Transcript Chapter 1 - SchoolRack

Chapter 1
THE FIRST AMERICANS
EARLY PEOPLES
• Archaeology-the study of ancient peoples
• Artifacts-things left behind by early
peoples
• What would be some of your artifacts??
Crossing the Land Bridge
• Ran from Siberia in northwestern Asia to
present-day Alaska
• The land bridge is called the Beringia. It
now lies under the Bering Strait
• Why did people move?
• What were they called?
• Migration-
Planting seeds
• About 9000 years ago, Native Americans
learned to plant and raise an early form of
corn called maize.
• They no longer had to move from place to
place
Early communities
• Scientist have found traces of villages that
date back 5000 years.
• Carbon dating-measuring the amount
radioactive carbon that remains in
something that was once alive, they can
tell how old something is
Culture
• Way of life
• Examples:
Section 2
• Early American Civilizations
• Civilization-highly developed societies
• Olmec, Maya, Inca, and Aztec
• In present-day Mexico and in Central and
South America
Maya
• Was a theocracy-a society ruled by religious
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leaders
Priests held great power and made most of the
decisions
Built huge pyramids
Skilled astronomers
Developed hieroglyphics-a form of writing that
uses symbols or pictures to represent things,
ideas, and sounds
Aztec
• Aztec were a military empire
• Tenochtitlan-one of the greatest cities built
at this time
• Forced conquered people into slavery
• City of water
Inca
• Largest of the early civilizations
• All Inca land belonged to the emperor
• The Inca believed that the emperor was a direct
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descendant of the sun god.
Developed a record keeping system called
quipus
Machu Picchu was a religious center for the Inca
Used terraces for farming. Terraces were broad
platforms cut into mountains.
North American Peoples
• Many Native American cultures rose,
flourished, and disappeared in North
America long before Europeans arrived in
the 1500s
• Europeans changed the way of life for
Native Americans
Anasazi
• Pueblos• Pueblo Bonito can still be seen in New
Mexico
Hopewell in Ohio Valley Region
• Built huge burial mounds in the shapes of
birds, bears, and snakes
• Adobe-sun dried brick
People of the Plains
• Nomadic
• Villages were temporary
• Used tepees-cone shaped skin tents
Peoples of the East and Southeast
• Federations-governments that linked
different groups
• Iroquois women occupied positions of
power in their communities
1.Chose men who served on league council
2. Planted and harvested crops
3. Owned land