Prehistoric GA

1
Prehistoric GA

• What happened before anyone wrote it down

2
Where did people come from??

• Did not just appear here they traveled by foot
  from Asia
• They walked across a land and ice bridge called
  Beringa - connected what is now Russia and Alaska
  
• Migrated down across North America to what is
  now GA
• Constantly moving in search of food
• Nomads

3
How long were people in Prehistoric GA?

• 4 prehistoric periods in GA
• Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippians.
• Not separate groups of people different
  generations of the same race.
• Paleo oldest, evolved, became the Archaic,
  evolved, became the Woodland, became
  Mississippians.

4
Why did the Prehistoric Period End?

• Not like dinosaurs - people did not die
  offcompletely.
• Period ended in 1732 bc Europeans arrived in
  North America, met natives.
• Prehistoric means before written history
• Europeans arrived, brought writing with them,
  ended prehistoric times

5
Paleo

• Lived from 10,000BCE to 8,000BCE.
• Paleo means very old/old stone
• Paleo Indians ate large animals like mammoths,
  bison, mastodons, giant sloth
• Nomads, moved to follow their food. They lived
  outside in groups
• They used knives and spear points made of rocks,
  invented a spear throwing device known as the
  atlatl

6
Archaic

• Lived from 8,000BCE to 1,000BCE
• Archaic means old
• Tried to eat large animals, were becoming
  extinct, forced to hunt small animals deer,
  bear, turkey, bird and fish
• End of this period - planting crops to eat
• Eating a lot of shellfish from the coast

7
Archaic Continued

• Earliest Archaic people moved around, lived in
  temporary shelters, by 1000BCE, starting to live
  in small camps with more permanent shelters
• Used more developed spears and atlatls, first
  group to show evidence of axes
• First to use farming, axes POTTERY!

8
Woodland

• Lived from 1,000 BCE to 1,000 CE
• Ate fish, small game nuts berries
• Lived in actual tribes and villages, first to
  create actual homes or permanent shelters.
• Made highly developed pottery that could be used
  not just for storage but also for cooking.

9
Woodland Continued

• Continued to use spears, developed the BOW and
  ARROW, made hunting easier
• Showed many signs of religious rituals, buried
  dead with trinkets indicating a belief in the
  afterlife
• THEY WERE MOUND BUILDERS

10
Mississippian

• Lived from about 1000 CE to 1600s
• Ate mostly things they grew, farmers
• Lived in large villages with distinct features.
  
• Had moats palisades for defense from other
  tribes.
• Special homes for their chief places for
  religious ceremonies.

11
Mississippian Continued

• Built mounds, lots of mounds
• Created farming tools out of bone stone
• First organized religious practices
• In 1600 CE, left many of the villages in GAwhere
  did they go??

12
The end of Prehistoric GA

• Ended with arrival of Europeans
• Hernando de Soto, the 1st European explorer to
  explore GAs interior, who first met, wrote about
  killed our prehistoric natives