The Woodland Period

Abstract

The archaeological record of the Woodland period in the Chesapeake tidewater region is rich and particularly intriguing. At certain places and during certain times it is spectacular. By the conclusion of the three millennia included in this period, the redirection of lifeways initiated at the end of the Archaic reached its fullest expression in the chiefdoms that mark the end of prehistory. Early European explorers and settlers also interacted with native populations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries leaving a dramatic documentary record of that event. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries pioneer ethnographers even caught a fleeting glimpse of the remains of traditional ways of life. All of these elements have created a rich environment for archaeological inquiry.