23.8 America: a.d. 801 to 900

America

Back to America: A.D. 701 to 800

North america

The far north and canada

We have noted previously that since at least 2,300 B.C. northern Canada was inhabited by tribes of the Arctic Small Tool people, who, after about 600 B.C., were called the "Dorsets". A Dorset longhouse, carbon-dated to between A.D. 800 and 900, has just recently been excavated near the shore of the Knud Peninsula of Ellesmere Island by Professor Peter Schledermann and his associates. (Ref. 189 ) This house consisted of a framework of waist-high walls built of boulders with the base measuring 16 x 148 feet, which was believed to be the foundation for a row of skin tents. Nearby was a 100 foot row of outdoor, individual stone hearths, 18 in number, with stone platforms, apparently used as tables, between them. The community probably contained 100 people and debris on the longhouse floors would indicate that they dined well on various birds, foxes, arctic hares, seals, walruses, belugas and even narwhals. This particular settlement was evidently among the last for this people, as in the next century or two they mysteriously disappeared. At about this same time in this 9th century the Thule Culture, which appears to have involved a new, invading Inuit people, appeared throughout northern Canada. They had dog teams, kayaks, umiaks and winter igloos. They were seal hunters, ivory carvers and wore tailored skin clothing. Apparently they first coexisted with the Dorset groups, as Dorset artifacts have been found in Thule houses. (Ref. 189 , 209 )

Trager (Ref. 222 ) says that Greenland was discovered in 900 by the Norseman Gunbjorn, who was blown off course en route to Iceland from Norway.

The united states

In the central and southeastern United States the Mississippian Mound-builders Culture continued, with perhaps an increasing Mexican influence from extensive trading activities. This culture seemed to spread throughout the southeastern United States just before A.D. 900. (Ref. 284 ) Exquisite carved wooden figures have been found from the Key Marco Culture of Florida, dating to as early as A.D. 800. (Ref. 215 )

The Anasazia Culture, which had originally developed from the Desert Archaic in Colorado, New Mexico and northern Arizona, had now reached a high level of development with elaborate pueblo dwellings. At Mesa Verde, Colorado, some apartment houses had 800 rooms. There was some irrigation and the people were skilled in weaving, basketry, pottery, masonry, and masonry architecture. They led a ceremonial and artistic life and were skilled artisans in turquoise jewelry as well as wooden and bone tools and utensils. All through this century, however, much of the southern Colorado plateau became climatically unfit for growing corn, with even the best areas marginal. Below elevations of 5, 500 feet the land was too dry and above 7,500 it was too cold. As a result, the Anasazi were constantly moving, looking for more favorable sites. Excavations indicate that of 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants of the Dolores Valley all were gone by the next century. Their salvation came with new irrigation practices, using shallow channels to divert run-off onto small fields and check dams that collected eroding soil and held the water that carried it. (Ref. 277 ) In archeological classification the Pueblo I phase terminated at A.D. 900.