The First Americans

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Chapter 2 The First Americans
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I. People arrive in the Americas A. The
Beginning 1. 2 million to 10,000
years ago earth was in an Ice Age 2.
Area between present day Alaska northeastern
Asia was a land bridge called
Beringia 3. Covered today by water
called the Bering Strait 4. Asian
hunters followed herds of large animals across
the land bridge into North America. 
They later spread south. 
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Wooly Mammoth
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Caribou reindeer
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Bison
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B. Living in the Americas 1. First
Americans were Hunter-Gatherers.  They hunted
animals, but also gathered seeds,
berries, nuts, plants.. 2. Made their
own tools and weapons from stone pieces,
bone, wood. 3. Archaeologists
scientists who search for traces of
peoples from the past.  They look for and examine
artifacts from the past (tools,
weapons, artwork, jewelry, etc.) 4.
Around 8,000 years ago, groups of people were
living throughout both North America
and South America. 
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Just discovered in May 2008 in Boulder,
Colorado Tools believed to be 13,000 years old
Belonging to Clovis group
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C. Responding to Warmer Climate 1. Ice
Age ended 10,000 years ago.  Temps warmed
ice melted 2. Beringia was covered
with rising ocean stopping foot
migration to the Americas. 3. Large
animals became extinct.  Mainly b/c of
climate change. 4. Hunter-Gatherers
adjusted by hunting smaller food and
fishing.  Built more permanent shelters
stored food to make it last. 
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• The First Farmers
• 1. First farming began around 9,000 years
  ago.
• 2. Later people in Mexico created Maize
  (first corn) from
• wild grasses growing in the
  highlands.  Maize later
• spreads into Central South
  America.  Arrives in North
• America by 2,000 years ago.

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E. The Native Americans (2000 yrs ago)
1. Scientists believe they are descendants of
the Asian hunters. 2. Spread
throughout North and South America and
developed a variety of cultures 3.
Culture a total way of life people follow to
satisfy their needs and wants.
4. By 2,000 years ago two major tribes lived
in the U.S.      Anasazi and Mound
Builders
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F. Mound Builders 1. Began settling in
the Midwest Southeast about 2,700
years ago. 2. Name comes from monuments
of earth and dirt that they built.
3. Some mounds were religious, some were
burial sites. 4. Good sources to find
artifacts.
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G. 3 major Mound Building tribes 1.
Adena a. in southern part of West
Virginia Ohio b. Mainly hunter
gatherers c. Disappeared around 500
A.D. 2. Hopewell a. in WV,
OH, IN, IL, IA, MO, WI, MI b.
Farmers c. Disappeared around 500
A.D. 3. Mississippian a.
developed around 700 b. Most advanced
Mound Builders c. Advanced farmers
c. Lived along rivers and had large
permanent villages d. Cahokia
largest village (40,000 people) along the
Illinois River. e.
Mississippians began disappearing around 1500.
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Adena Criel Mound A 35-foot high and 175-foot
diameter conical mound second largest of its type
in West Virginia discovered numerous skeletons
along with weapons and jewelry.
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Emerald Mound on the Natchez Trace Parkway in
Mississippi. second-largest Pre-Columbian
earthwork in the country measuring 770 by 435
feet at the base and 35 feet in height Underwent
major restorations in the 1950s b/c of erosion
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Monks Mound Cahokia Collinsville, IL Largest
pre-Columbian earthwork http//www.cahokiamounds.
com/
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Cahokia
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H. Cliff Dwellers 1. Cliff Dwellers
built houses on the walls of canyons and
under the overhangs of caves. 2.
Anasazi a. Lived in present day
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado,
and Utah from about 100 to 1300.
b. Homes were called Pueblos c.
Pueblos were similar to apartments.  Stacked on
top of one another.
d. Disappeared around 1300.
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sight of the cliffs dwellings by outsiders seems
to have first occurred in the latter half of the
1800s
Montezuma County, Colorado
Cliff Palace is thought to be the largest cliff
dwelling in North America
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Montezuma Castle National Monument, located near
Camp Verde, Arizona
The five-story stone and mortar dwellings contain
20 rooms and once housed about 50 people
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Todays Cliff/Cave dwellers
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Utah
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Arizona The Cave House  MLS   123318 Bedrooms 
  3 Bathrooms   3     Bisbee, AZ Asking
Price    1,950,000Acres   37.0 thecavehouse.co
m
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ARKANSAS BED BREAKFAST 1000 PER NIGHT 5 BR
EACH WITH OWN BATH SOME JACUZZI
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Section 3 The Maya, Aztec, Inca
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MAYA
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Aztec, Inca, Maya
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Chapter 2 -- Section 3 A. Maya 1.
began around 2600 B.C. Located in todays
Mexico and Central America (Guatemala,
Belize, El Salvador, Honduras)
2. Master builders 3. Farmers 4.
Rulers and priests lived in cities in large stone
palaces 5. Priests were the most
important people in the city helped
please gods.
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6. Gods were thought to control sun, rain,
and other forces of nature 7.
Priests studied stars, sky, passage of time, made
accurate maps, developed 2 calendars
(365 day) 8. Were skilled mathematicians
had symbol to represent 0 9.
Developed system of writing hieroglyphs
pictures and symbols, 10. About
year 900 began leaving cities Maybe climate
change, sickness, war. 11. By mid
1500s the Spaniards had taken all Mayan
strongholds
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The ruins of Palenque.
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Ballcourt at Tikal, Guatemala
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A stucco relief from Palenque
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codices (singular codex) are folding books
inner bark of certain trees, the main being the
wild fig tree
5th century,the same era that the Romans did, but
their paper was more durable and a better writing
surface than papyrus
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Quetzal
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Gold monkey bell
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AZTEC
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Aztec, Inca, Maya
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• Aztec
• 1. Located in present day Mexico
• 2. Legend led them to build their capital on a
  marshy island in Lake Texcoco present day Mexico
  City. They named the capital Tenochtitlan (tay
  nawch teet lahn), which means Place of the
  Prickly Pear Cactus around year 1325
• 3. 3 causeways (raised highways) connected
  island capital with
• mainland around the lake
• 4. Brought fresh water from mountains by
  aqueducts
• 5. Built stone pyramids for priests.
• 6. Built empire on trade and conquest.
• 7. Warriors fierce and well trained

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• 8. Conquered people became members of Aztec
• 9. Rigid class system
• Nobles inherited positions
• Government Officials Priests, warriors
• Commoners peasant farmers, and enslaved persons
• Slaves children were born free
• 10. Traveled great distance to trade
• Religion - most sacred god was sun and war gods.
  There
• were over 1,000 other gods.
• Priests kept history of Aztec gods and events
  and were
• teachers
• 13. Montezuma II welcomed Spaniards (Cortez)
  into city 1520 attacked by Spaniards believed
  to be killed by his own people by stoning b/c he
  was very pompous emperor

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Interesting Things to Know Believed to have
fled southwestern United States NM, CO, TX
because of devastating storm many can speak
Shoshone language city of Tenochtitlan had
about 60,000 houses and 300,000 residents Huge
pipes carried fresh drinking water from the
mountain zoos 20,000 to 25,000 people visited
the market everyday 50,000 on scheduled market
days Human sacrifice recorded 80,000 killed
in 4 days to dedicate new temple estimated to
sacrifice 250,000 per year nobles probably
practiced cannibalism
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Sculpture commemorating the moment when Aztecs
found the sign from the god Huitzilopochtli.
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The City of Tenochtitlan
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Aztec Sun Stone
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Ceramic vessel featuring Tlaloc (rain deity)
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Ceramic flute Aztec (circa AD1500)
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An Aztec temple
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INCA
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Aztec, Inca, Maya
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C. Inca 1. Lived along Andes Mts.
Through present day Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile 2. Well
organized tribe 3. Conquered others by
peaceful means 4. Capital was Cuzco.  Sat
high in the Andes 5. Incan ruler held
great power over the people 6. Farmers
terrace farming, irrigation, raised herds of
llama and alpaca for meat and wool
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• Government owned all food.  Most people had to
  work on
• projects for the government
• 8. One project was road building to connect the
  empire
• Spanish conquered the Incas in 1529, Pizarro
  returned to Spain and received royal approval to
  conquer the Inca region and become its viceroy
• Spanish takeover was easy b/c of power struggle
  for ruler
• and smallpox epidemic
• Spaniards literally worked the Incas to death in
  the gold and
• silver mines

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The Inca were instructed to create a Temple of
the Sun in the spot where the gold staff sank
into the earth, to honor their celestial father.
After a long journey, including a tour of the
underworld, the Inca arrived at Cuzco, where they
built the temple Inca tax collectors would take
the head lice of the lame and old as a symbolic
tribute 10,000 mile long stone covered road
system
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http//encarta.msn.com/media_701765744_761560004_-
1_1/Ruins_of_Machu_Picchu.html
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Macchu Picchu, The Last Stronghold of Inca
Civilization
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http//www.answers.com/topic/inca
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A detail of an Inca stone work
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Inca tunic
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Coca leaves
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Approximately 200 varieties of potatoes were
cultivated by the Incas and their predecessors
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Intihuatana, the hitching post of the sun, is
possibly the last remaining seasonal sun dials in
Peru. The rest were destroyed by the Spaniards,
who as Catholics, found them to be paganistic.
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One of the main events in the conquest of the
Incan Empire was the death of Atahualpa, the last
Sapa Inca on 29 August 1533
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In the Inca Empire, artifacts of gold and other
precious metals were associated with nobility,
wealth, and political power. This gold Inca Sun
Mask is held in the Central Bank Museum in Quito,
Ecuador.
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A porter carries a typical Inca aryballoid jar in
this Inca ceramic figure from the 15th or early
16th century. Such jars, typically used to store
food and drink, had a narrow neck and a roughly
spherical base with handles. To carry the jars,
ropes or straps were threaded through the handles
and around ones head or body. Goods were carried
by foot and by pack animals over the empires
vast network of stone roads.