The Migration To America The Bering Strait

How do we know where the first people to migrate to America came from? DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) – basic building material for all life on Earth Radiocarbon Dating – radioactivity in carbon 14 measured (half-life – 5,730 years) skulls bones teeth

From DNA, scientists have concluded that the earliest Americans probably came from Asia.

100,000 years ago – Ice Age – glaciers and large icebergs - ocean levels dropped

Much of the Earth’s water was held in glaciers such as these.

Glacier National Park Montana

Glacier Bay National Park - Alaska

Beringia – area of dry land that connected Asia with North America Named after Vitus Bering, 18 th century explorer of the region

Nomads chased animals such as the wooly mammoth across the land bridge.

Satellite image of the Bering Strait – created when rising seawater submerged the land bridge about 10,000 years ago

Little Diomede Island (U.S.) Big Diomede Island (Russia)

Would a Bering Strait Bridge be possible?

Civilizations of Mesoamerica meso – Greek for middle southern Mexico & Central America agricultural revolution (9 to 10 thousand years ago) plant and raise crops

Most important crop was maize, known today as corn How was it used?

Agriculture – people abandoned nomadic way of life ppermanent villages nnew technology (tools) ppottery ggovernment

Civilizations emerge – organized society; trade, government, arts, science, and written language Mayan ruins in Belize

I. The Olmec  first to build a civilization in America ( B.C.)  near present day Veracruz, Mexico

Sculpted monuments including 8-foot high heads weighing up to 20 tons Possibly modeled after notable citizens including leaders

30 miles NE of Mexico City city built near volcano, obsidian (tools and weapons) 300 B.C. to 650 inhabitants unknown II. Teotihuacán Avenue of the Dead and Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon - Teotihuacán

Sacrificial victims – Teotihuacán museum

III. The Maya Emerged in the Yucatan Peninsula in 200

EEngineering and mathematics CCalendars linked to the position of the stars December 21, according to the ancient Maya, this date will mark the end of one world as we know it and the beginning of another…

“In regards to the ever-increasing attention on the December 21, 2012 date, the living Maya of Guatemala urgently want it to be known that their ancient prophecies have been distorted and misinterpreted as doomsday predictions. They do not advocate all the fear and hysteria that is being generated by the sensationalized 2012 rumors, and they want people to be aware that most of the 2012 misinformation being put out is not sourced from the Maya or their calendars whatsoever, even though it may appear to be associated with them.”

Mayan city of Tikal… Present-day Guatemala

Chichen Itza in present-day Mexico How were these built that long ago?

IV. The Toltec central Mexico among first Native Americans to use gold and copper for jewelry Tula, the Toltec city, is best known today for its fearsome 15-foot-high stone warrior figures.

Tula fell around 1200 to invaders known as the Chichimec.

V. The Aztecs  one group of Chichimec, the Mexica, established Tenochtitlan in 1325  Mexica took the name Aztec, name of original homeland Aztlan, SW  sacrificed people they conquered

Aztec ruins in Mexico City

North American Cultures

I. The Hohokam  year 300, Arizona  irrigation canals  Hohokam petroglyphs

Remains of a prehistoric Hohokam irrigation canal at "Park of the Canals” in Mesa, Arizona

Hohokam cliff dwelling

Casa Grande (“Great House”) Ruins National Monument – overlook from which the Hohokam could observe the status of their canals

II. The Anasazi  between 700 and 900, Four Corners  “ancient ones”

 Chaco Canyon, NW New Mexico  buildings of adobe called kivas  Spanish called these pueblos, Spanish word for villages

Pueblo Bonito – 3 acres, 600 rooms housing 1,000 people

cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde

III. The Adena eastern woodlands, woodworking tools, canoes 1000 B.C., started burying dead under earthen mounds Great Serpent Mound in southern Ohio

Grave Creek Mound Archaeology Complex

IV. The Hopewell  Ohio Valley  geometric earthworks  ceremonial centers, observatories, burial places

V. Mississippian  built the city of Cahokia (Illinois)  peak was 1050 to 1250  16,000 people (40,000 in the region…larger than London!)  droughts and overpopulation…downfall?

Cahokia

Cahokia Mound