What happened before anyone wrote it down…

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

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.

Not like dinosaurs - people did not die off…completely.

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

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”

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

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!

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.

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

Lived from about 1000 CE to 1600’s 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.

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 GA…where did they go??

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