Wikibooks: Saylor.org's Ancient Civilizations of the World/Origins of American Societies

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bering Strait; glaciers; Alaska; Beringia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Saylor.org%27s_Ancient_Civilizations_of_the_World/Origins_of_American_Societies

=North America= The first people to settle North America are thought to have crossed over from Asia during the last Ice Age (roughly 15 000 years ago). Around this time huge amounts of water froze into glaciers the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska drained and a wide low treeless plain called Beringia connected the two continents. The paleo Indians moved south through a corridor between the ice sheets to settle the prairies. By 11 000 BCE they had reached the southern tip of South America. By this time significant hunting activities were taking place in North America and many large mammals such as the woolly mammoth may have become extinct as a result of hunting and climate change. Once humans were established in Central America they quickly became more sedentary simple village structures evolving within a small time frame into far more complex societies. The archaeological evidence left by the Olmec and Zapotec in Central America and the burial mounds of the Adena and Hopewell of the American Southeast reveal sophisticated societies. =The Early Hunter Gatherers= The earliest peoples of North and Central America banded together in egalitarian extended family groups living by hunting and gathering. They eventually become specialized and adapted to the continent s various ecological niches plains mountains deserts woodlands river valleys and coastal areas. Specifically adapted spear points and other weaponry reveal the major prey species in different culture areas. The fine Clovis spearheads were used by plains hunters to kill bison barbed harpoon heads were developed by coastal peoples for spearing marine creatures and stone tipped darts were thrown by the basin and mountain dwellers at the wildfowl which provided them with the bulk of their diet. =The First Farmers= Agriculture in North America emerged only gradually but proved revolutionary in its impact. Animal husbandry was largely absent with only a few animals truly domesticated. Dogs honeybees and turkeys were the first animals to be domesticated in ...