Woodland period

It's 17.3 feet long by 1.8 feet wide, two and a half inch thick walls, a 4.8 inch bottom, and they did radiocarbon dating and wood identification tests, which showed, with a 70% chance, that this canoe was created between 992 and 1049 CE.

That's a period archeologists call the Late Woodland Period, when the Mississippian culture was flourishing and in- indigenous groups were building effigy mounds and growing maize.

Super cool.

It's still on the bottom of the lake.

Now set that in its wider world because this valley was not isolated.

The period is the Early Woodland, and Early Woodland North America was crisscrossed by enormous exchange networks.

Copper came down from the Great Lakes.

Marine shell came up from the Gulf and the Atlantic.

And the timing fits almost too neatly.

Systematic mining begins around 1000 BC.

That is essentially the moment the Early Woodland world begins its great expansion.

Mound building starts.