Geography

• determined early settlement patterns of America’s earliest settlers

• Physical Features

- Mountains

- Rivers

- Natural resources

8-10,000 years ago

- Asians crossed Bering Strait

- Hunters and food gatherers

Most North American societies were stone-age cultures at the time of European contact

Inuit

- Migrated about 3,000 years ago

- Settled Arctic tundra

- Hopewell

- 1000 B.C.E

Built mounds-- Ohio Valley-- Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico

The Serpent Mound twists to a length of 411 m (1,348 ft) near the town of Peebles in southern Ohio. It is believed to have been built by the Adena, whose culture flourished in the first millennium BC. Archaeologists are unsure as to the purpose of this mound.

This artist’s rendition depicts a scene in the daily life of the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia, located near present-day St. Louis, Missouri. Mississippian peoples established far-flung trading networks to exchange ceramics, copper, seashells, salt, stone hoes, and many other commodities. Mississippian culture flourished from about AD 800 until European explorers arrived in the Americas.

Eastern Woodlands

Deganawida

- Iroquois elder

- Preached peace

Hiawatha

• Great Peace

• Iroquois League

• Grand Council

- Experiment in Democracy

- Model for Albany Plan of Union

- By Benjamin Franklin

• Hunted buffalo

• Cultivated beans, corn, squash

• Lived in tepees

• 500 -1200C.E.

• Adobe cliff dwellings

• Pueblos

• Drought = Abandoned sites

• 800-400 B.C.E.

• Economy:

- Farming: maize, tomatoes, beans, chili peppers, avocadoes, squashes, gourds

- Trade

2 major cities:- La Venta- Tres Zapotes- San Lorenzo

Olmec society Trade in jade and obsidian Decline and fall of Olmec society The cause remains a mystery The Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers Most likely, civil conflict ruined their society By 400 B.C.E., other societies eclipsed the Olmecs Influence of Olmec traditions Maize, ceremonial centers were common to later societies Other legacies: Calendar, rituals of human sacrifice, ballgame Olmecs did not leave written records

• Authoritarian in nature • Stratified• The colossal human heads -

possibly likenesses of rulers • Rulers' power as shown in

construction of huge pyramids • Adornment & clothing possibly

indicated social status

• Jade

• Obsidian

• Maize

• Beans

• Squash

• Peanuts

Polytheistic

• shamanism

• animal deities

• Possibly a jaguar god that represented rain, earth, fertility, or maize

Massive stone statues as big as 6’, 12-40 tons

• Scientific research = accurate and impressive calendars

• Large pyramids

• Didn’t raise large animals

• No writing system

• No wheeled vehicles

• They left a powerful religious & cultural influence on other Native American civilizations

• The Olmecs disappeared without a trace around 400 B.C.E.

How did they move these massive heads?????

Teotihuacan

- 1st Century = the 1st major civilization of central Mexico

- City-state near Mexico City

- Built pyramids, apartment-block houses

- Thriving trade network from Mexico to Central America

- Abandoned by 750

Pyramid of the Sun

300-900 C.E.

• Yucatan Peninsula

• City-states

Complex society- Rulers claimed divine right to rule- Heredity ruling class

- Scribes = possible priests- skilled artisans, officials, merchants- peasant farmers- slaves

Very aggressive -- waged war for slaves and conquest

Cities centered around a ceremonial pyramid

• Itzamna = Supreme god

• Jaguar = evil god of the night

Human sacrifice

Chac-Xib-Chac, god of blood sacrifice

Solve the equation:

. = 1

= 57 + 12 = 19

1. Mathematics

2. Astronomy

3. Medicine

4. Pyramids

5. Hieroglyphic Writing

• Based on hieroglyphs

• Codices were made of bark covered with jaguar skin, jade, clay, bone, & stone monuments

• Spanish thought the writing was evil

• Spanish burnt several books

• 4 bark books remain

• In the 800’s, the Maya suddenly abandoned several cities

• Theories: increased warfare, economic hardship, over-farming exhausted the land, famine, or disease

• By 1500, Maya was divided

• Popol Vuh –

- describes the Highland Maya’s version of creation

- Written after Spanish contact

“Before the world was created, Calm and Silence were the great kings that ruled… Nothing existed, there was nothing… Then let the emptiness fill they said. Let the water weave its way downward so the earth can show its face! Let the sky fill up with the yellow light of dawn! Let our glory be a man walking on a path through the trees! ‘Earth!’ The Creators called. They called only once, and it was there, from a mist from a cloud of dust, the mountains appeared instantly.”

Excerpt from the Popul Vuh, McDougall Littell, World History Patterns of Interaction, 449

Creation Illustration for Popol Vuh by Diego Garcia, 1931

rules are unknown

some indication that players couldn’t use hands or feet

losing team possibly beheaded or sacrificed

Mayan society was patriarchal