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500–1700 CE

Period · North America — Great Plains

Late Prehistoric

500–1700 CE

Late Prehistoric is the general label used west of the Mississippi and in the Southwest and Great Basin for the era after the bow and before European contact. It covers Plains Village farmers, the Ancestral Puebloan, Hohokam and Mogollon traditions and the Fremont, as well as the Arctic Thule expansion. Small arrowpoints and regional pottery styles define it.

Dates500–1700 CE
RegionNorth America — Great Plains
PeriodO definition500–1500 CE — Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) (2012)· PeriodO — Periods, Organized

Cultures

Sites

Typical types

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Late Prehistoric" (Period). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/periods/late-prehistoric. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-late-prehistoric,
  title        = {Late Prehistoric},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/periods/late-prehistoric}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Period article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, periodo, wikidata. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

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Sources for this article: Stratum editorial (Stratum editorial);PeriodO — Periods, Organized (CC0);Wikidata (CC0). As of 2026-09-21; Study pack 2026.09. Data reproduced under the licences shown; text in Stratum's own words unless a section names its source.

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