Both in what is now the eastern and the southwestern United States, the peoples of
the Archaic era (8,000-1,000 B.C) were, in a way, already adapted to beginnings of
cultivation through their intensive gathering and processing of wild plant foods. In both
Line areas, there was a well-established ground stone tool technology, a method of pounding
(5) and grinding nuts and other plant foods, that could be adapted to newly cultivated foods.
By the end of the Archaic era, people in eastern North America had domesticated certain
native plants, including sunflowers; weeds called goosefoot, sump weed, or marsh elder;
and squash or gourds of some kind. These provided seeds that were important sources of
carbohydrates and fat in the diet.