Prehistoric Cultures
of N America
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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 huntergatherers – 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 prehistoric 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.