Question # The strongest settlement of early Americans was established in Mexico by the Olmecs between 1200 B.C. and 100 B.C. A settlement is a place or region newly settled. They settled in the forests, savannas, and rivers of the Gulf of Mexico. Archaeologists have learned a good deal about the Olmecs from digs in two major Olmec cities, La Venta and San Lorenzo. Question # The Olmecs were farmers and fishermen who also did a small amount of hunting. The major crops were maize, beans, and squash. Along with fish, the Olmecs would catch turtles for their main source of protein. The Olmecs would also substitute domesticated dog and turkey meat in their diet. Olmec religion featured mainly worship of the Jaguar and Werejaguars (children with Jaguar features), though snake worship was popular too. They believed that the Jaguar was very closely associated with a person's spirit and that should the Jaguar die, the person would also die. Question # The Olmecs must have had a high regard for art as many cave paintings & huge stone sculptures have been found, along with jade artifacts & statues. Typical Olmec art featured jaguars, thick-lipped soldiers and goateebearded men and often a combination of jaguar and children. As they believed themselves to be descendants of the Jaguar, the animal was held in very high esteem, often featuring in religious ceremonies. Question # From about A.D. 250, the Mayans built a huge civilization in Mesoamerica. It covered the area which is now Belize and parts of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico. For at least 600 years, the Mayans were a major force in Mesoamerica. Question # Throughout Mayan lands, priests studied the sky from observatories. The Maya used their observations to calculate the solar year. These calculations allowed the Maya to create their solar calendar of 365 days. They also had a sacred 260-day calendar. The Maya used place values for numbers. Instead of being based on the number 10, their system was based on 20. Also, the Maya recognize the need for zero. Question # The Maya developed the most common system of writing in the Americas. They used hieroglyphics to represent sounds, words, and ideas. Over time, the Maya created hundreds of glyphs. Eventually, scribes could write down anything in the spoken language. Not all Mayan groups shared the same language. Instead, they speak related dialects. Question # The Mayas built their temples on immense pyramids with steeped bases, and each side of the pyramid had a set of steps that lead up to the temple. The temples were built out of beautifully carve stones and its only floor was adorned on the exterior with elaborate and wonderful stucco decorations. Of course, these temples were built for religious purposes. The back wall of the inner room has a carved face of this god. The architects have also decided to have a sky roof to truly worship their god. Question # Beginning in A.D. 900, the Toltecs ruled a strong civilization in the Mexican highlands. The ruins of their main city, Tula, includes remains of several temples. One of these temples honored Quetzalcoatl, a great feathered serpent, who the Toltecs believed had founded the city. Experts believe that nomads took over the Toltecs about A.D. 1200. Question # The Aztec civilization took shape about A.D. 1200. From their main city of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs ruled a large kingdom in much of central and southern Mexico. By the time of the fall of the Aztecs in A.D. 1521, 100,000 people were living in Tenchtitlan. Question # The Aztec society was a highly structured one, with nobility, priests, warriors and peasants. Slavery was common, but was not hereditary or necessarily life-long. Warriors gained status by the number of captives they acquired, not the number of 'enemy' they killed. Captives were used as trade items and sacrifices. Question # The Aztecs were gifted painters and sculptors. Painters used brilliant colors to create scenes showing gods and religious ceremonies. Sculptors fashioned stone statues and relief sculptures on temple walls. They also carved small, lifelike figures of people and animals from rock and semiprecious stones such as jade. Question # To create routes through steep mountain ranges, the Incas in South America carved staircases and gouged tunnels out of rock. They also built suspension bridges over rivers. To irrigate the crops, the Incas built canals that brought water to the top of the terrace. The Incas also fashioned objects out of gold. Instead of a written language, the Incas used quipus, or knotted set of strings, as memory aids in sending messages and recording information. Question # As early as 3,000 years ago, several North American groups, including the Hohokam and the Anasazi, introduced crops into the arid deserts of the Southwest. Later, between 300 B.C. and A.D. 1400, each group established its own civilization. The Hohokam settled in the valleys of the Salt and Gila rivers in what is now central Arizona, and built homes out of adobe, or sun-dried brick. The Anasazi took to the mesa tops, cliff sides, and canyon bottoms of the Four Corners region—an area where the present-day states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet where they built multi-story dwellings known as pueblos. Question # To the east of the Mississippi River, in a region extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, another series of complex societies developed. There the Adena, the Hopewell, and the Mississippian societies excelled at trade and at building. Some Adena and Hopewell structures consisted of huge burial mounds filled with finely crafted objects. Other mounds were sculpted into effigies, or likenesses, of animals so large that they can be seen clearly only from the air. People of the Mississippian culture constructed gigantic pyramidal mounds. Question # Stretching from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean, the Southeast has mild winters and warm summers with plenty of rainfall. The Cherokees were the largest group in the Southeast. Other people in the Southeast included Choctaws, Chickasaws, Natchez, and Creeks. Because of the long growing season, they were primarily farmers, but depended on hunting and fishing. Their main crops were corn, beans, squashes, and pumpkins. Question # The tribes that lived in the Eastern Woodlands had much in common. Native peoples like the Iroquois built villages in forest clearings and blended agriculture with hunting and gathering. They traveled by foot or by canoe. Because of the vast supply of trees, most groups used woodworking tools to craft everything from snowshoes to canoes. The Algonquians, on the other hand, lived in wigwams, or oval frames that are made out of saplings covered with bark sheets. Question # The waterways and forests of the northwest coast sustained large communities year-round. The sea was of prime importance. On a coastline that stretched from what is now southern Alaska to northern California, peoples such as the Kwakiutl, Nootka, and Haida collected shellfish from the beaches and hunted the ocean for whales, sea otters, and seals. Peoples such as the Kwakiutl decorated masks and boats with magnificent totems, symbols of the ancestral spirits that guided each family. Kwakiutl families also displayed their histories on huge totem poles set in front of their cedar-plank houses. Question # Despite their cultural diversity, most Native American groups shared several cultural features. American Indians believed that spirits could be found in every plant, animal, rock, cloud, and body of water. They possessed little private property, and most local land was considered a common ground for every resident to use. There was a respectful equality among the various groups of Indians. Usually, work was divided along gender lines. Men did the hunting, while women took care of the children, prepared food, and made baskets and pottery.
