Term
|
Definition
| Studied by archaeologists and historians as clues to the activities and ideas of the humans who created them. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Tend to focus on physical objects such as bones, spear points, pots, baskets, jewelry, clothing, and buildings. |
|
|
Term
| Where did the first human beings to arrive in the Western Hemisphere emigrate from? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What did the first Americans hunt? |
|
Definition
| Large mammals, such as the mammoths they had learned in Europe and Asia to kill, butcher, and process for food, clothing, building materials, and many other purposes. |
|
|
Term
| How did the first Americans wander into the Western Hemisphere? |
|
Definition
| Accidentally, hungry and in pursuit of their prey. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The gigantic common landmass. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| About 240 million years ago, powerful forces deep within the Earth fractured Pangaea and slowly pushed continents apart to approximately their present positions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is "years before the present?" |
|
Definition
| Dates earlier than two thousand years ago. |
|
|
Term
| What happened more than 1.5 million years after homo erectus appeared? |
|
Definition
| Homo sapiens evolved in Africa. All human beings throughout the world today are descendants of these ancient Africans. |
|
|
Term
| Where did the homo sapiens migrate? |
|
Definition
| Out of Africa and into Europe and Asia. |
|
|
Term
| What did Europe and Asia retain? |
|
Definition
| Land connections to Africa. |
|
|
Term
| What reconnected North America to Asia? |
|
Definition
| Changes in the Earth's climate. |
|
|
Term
| Where did Siberians clothed in animal hides walk to? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is the Wisconsin glaciation? |
|
Definition
| A pathway that opened during the last global cold spell. |
|
|
Term
| How long did the Wisconsin glaciation last? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The falling sea level exposed a land bridge connecting what? |
|
Definition
| Asian Siberia and American Alaska. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A land bridge that opened a passageway hundreds of miles wide between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The first migrants and their descendants for the next few millennia. |
|
|
Term
| The Siberian hunters traveled in small bands no greater than how many? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A distinctively shaped spearhead used by the Paleo-Indians. |
|
|
Term
| What does archaeologists' discovery of Clovis points throught North and Central America in sites occupied between 13,500 BP and 13,000 BP provide evidence of? |
|
Definition
| That these nomadic hunters shared a common ancestry and way of life. |
|
|
Term
| What did Paleo-Indians hunt? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What major crisis did the Paleo-Indians confront? |
|
Definition
| The mammoths and other large animals they hunted became extinct. |
|
|
Term
| How did the Paleo-Indians adapt to the drastic environmental change of the big game extinction? |
|
Definition
| Hunters began to prey more intensively on smaller animals. Paleo-Indians devoted more energy to foraging. |
|
|
Term
| What did the post-Clovis adaptations to local environments result in? |
|
Definition
| The astounding variety of Native American cultures that existed when Europeans arrived in AD 1492. |
|
|
Term
| What do archaeologist use the term Archaic to describe? |
|
Definition
| The many different hunting and gathering cultures that descended from Paleo-Indians. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Way of life that persisted in North America long after the European colonization. |
|
|
Term
| What did the Archaic Indians hunt with? |
|
Definition
| Spears, but they also took smaller game with traps, nets, and hooks. |
|
|
Term
| What is a characteristic Archaic artifact? |
|
Definition
| A grinding stone used to pulverize seeds into edible form. |
|
|
Term
| Why did most Archaic Indians migrate from place to place? |
|
Definition
| To harvest plants and hunt animals. They usually did not establish permanent villages. |
|
|
Term
| Where did the Archaic Indians establish permanent settlements? |
|
Definition
| Regions with rich resources, such as present day California and the Pacific Northwest. |
|
|
Term
| What did the Archaic Indians hunt bison with? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Why did Folsom hunters constantly move? |
|
Definition
| To maintain contact with their prey. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Developed trapping techniques that made it easy to kill large numbers of animals. |
|
|
Term
| When did bows and arrows reach Great Plains hunters from the north? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| When did horses return to the Great Plains? |
|
Definition
| When the Europeans imported them decades after 1492. |
|
|
Term
| Who inhabited a region of great environmental diversity? |
|
Definition
| Archaic peoples in the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Some lived along the shores of large marshes and lakes that formed during rainy periods, eating fish they caught with bone hooks and nets. |
|
|
Term
| Great Basin peoples relied on what as their most important food source? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What did many Great Basin peoples gather as a dietary sample? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Present day California is the most densely settled area in all of ancient North America because of what? |
|
Definition
| The richness of the natural environment |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Remained hunters and gatherers for hundreds of years after 1492 AD because the land and ocean offered such ample food. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| One of the many California cultures. |
|
|
Term
| The California cultures and the Chumash all relied on what as a major food source? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Who resided on the Pacific Northwest coast? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Built more or less permanent villages. |
|
|
Term
| The Archaic people adapted to a forest environment that included many local variants, such as what? |
|
Definition
| The major river valleys of the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland. The Great Lakes region, and the Atlantic coast. |
|
|
Term
| What did deer supply the Woodland peoples with? |
|
Definition
| Food as well as hides and bones that they crafted into clothing, weapons, and other tools. |
|
|
Term
| What two important features did the Woodland cultures add to their basic hunter gatherer lifestyles? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Where did pottery originate? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What did reliance on wild animals and plants require of most Archaic groups? |
|
Definition
| To remain small and mobile. |
|
|
Term
| What suggests the existence of social and political hierarchies that archaeologists term chiefdoms? |
|
Definition
| The Woodland peoples in the vast Mississippi valley began to construct burial mounds and other earthworks. |
|
|
