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What's the significance of the discovery at Folsom, New Mexico?
- Proved that humans were on the North American continent about 10,000 years ago.
- Found giant bison, flint spear points among the bones.
- Also started the discovery of other major finds.
- Archaeologists have been able to piece together long, complex history of ancient Americans.
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What's the difference between archaeology and history?
Archaeology: focus on physical objects such as bones, spear points, pots, baskets, jewelry, clothing, and buildings.
History: focus more on writings- journal entries, official and public pronouncements, laws, speeches, newspapers, court cases.
the difference denotes rough cultural and chronological boundary between humans studied by two groups of scholars. A boundary marked by the use of writing.
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Why did humans arrive late in the Americas?
They lacked a way to travel to the Western Hemisphere because N. and S. Americas had been separated from the common landmass called Pangaea. the separation isolated it from the populated land masses.
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Why was there mass extinction in the Americas?
Climate changes and Paleo-Indian hunters killing them more rapidly than they could reproduce.
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How did large mammals and humans arrive in the Americas?
- 1) Humans adapted to frigid, cold environments near the Arctic Circle.
- 2) During the earth's last cold spell (25,000-14,000 to 10,000 BP) snow piled up in glaciers, exposed a landbridge between Ancient Siberia and Alaska.
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What was the land bridge called that appeared between Ancient Siberia and Alaska?
Beringia
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What were the after effects of the crisis of 11,000 years ago?
Mammoths and other big-game prey of Paleo-Indians became extinct.
1) Began to prey on smaller aniamls. 2) Devoted more energy to gathering wild plant foods.
Resulted in a large variety of Native American cultures, ability to adapt to many different environments.
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Characteristics of Archaeic culture of the Great Plains
- Hunted bison by using Clovis spears, stampeding them over cliffs
- Use of bows and arrows by 500 AD
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Characteristics of Great Basin peoples
- Lived on shores of massive lakes and marshes.
- Caught fish with bone hooks and nets
- Killed deer, antelope, bison, rabbits, rodents, and snakes.
- Relied on plants- Pinon nuts as staple of diet
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Characteristics of Pacific Coast peoples.
- present-day California, most densley settles area
- Hunter-gatherer way of life, many different tribes, languages and local dialects.
- Acorns were staple in diet.
- Built more or less permanent settlements.
- Caught whales nad salmon, halibut, and other fish
- Traded with people hundreds of miles from the coast
- Developed very elaborate wood-working skills, made canoes and carvings
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Characteristics of Eastern Woodland peoples
- East of Mississippi River
- Stalked deer as most inportant prey.
- Gathered edible plants, seeds, and nuts- hickory nuts, walnuts and acorns.
- More or less permanent settlements
- Life expectancy of about 18 years.
- 4000 BP- added agriculture and pottery.
- Cultivated sunflowers, corn and tobacco
- Pottery used for cooking and storage, permanent settlement allowed this.
- 2500 BP- started building burial mounds, social and political hierarchies
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Characteristics of Southwestern cultures:
THE ANASAZI
- Present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado
- Agriculture, irrigation and pueblos
- Began to flourish 100 AD
- built pit houses on mesa tops
- about 1000 AD- began to move to large multi-story cliff dwelling
- Disappearance about 1130 AD due to drought
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Characteristics of the Southwestern cultures:
THE HOHOKAM
- Used sophisticated grids of irrigation canals to plant and harvest crops twice a year
- Built sizeable platform mounds and ball courts
- Began to decline about 1400 AD
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Characteristics of Mound cultures
- about 2500 BP Woodland cultures began to build burial mounds
- Suggests social and political hierarchy called "CHIEFDOM"
- Adena, Hopewell
- thriving trade network from Wyoming to Florida
- Mississippian culture- largest site was Cahokia
- ---more than 100 burial mounds grouped around large, open plazas
- ---qualifies Cahokia as largest settlement in ancient North America
- Dwindled about 1500 AD
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