1. Native Texans: Prehistoric Cultures

2. What Do We Know About Prehistoric Cultures?
Prehistoric people crossed into N. America via Bering Strait, “Land Bridge”
Prehistory – time before written records.
Artifacts – objects made by humans that show how they once lived.
Archaeologists – study about past cultures using artifacts.
Pictographs – pictures painted or drawn on cave walls.
Petroglyphs – Carvings made in rocks.

3. Early Peoples In Texas

4. Indians of the Paleolithic Era
Food
Bighorn Bison
Mammoths
Pemmican – dried meat mixed w/ animal fat/ berries
Characteristics
Lived in small groups
Traveled on foot
Tools and Weapons
Spears, with sharp flint tips
Worked in groups
Drove herds over cliffs

5. Indians of the Archaic Era
Tools and Weapons
Hand held spear thrower called a atlatl.
Flint knives, scrapers, awls, crude grind stones, baskets woven from plants
Food
Fished, gathered wild plants, trapped small animals
Characteristics
Traveled in small groups called bands

6. Indians of the Late Prehistoric Era
Food
Hunted / Gathered
Farmers
Characteristics
Lived in villages
Developed ideas about society/religion
7 groups lived in Texas when European explorers arrive
Tools/Weapons
Bow/arrow replaces atlatl
pottery

7. Essential Questions How do we learn about prehistoric cultures?
What is a pictograph?
What is prehistory?