The Paleoindian Period (ca. 9000-7000 B.C.)
After the Laurentide ice sheet receded, small groups of Native Americans moved into the region about 11,500 years ago. They moved frequently in their pursuit of local game resources such as caribou and other animals, which lived in the cold, tundra like environment, much colder and drier than Vermont’s climate today. They likely lived in small groups and traveled extensively in their pursuit of food and raw material resources they used to make their tools. Their stone tool kits include spear points, drills and scraping tools that they used to hunt and process the animals they desired.

The Archaic Period (ca. 7000-1000 B.C.)
The Archaic period is marked by a change in environment with overall warmer and drier conditions. Native Americans adapted to this changing environment as different resources for food, clothing and shelter became available. They developed new technologies and added new tools to their tool kit. They made specialized woodworking tools to fashion a variety of wooden objects including the dug out canoe for river and lake fishing and travel. We know that Native Americans during the Archaic period utilized the abundant resources locally available to them, including moose, deer, beaver, otter, muskrat, birds, fish as well as a wide variety of plant and nut resources.

Resharpened Otter Creek
point, ca. 3000 B.C.

The Woodland Period
(ca. 1000 B.C. – A.D. 1600)
The Woodland period is marked by the first Native American ceramic manufacture in the Northeast. Along with this technological innovation, native peoples also used more and more plant resources. Waterways provided important food and raw material resources, travel routes and settlement locations for native populations and during the latter part of the Woodland period, Native Americans settled in large villages along major rivers in Vermont. Archaeological evidence suggests they began cultivating corn, beans and squash supplementing the traditional diet of wild animals and plants.

Levanna point,
ca. A.D. 1000.

European glass beads
used by native peoples.

The Contact Period (ca. A.D. 1600 – 1750)
By the early 1600s the lives of Native Americans were drastically altered with the arrival of Europeans. By the end of the seventeenth century, interactions between Europeans and native peoples resulted in changes in Native American economies, technologies, settlement patterns and demographics. One of the most tragic results of European contact was a severe population loss due to European introduced diseases for which native peoples had no immunity. The archaeological record indicates that native peoples began to use many European items, including iron tools, copper kettles and glass beads. At some sites we see a blending of traditional and European manufactures reflecting adaptations made by Native Americans to their changing world. Descendants of Vermont’s first inhabitants, the Abenaki, still reside in Vermont today.

A History Timeline
Can you imagine what Bennington was like over 10,000 years ago? Do you wonder how Vermont's first inhabitants lived such a long time ago? Answering these simple questions is the job of the archaeologist. Our understanding of past cultures is based on information recovered through scientific excavation. Through these studies, archaeologists developed a chronology of Native American history in New England.