals were practiced (Hudson 1976:56). Trade networks also developed and became an important part of the Woodland period. The following Mississippian period (A.D. 1,000 – 1,500) saw a sharp increase in population size and the emergence of chiefdoms. Large sites such as Cahokia in St. Louis, Missouri and Moundville, Alabama became areas of complex ceremonial and cultural centers. The Mississippian period is defined by its development of centralized political structure, agriculture with hierarchical leadership, and large-scale hunting and gathering supplemented by extensive trade (Hudson 1976:95-96).

Starting with the 1539 expedition of Hernando De Soto, the culture of the Southeastern Indians greatly changed with the advent of European contact. Over the following 300 years of contact and systematic colonization, native groups were negatively affected by disease and native slavery and were displaced from their lands (Hudson 1976:10). By the time Lee County was first explored in the mid-1700s, native groups like the Cherokee and Shawnee could claim the area as ancestral land but few groups appear to have inhabited the county at that time (Brown 1937:507).

Martha Grace Lowry Mize