Prehistoric Cultures of N America

Paleo Indian• ancient peoples of the Americas who were present at the

end of the last Ice Age• Village Names of Paleo Indians

– Clovis used pointed projectiles to hunt – Folsom used spears– Plano drove animals off cliffs

• Came from Asia??? • these people were nomadic hunter-gatherers – followed

animal migration• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmbU7mQIc-c

Moundbuilders• type of N American natives who constructed various styles of

earthen mounds for burial residential and ceremonial purposes

• lived during the first thousand years AD• farming and irrigation• Village Names of Moundbuilders

– Adena– Hopewell– Mississippian

• lived in the Mississippi area

Southwestern

• Ancient pueblo people • lived in the S Western portion of the U.S.• Village names of southwestern pre-

historic Natives:– Mogollon

• stone workers– Hohokam =

• canal builders– Anasazi

• basket makers

Dating Methods

• how do historians know how old things and people are

• calendar ages – ex dendrochronology – tree ring dating

• numerical ages – ex radiocarbon – looks at the amount of carbon

• correlated ages – ex volcanic ash

• relative ages – geologic time – “Middle Ages” “Ice Age”

Ice Age• a period of long term reduction

in the temperature of Earth’s climate

• results in an expansion of ice sheets …glaciers

• Bering strait – tip between Russia and Alaska– a natural land bridge

spanned this distance between the two continents

– not there anymore… it melted

SUMMARY

• QUIZ TIME• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maziRFPYU14

• T/F The Paleo Indians possibly followed mammoths across the Bering Strait to America.

• 2. T/F The Anasazi people of the Southwest were canal builders.

• 3. T/F You could still cross the Bering Strait today by foot.