History of the United States - Section 2 - Prehistory of the United States Part 1 Pre-Columbian era The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period. While the phrase pre-Columbian era literally refers only to the time preceding Christopher Columbuss voyages of 1492, in practice the phrase usually is used to denote the entire history of indigenous Americas cultures until those cultures were significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbuss first landing. For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term usually used is Pre-Hispanic. Many pre-Columbian civilizations established hallmarks which included permanent settlements, cities, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, major earthworks, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European and African arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only through archaeological investigations and oral history. Other civilizations were contemporary with the colonial period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization had their own written records. Because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few hidden documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era. Many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. History Settlement of the Americas Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia), now the Bering Strait and possibly along the coast. Genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America. Exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago. However, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 to 13,000 years ago. The chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14,000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at a much earlier date, possibly 50,000–40,000 years ago or earlier. Artifacts have been found in both North and South America which have been dated to 14,000 BP, and humans are thought to have reached Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America by this time. The Inuit and related peoples arrived separately and at a much later date, probably during the first millennium CE, moving across the ice from Siberia into Alaska. North America Early Paleoamericans soon spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. Paleo-Indian adaptation across North America was likely characterized by small, highly mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family. These groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. Paleo-Indian groups were efficient hunters and carried a variety of tools. These included highly efficient projectile points/knives, as well as less distinctive implements used for butchering and hide processing. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct megafauna such as mastodon and bison antiquus. The North American climate finally stabilized by 8000 BCE; climatic conditions were very similar to todays. This led to widespread migration, cultivation and subsequently a dramatic rise in population all over the Americas. Over the course of thousands of years, American indigenous peoples domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of plant species. These species now constitute 50–60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide. After the migration or migrations, it was several thousand years before the first complex civilizations arose, at the earliest emerging 5000 BCE.[citation needed] Paleo-Indian inhabitants of the Americas were hunter-gatherers. Many Arctic, Subarctic, and coastal peoples hunted and gathered, while agriculture was adopted in appropriate regions. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified. Due to the vastness and variety of the climates, ecology, vegetation, fauna, and landforms, ancient peoples migrated and coalesced separately into numerous separate peoples of distinct linguistic and cultural groups. According to the oral histories of many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living there since their genesis, described by a wide range of traditional creation stories. Middle Archaic period As early as 6500 BCE, people in the Lower Mississippi Valley at the Monte Sano site were building complex earthwork mounds to express their religious ceremonies and cosmology. This is the earliest dated mound of numerous sites of mound complexes found in present-day Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, from thousands of years before the construction of pyramids in Egypt. Since the late twentieth century, archeologists have explored and dated these sites. They have found that they were built by hunter-gatherer societies, whose people occupied the sites on a seasonal basis, and who had not yet developed ceramics. Watson Brake, a large complex of eleven platform mounds, was constructed beginning in 3400 BCE and added to over 500 years. This has changed earlier assumptions that complex construction arose only after societies had adopted agriculture, become sedentary, often developed stratified hierarchy, and generally also developed ceramics. These ancient people had organized to build complex mound projects from a different basis. Late Archaic period Until the accurate dating of Watson Brake and similar sites, the oldest mound complex was thought to be Poverty Point, also located in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Built about 1500 BCE, it is the centerpiece of a culture extending over 100 sites on both sides of the Mississippi. The Poverty Point site has earthworks in the form of six concentric half-circles, divided by radial aisles, together with some mounds. The entire complex is nearly a mile across. Mound building was continued by succeeding cultures, who built numerous sites in the middle Mississippi and Ohio River valleys as well, adding effigy mounds, conical and ridge mounds and other shapes. Woodland period The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures refers to the time period from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term Woodland was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites between the Archaic period and the Mississippian cultures. The Adena culture and the ensuing Hopewell tradition during this period built monumental earthwork architecture and established continent-spanning trade and exchange networks. This period is considered a developmental stage without any massive changes in a short period, but instead having a continuous development in stone and bone tools, leather working, textile manufacture, tool production, cultivation, and shelter construction. Some Woodland peoples continued to use spears and atlatls until the end of the period, when they were replaced by bows and arrows. Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was spread across the Southeast and Midwest from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the plains, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Upper Midwest, although most intensively in the area along the Mississippi River and Ohio River. One of the distinguishing features of this culture was the construction of complexes of large earthen mounds and grand plazas, continuing the moundbuilding traditions of earlier cultures. They grew maize and other crops intensively, participated in an extensive trade network, and had a complex stratified society. The Mississippians first appeared around 1000 CE, following and developing out of the less agriculturally intensive and less centralized Woodland period. The largest urban site of this people, Cahokia — located near modern East St. Louis, Illinois — may have reached a population of over 20,000. Other chiefdoms were constructed throughout the Southeast, and its trade networks reached to the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries, Cahokia was the most populous city in North America, and was not surpassed by European-American cities in population until 1800. Larger cities were constructed in Mesoamerica and South America. Monks Mound, the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of the prehistoric New World. The culture reached its peak in c. 1200-1400, and in most places, it seems to have been in decline before the arrival of the Europeans. Many Mississippian groups were encountered by the Hernando de Soto Expedition of the 1540s, mostly with disastrous results for both sides. Unlike the Spanish expeditions in Mesoamerica, who conquered vast empires with relatively few men, the de Soto expedition wandered the American Southeast for four years, becoming more bedraggled, losing more men and equipment, and eventually arriving in Mexico as a fraction of its original size. The local people fared much worse though, as the fatalities of diseases introduced by the expedition devastated the populations and produced much social disruption. By the time Europeans returned a hundred years later, nearly all of the Mississippian groups had vanished, and vast swaths of their territory were virtually uninhabited. COMING UP - Historic Tribes Picture 1 - Simple map of subsistence methods in the Americas at 1000 BCE. (Yellow) hunter-gatherers (Green) simple farming societies (Orange) complex farming societies (tribal chiefdoms or civilizations) Picture 2 - Major cultural areas of the pre-Columbian Americas: (Purple) Arctic (LightBlue) Northwest (Dark Blue) Arid America (Orange) Mesoamerica (Dark Green) Isthmo-Colombian (Light Green) Caribbean (Red) Amazon (Beige) Andes Picture 3 - Cultural areas of pre-Columbian North America Picture 4 - Poverty Point, 1500 BCE Picture 5 - Hopewell mounds from the Mound City Group in Ohio Picture 6 - Mississippian site in Arkansas, Parkin Site, circa 1539. Illustration by Herb Roe.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 16:29:26 +0000
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