| ca. 8000 B.C. | American Archaic cultures are those that occur between Paleoindian hunter groups and the peoples who have realized some combination of pottery making, burial mound construction, and garden technology. The combination varies from area to area. |
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| ca. 5000 B.C. | Indian Knoll and other shell-mound sites along the Green River, in Kentucky, begin to be occupied. |
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| ca. 4000 B.C. | Small conical burial mounds are the earliest earthworks along the Mississippi. |
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| ca. 3500 B.C. | People of the Old Copper culture around the Great Lakes use native copper for tools. |
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| ca. 3000 B.C. | Lovelock Cave, an open rock shelter in western Nevada, is inhabited, and remains in use until historic times. Large quantities of perishable materials such as bird decoys, baskets, basketry items, featherwork, and skin blankets have been discovered there. |
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| ca. 2500 B.C. | Pottery is made in the lower Savannah River valley of Georgia and South Carolina. |
