• Human settlement in the
Americas later than in Africa,
Asia, and Europe but followed similar pattern
The Earliest Americans
• Americas were connected to
Asia by a land bridge called
Beringia thousands of years ago.
This is how the first people came to the Americas

• First Americans arrived toward the end of the Ice Age (1.6 million – 10,000 BCE)
• The Ice Age lowered sea levels and allowed people to move
• Wild animals like the mastadon migrated across the Beringia land bridge
• Migrants followed the animals- unaware they were going into a new continent
• No one knows for certain when the migrations occurred
• Only have evidence dating back to 9500
BCE near Clovis, New Mexico and from
10,500 BCE near Monte Verde, Chile

• Earliest Americans lived as hunters, so they moved often to find new food
• Probably lived in caves or temporary shelters
• Experimented with simple methods of farming

• 7,000 BCE people in central Mexico begin to rely more on wild edible plants, raising some of them from seeds
• 5,000 BCE people begin growing the plants
• 3400 BCE plants included maize, squashes, gourds, beans avocados and chilies
• Gradually, people settled in permanent villages in the Tehuacan
Valley (south of present day Mexico city)

• First known civilization builders were the Olmec around 1200
BCE in the jungles of southern
Mexico

• 1200 BCE – 400 BCE
• Lived along the gulf coast of
Mexico
• Environment- humid jungle with high annual rainfall, which caused rivers to flood
• Good deposits of salt and tar and clay, wood and rubber, hard stone, fertile farming land along the flood plains
• San Lorenzo is the oldest site around 1150 BCE

• Courtyards, pyramids, large stone monuments
• Columns, altars, colossal, sculpted heads
• Small ruling class of priests and nobles
• La Venta rose around 900 BCE
• Site of the Great Pyramid
• Could have been a religious site or a tomb for an Olmec ruler
• Believed to be polytheistic

Jaguar Worship
• Worshipped jaguar spirit, as the jaguar was central to Olmec religion
Trade and Commerce
• Evidence at La Venta of fishers, farmers, traders, artisans, sculptors
• Large trading network stretching as far as Mexico City to Honduras
Decline of the Olmec
• Unknown reasons for collapse
• No written records

• Zapotec built a similar civilization in
Mexican state of Oaxaca by the time the Olmec collapsed
Peoples of the Oaxaca Valley
• Region of mountains and valleys but at the center there are three valleys that make up the Oaxaca Valley
• Lived in scattered villages in the valley
• By 1000 BCE San Jose Mogote emerged a s a main power
• Constructed stone platforms
• Temples
• Early forms of hieroglyphic writing and a calendar system

• 500 BCE Monte Alban established as first urban center
• By 200 BCE 15,000 people lived there
• 250-700 CE pyramids, temples, palaces, stone carvings of corpses
• Declined after 600 for unknown reasons

Olmec Leave their Mark
• Many later civilizations copy aspects of Olmec culture, especially art styles and the jaguar motif and pyramids, ball games, ceremonial centers
Zapotec contributions
• Hieroglyphic language and calendar system based on the movement of the sun
• Americas’ first city builders

• Andes mountains stretch 4,000 miles
• Andes is the second tallest peak
Early settlements along the coast
• Environment challenging with poor soil, difficult travel, and severe climate but between the mountains and the Pacific
Ocean is a narrow coastal plain and in some places rivers cross to the ocean
• 3600- 2500 BCE people established temporary villages along the coast
• First hunter gatherers but by 3,000 evidence of farming
• 1800 BCE thriving communities

• Chavin arose in the mountains
• 900 – 200 BCE
• 10,000 feet above sea level
• Pyramids, plazas, and earthen mounds
• No evidence of political or econ.
Organization, so they must have been primarily a religious civilization
• Spread art and religious images to influence other peoples
• Chavin were the mother culture

• 200 BCE – 600 CE along the southern coast of Peru
• Extensive irrigation systems, including underground canals
• Beautiful textiles and pottery featuring images of animals and mythological beings
• Nazca Lines- huge drawings in stone which can only be seen from the air because of their large size and were probably done for the gods

• 100 – 700 CE
• Took advantage of the rivers from the
Andes mountains
• Irrigation systems
• Enormous wealth- because jewelry from gold, silver and other semiprecious stones
• Ceramic artists
• Doctors healing
• No written language
• Don’t know much about religious beliefs or why they fell