General term for the cultures and styles represented in prehistoric sites falling in time between approximately 1000 BCE and 1000 CE, between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalist Mississippian cultures; including geographic regions from what is now eastern Canada south of the Subarctic region, the eastern United States, and along to the Gulf of Mexico. Characterized by agriculture, hunting, burial mounds, and a distinctive style of pottery. Over most of this area these cultures were replaced by the Mississippian culture in the 1st millennium CE, but in some regions they survived until historic times.
