The First Americans

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The First Americans
By Karen Phillips. 12/06
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Questions
The First Americans Who, What, When, Where,
How, Why?

• Who were the first Americans?
• When did the first Americans start arriving?
• Where did they come from?
• Where did they first enter the Americas?
• How did they travel to the Americas?
• Why did they come to a new land?
• What was daily life like for these First
  Americans?

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The Very First Americans - Who Were They?
? The Americas were the last continents on earth
to be occupied by man. ? Before man arrived,
large animals roamed and ruled the land. ?
Short-faced bears ran as fast as horses and were
twice the size of todays grizzly bears. ? 3500
pound ground sloths, 20 feet long and standing
over 6 feet tall roamed the land.
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More Wild Animals
? Teratorns birds weighed 30 pounds, had 10 foot
wing spans, but stalked their prey on the
ground ? Three-toed horses, that disappeared
before Columbus arrived, galloped across the
continent. ? Saber-toothed tigers with 10
canines were dangerous meateaters. ? Mastodons
and Mammoths ? Camels, antelope, bighorn sheep,
lions, deer, moose, fox, otters, and bison.
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The Ancient World Ice Sheets

• ? About 125,000 years ago, the earths last ice
  sheets formed and lasted until 12,000 years ago.
  
• ? Geologists know that during this age, ice
  sheets covered more than 30 of the earth,
  including much of North America and Europe.

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Lower Ocean Levels Land Bridges
? Because so much of the worlds water was frozen
in ice sheets, ocean levels were 200-500 feet
lower than they are today. ? The lower sea
levels exposed land that today is ocean floor.
Back then, these exposed lands existed as land
bridges.
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What Route Did the First Explorers Take to Travel
Here?
Land Bridge Theory
Coastal Route Theory
European Maritime Theory
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Beringia is the name that scientists call the
land bridge that existed between Asia and North
America.

• Beringia was a land bridge thousands of miles
  wide.
• Paleoclimatologists believe that the weather in
  Beringia was much milder than the weather in the
  area is today.
• Beringia supported wildlife and plants.

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Artifacts

• The tools, to the left, were found near Alaska.
  They are made of bird bone, whale bone, and
  walrus tusk.
• Some of the tools are tiny needles that were used
  to make waterproof clothing.
• They show that humans had adapted to the northern
  climate.
• Archaeologist Rick Knecht says these Aleutian
  tools show us only a glimpse of who these people
  were. All we have are these little piles of
  stones and bones. Its like trying to tell
  something about our culture by looking at steak
  knives.

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• The Enigma of the First Americans
• Geoarchaeologist C. Vance Haynes believes the
  first people who entered the Americas were
  explorers . . . Probably young people who were
  really bent on seeing what was over the next
  hill.
• The Beringia Land Bridge theory was long
  considered the most probable theory, but two
  problems with the theory arose
• How did the explorers travel thousands of miles
  over the relatively barren ice sheets. Some
  scientists argue that there was an area free of
  ice, a corridor, through which humans could have
  walked.
• Evidence from an archeological site in Monte
  Verde, Chile indicate that humans were living in
  South America at an earlier date than the North
  American artifacts indicate people were living
  here.
• (Michael Parfit and Photographer Kenneth
  Garrett. National Geographic, Accessed 10/29/06.
  http//www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0012/feature
  3/index.html

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Coastal Route Theory

• Recent evidence suggests that the coast of the
  Americas would have been habitable, livable. In a
  cave in Alaska, archeologists found the bones of
  a 10,400 year old man and tools nearby.
• The bones prove that the man ate a marine diet,
  fish and sea plants, proving that by 10,000 years
  ago, people lived along the coast.
• Ancient travelers could have traveled from Asia,
  along the coast of the Americas down to South
  America. The evidence would have been destroyed
  when the ice sheets melted and the ocean levels
  rose.

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European Maritime Theory

• Scientists have recently found similarities
  between the spear points found at certain
  American sites and the spear points made by the
  Solutreans, an ancient European culture.
• These similar spear points suggest that ancient
  man might have traveled across the Atlantic.
• The Solutreans might have traveled by boat, or
  the Atlantic might have been frozen, and the
  Solutreans could have walked.

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Everyday Life for the First American Hunter
Gatherers

• Humans developed farming about 8,000 years ago.
• Before man learned how to grow plants and take
  care of crops that would grow well in the same
  place year after year, people would hunt small
  and large animals, birds, and fish, and they
  would gather plants, berries, and roots that were
  edible, fit to be eaten.
• We call these people hunter gatherers.
• Hunter gatherers didnt live in permanent homes
  or villages. Instead they would move from place
  to place hunting and gathering food.
  (Hunter-Gatherers, Microsoft Encarta, 2001).

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Bibliography National Geographic.
http//www.centerfirstamericans.com/ La Brea
Tar Pits. Return to the Ice Age La Brea
Exploration Guide. Accessed 10/30/06.
http//www.tarpits.org/education/guide/flora/birds
.html Beringia. Accessed October 29, 2006.
http///www.beringia.com/02/02maina6.htm. Moyle,
Peter and Mary A. Orland. A History of
Wildlife in North America. Accessed 11/2/06.
http//marinebio.org/Oceans/Conservation/Moyle/ch2
.asp