Think: How could people first get to the Americas?

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Think: How could people first get to the Americas?

What does it mean to be “civilized” to an

archeologist?

Migration To The Americas

• Archaeology • The study of the unwritten past

• Uses artifacts - remains of objects used

• Hypothesize what happened (could be wrong)

Discuss with a partner:Would you like to be an

archaeologist? Why or why not? (R, F, D)

Migration (Cont.)

• Migration • To move from place to place

• Paleo-Indians were pursuing food, NOT going for a hike!

Where did the Paleo-Indians, or first

Americans come from?During the Ice Age much of the world grew very cold. Water froze into huge moving ice sheets called glaciers. Ocean levels dropped more than 300 feet lower than they are today.

Migration

• Beringia • Land bridge connecting Asia and North America

• Ice Age - 38,000 to 10,000 B.C.

• Paleo-Indians chased food (wooly mammoth) across Beringia

Discuss with a neighbor:

From what you now know, what is wrong with this

picture?

“The low lying land bridge was no landscape of gently waving grass… It was a tireless, arctic land, covered with a patchwork of very different types of vegetation.” - Bryan Fagan, Ancient North

America

Discuss with a partner:

What does this quote suggest about the harshness of the journey across the Beringia

land bridge?

Why would the Paleo-Indians have made this journey?

Migration

• Climate • Weather of a region• Different climates have different vegetation (plants) and animals

• People need to adapt (change) to the climate they are in

Migration (cont.)

• Societies • Different climates forced creation of different Native American groups

• Have a common culture

• Set of values and traditions

• Culture

Migration (cont.)

• Formation of Tribes

• As groups spread out over North and South America, very different groups are formed

• All adapt to their environment

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Central and South America

• Maya • Lived on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico

• Famous for math and astronomy

• Had a 365 day calendar

• Lived from 300 to 900 A.D.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

• Aztec (Triple Alliance)

• Comparatively violent society

• Lived in modern day Mexico from 1200 to about 1550 A.D.

• Vast empire based on trade

• Tenochtitlan - capital of 300,000 people

• Inka (Inca) • Lived in the Andes mountains above 10,000 feet of elevation (Peru and Chile)

• Used llamas for transport (no horses)

• Amazing builders - 25,000 miles of roads with steps up mountains

• Dug canals and terraced mountains