1. The Americas: A Separate World
40,000 BC-700 AD

2. A Land Bridge N. and S. America stretch 9,000 miles First Americans
Migrate over Beringia
Beringia ranged up to 1,000 miles wide. (Today the strait is about 55 miles across.)

3. Why was the Beringia there?
Ice Ages – Glaciers spread across much of NA
Sea levels drop; a land corridor is created between Asia and Alaska
First Americans arrive in last Ice Age; 1.9 million to 10,000 BC
Why did they migrate in the first place?

4. Peopling the Americas First crossing – 40,000 to 10,000 BC
Recent findings suggest different
Believe people came by boat

5. Monte Verde, Chile Evidence of human life dating back to 10,500 BC
Animal hide, tools, child’s footprint
If walking, humans would have had to cross the land bridge 20,000 years ago.

6. First Americans
The mammoth is the largest prey of early Americans (Chief Prey)
The mammoth provides materials for food, clothing, shelter, and tools
Tusks (15’); weighted 6-8 tons
14’ at shoulders; plant eater
Evolved in Eurasia and came over the Bering Strait
Went extinct about 10,000 years ago

7. La Brea Tar Pits Los Angeles Since 1907, millions of bones have been
removed from the
“tar.” The “tar” is asphalt formed by plankton that
lived millions of years ago.
Paleontologists have found the remains of saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, bison, and birds.

8. What life might have been like..
“The northern half of North America has vanished, buried beneath ice sheets two miles thick. Stretching south to Kentucky, they buckle the earth’s crust with their weight…Animals grow oversize…Elephant eating jaguars stand tall as lion, beavers grow as big as bears, South American sloths as tall as giraffes. With arctic cold pushing so far southward, walrus bask on Virginia beaches, and musk-oxen graze from Maryland to California.” National Geograhic Magazine

9. Following the Game
Hunters turn to smaller animals when mammoths die out
People also fish and gather plants and fruits
At end of last Ice Age, glaciers melt and seas cover the land bridge
By 10,000-12,000 years ago, people had spread across the Americas

10. Agriculture Creates a New Way of Life
The Development of Farming
Around 7000 BC people in Mexico begin to raise crops from seeds
By 3400 BC maize (corn) becomes the staple crop there. The people of Mexico revered corn as “the food of the gods.”
People in the Tehuacan Valley south of present day Mexico City develop advanced farming methods
Agriculture spreads throughout Americas

11. Other Crops in the Americas
Squashes, gourds, beans, avocados, and chilies

12. Chinampas Floating gardens
Mexican farmers created small islands in swamps and shallow lakes. They planted crops on top of the island soil. The surrounding water was used for irrigation.

13. What might have happened to people in this region if agriculture had failed?
Continued migration for food, few permanent communities, new skills may not have developed

14. Farming, Good
Agriculture increases food supply, leads to population growth
Families settle down and form larger communities
Humans concentrate on new skills; arts and crafts, architecture, social organization
Complex societies arise

15. Why do you think early Americans, isolated from the rest of the world, developed in ways similar to other early humans?

16. Guided Reading s. 1
1. According to most experts, when and how did the first Americans arrive in North America?
Toward the end of the last Ice Age by foot over a land bridge from Asia

17. 2. As large animals became extinct, how did hunters adapt to this change in their environment?
Hunted smaller prey, fished and gathered edible plants and fruits

18. 3. How did farming develop in what is now central Mexico?
Planting and harvesting preferential edible plants from seeds

19. 4. What crops grew well in the tropical climate of Mexico?
Maize, squash, beans, chilies

20. 5. How did farming affect where people lived?
When they had a reliable food supply, people settled in permanent villages.

21. 6. How did farming effect the structure of society?
Activities and skills other than farming developed creating social classes

22. Review 1. Beringia A. Narrowest section of the Americas today
B. Narrowest section of the Americas during the Ice Age
C. Ice Age waterway dividing Asia and North America
D. Ice Age land bridge connecting Asia and North America

23. 2. Ice Age
A. Period between about 1.9 million and 10,000 BC
B. Period between about 1 million and 40,000 BC
C. Period between about 40,000 and 10,000 BC
D. Period between about 12,000 and 9500 BC

24. 3. Maize
A. Chili
B. Corn
C. Gourd
D. Squash

25. 4. Clovis, New Mexico, and Monte Verde, Chile
A. Places where agriculture was first developed in the Americas
B. Places where evidence of ancient human life have been found
C. Places where ancient animal remains have been found in tar pits
D. Places where the first civilizations in the Americas were founded

26. 5. Tehuacan Valley
A. Southernmost tip of the Americas
B. Site of the origin of the mastodon
C. Site of the first cave dwellings in the Americas
D. Site of the first permanent villages in the Americas

27. 6. Chinampa
A. In the ancient world, a type of food
B. In the ancient world, a type of craft
C. In the ancient world, a type of island garden
D. In the ancient world, a type of large game animal