Bering Land
Bridge: Beringia
Where is it?
• It was located where the Bering Strait is
today, between Russia and North
America.
• The Bering Strait is the water way that
separates Russia from North America.
• Under it lies a submerged landmass that
once connected Asia with North America;
called Beringia or the Bering Land Bridge.
How was it formed?
• During the Ice Age changes in climate
caused the formation of huge amounts of
ice made from the surrounding seas.
• This freezing caused the sea levels to fall
and coastlines to change.
• During this time a 12-mile wide, 1000 mile
long “land bridge” formed (Beringa),
approximately 40,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.
“Land Bridge”
Geography
• During cycles of global cooling, such as the most recent ice age,
enough sea water became concentrated in the ice caps of the Arctic
and Antarctic that the subsequent drop in sea levels exposed
shallow sea floors.
People
• The Earliest Americans crossed the Arctic
Ocean from Asia to North America during
the Ice Age.
• Around 11,000 B.C. to 9,000 B.C., Native
Americans walked across the land bridge
and slowly migrated south establishing
three of our earliest distinct cultures: the
Inuits, the Anasazi, and the Mound
Builders.
Where did it go?
• At the end of the Ice Age (approx. 10,000
B.C.) temperatures began to rise and ice
began to melt.
• Eventually the water covered the 12-mile
wide land bridge that had been created by
glaciers and people could no longer “walk”
to America.
Where did the people go?
• People chose different lifestyles based on
the climate, the food sources and
movement.
• Some chose to stay in the north and hunt
while others moved further south and
eventually became farmers.
Where’s the Proof?
At first, Scientists found proof that the first Americans were the Clovis people—
named for an archeological site located near Clovis, New Mexico and that they walked
across the Bering Land Bridge and spread into what is now the United States
about 13,500 years ago.
In recent years, however, researchers have unearthed many sites that appear
to be pre-Clovis, some of them potentially doubling the time frame people have
been in the Western Hemisphere.
Look at interactive site http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/clovis.html
What evidence do researchers have of pre-Clovis settlements?
Those that settled in North America were deft hunters capable of bringing down
massive animals while tolerating harsh environmental conditions,
There is no evidence that
early Americans hunted
the short face bear and
saber tooth cat. They did
hunt Mastodon
dire wolf and peccary
The giant ground sloth is just one
of numerous large mammals that
vanished forever as the Ice Age
wound down in North America.
More proof found before
Clovis…
Let’s watch….
Stone Age Toolkit
2
1
3
Draw (as best you can each tool)
Guess what each tool was used
for.
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5
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/toolkit.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/toolkit.html