| The
Palaeo Period (up till 9000 B. P.) |
The Archaic
Period (9000 - 3000 B.P.) |
The Woodland
Period (3000 - 300 B.P.) |
| The Historic
or Post-Contact Period ( 300 B.P. - Present) |
Archaeology
Canada and the Ontario Curriculum |
Annotated
Resource List |
Archaeologists divide the past
into different periods. They do this when they find changes like:
Archaeologists try to understand why these changes happened: -Did the people have new inventions or ideas? -Did people trade with or learn new ideas from different people? -Did other people take over or just move into the area, or start to marry people from the area? Archaeologists don't usually think that one day someone said, "I'm tired of being in the Archaic Period. I think I'll call this the Initial Woodland Period, starting today." The names of the periods were made by the archaeologists many years after the people in the past lived their lives. How the people themselves, in the past felt is not known. Did you notice when times changed from the "Industrial Age" to the "Information Age"? The information that follows is an understanding of the past, told from the point of view of an archaeologist, using archaeological terms. Archaeologists can share information about the past with each other when they use the same terms. It helps them to understand the past better if they can talk about it with each other. This story is missing the songs, games, laughter, tears, tales, fears and ideas the people of the past had themselves. We hope, by understanding these people as best we can, we honour their past and help learn more about the story of all humankind.
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