Term: Paleoindian culture (archaeology)
Definition: ca. 12,000 to 9,000 years ago, or 10,000 to 7,000 B.C.; the earliest archaeological epoch, characterized by retreating glaciers, mastodons and other large mammals, and small mobile groups of hunters.
[Source: Theler, James L. and Robert F. Boszhardt. Twelve Millennia: Archaeology of the Upper Mississippi River (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2003).]
