Formative stage

The Formative is the third of five stages defined by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in their 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.

[1] Cultures of the Formative Stage are supposed to possess the technologies of pottery, weaving, and developed food production; normally they are very largely reliant on agriculture.

[3] The dates, and the characteristics of the period called "Formative" vary considerably between different parts of the Americas.

There are alternative classification systems, and this ranking would overlap what others classify as the Woodland period cultures.

The Formative, Classic and post-Classic stages are sometimes incorporated together as the Post-archaic period, which runs from 1000 BC to the present.