NAME:________________________
BLOCK: ___________
DATE: ________________________
Ice Age Discoveries in Virginia
1. Cactus Hill is located on the NOTTAWAY River in SOUTHEASTERN Virginia.
2. Cactus Hill is an ARCHEOLOGICAL site that has uncovered EVIDEN that HUMANS lived there as much
as 18,000 years ago.
3. Cactus Hill is important because it is RE-WRITING the history of who our earliest ANCESTORS were in
North AMERICA.
4. The most accepted theory of how the 1st Explorers came to America was that ancient People
travelled along the LAND BRIDGE formed between ASIA and NORTH AMERICA at the BERING Strait.
5. In this theory, how did people and animals spread south throughout North America?
1. Ancient People followed the ANIMALS they HUNTED for food further south into
NORTH AMERICA.
2. Ancient People travelled along the PACIFIC Coast
6. A second theory has ancient explorers coming from across the ATLANTIC OCEAN from Western
EUOPE and settling along the EAST coast and SOUTHERN part of North AMERICA.
7. What is the evidence uncovered at Cactus Hill to question the accepted theory? PRE-CLOVIS artifacts
such as BLADES dating 5,000 years BEFORE what was believed to be the time of the FIRST
people.
8. What did this evidence tell us about the people who lived at Cactus Hill? The TOOLS used showed
that these early people were advanced HUNTERS and GATHERERS.
9. How has the discovery of the ancient settlement in Cactus Hill raised new questions about how the
first people migrated to North America? Evidence discovered shows that PEOPLE migrated to VIRGINIA
along the EAST coast of North America much EARLIER than first thought. This raises a different theory
than people migrated over the LAND BRIDGE in Alaska.