Ancient America  

Ancient America

The Americas had a long history with thousands of years of civilization, totally unknown in the Old World before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

No comments | 13000BC - 14. November 1697

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Ancient America

26 events | No comments | 13000BC - 14. November 1697

13000BC

Arrival of man into the Americas

The initial settling of the Americas has been a matter of debate for several centuries and it continues to be so. Most archeologists agree that the Americas were originally populated by peoples from Asia, who moved in during the period of the last Ice...

13000BC

2 comments

12000BC

Origin of the first Americans

It is probable that over the period of the migrations, different peoples of different physical types and languages came out of Asia. Some of the first migrants came into the Western Hemisphere prior to the predominance of the Mongoloid peoples in Asia...

12000BC

2 comments

11500BC

Pre-Columbian contacts with the Old World?

The problem of later contacts with the Americas across the Pacific or the Atlantic continues to fascinate archeologists and cause heated debate. The only proven, but probably quite shortlived contact has been with the Viking settlers in North America...

11500BC - 1492BC

1 comment

Clovis culture

The earliest migrants may have had a technology that did not include projectiles (spears) since the only evidence of their tools are small stones used for scraping or cutting. Crude spearheads, associated with the remains of animals that became extinct...

11500BC - 11000BC

1 comment

7000BC

Agriculture in the Americas

Agriculture in the Americas arose independently in at least three regions: South America, Mesoamerica, and eastern North America. One of the earliest evidence of crops has been found from Guitarrero caves in highland Peru, dated to 7000 BC...

7000BC

1 comment

5000BC

American Indian societies

While many differences and variations existed between American Indian societies, there were also uniformities of organization, subsistence, technology, and belief that made them more alike than any one of them was to civilizations of the Old World...

5000BC

2 comments

2700BC

Early societies of the Andes

The rugged topography of the Andes imposed limitations and created opportunities for civilization to develop. The arid coastal valleys demanded irrigation, and this spurred population growth and social complexity...

2700BC

1 comment

2000BC

Political systems

Ancient America also featured very different political systems. Sedentary peoples and hunters often lived near each other and shared mutual hostility and disregard, but, in fact, the categories of sedentary, semisedentary, and hunter-gatherers were...

2000BC

2 comments

1500BC

Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica

Geographically, the region of Mesoamerica is a complex patchwork of zones that is also divided vertically into cooler highlands, tropical lowlands and coasts, and an intermediate temperate zone...

1500BC - 400BC

1 comment

850BC

Chavin culture

Between 1800 and 1200 BC ceremonial centers with large stone buildings were constructed both in the Peruvian highlands and on the coast. Pottery was now widely distributed; the domestication of the llama had taken place; and agriculture had become more...

850BC - 250BC

1 comment

700BC

Adena culture

In the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, people began to practice agriculture by 2000 BC, and by 700 BC a society that combined hunting and agriculture had begun to emerge. The Adena culture, which developed in southern Ohio and neighboring...

- 700BC

1 comment

500BC

Zapotec culture

During this preclassic period (c. 2000-300 BC), other civilizations were developing elsewhere in middle America. At Monte Alban in the valley of Oaxaca, the Zapotec people created a large hilltop center based on terraced and irrigated agriculture in...

500BC - 700

1 comment

200BC

Teotihuacan

In the beginning of the 1st millenium AD, a new metropolis with important religious functions, the city of Teotihuacan, arose in central Mexico, near modern Mexico City. It was supported by intensive agriculture in the surrounding region and probably...

200BC - 700

2 comments

100

Nazca culture

Nazca weaving reached a high point for the Americas between 100 and 800 AD. Discovery in the 1920s of a group of richly dressed mummies at Paracas near Nazca revealed the artistic accomplishments of these ancient weavers...

100 - 800

1 comment

200

Hopewell tradition

The Hopewell culture (AD 200-500) introduced new levels of scale and complexity. Elaborate mounds, some of great size and often organized into groups, were characteristic of this mound-builder culture...

200 - 500

1 comment

Mochica state

The Mochica state (AD 200-700), in the Moche valley and on the coast to the north of Chavin, mobilized workers to construct great clay-brick temples, residences, and platforms. Artisans produced gold and silver jewelry and copper tools...

200 - 700

1 comment

300

Mayans

Between about AD 300 and 900, at roughly the same time that Teotihuacan dominated the central plateau, the Maya peoples were developing Mesoamerican civilization to its highest point in southern Mexico and Central America...

300 - 14. November 1697

1 comment

Tihuanaco and Huari

The pattern of regional development which occurred in South America after the decline of Chavin culture, continued until about AD 300. At that time, two large centers, Tihuanaco on the shores of Lake Titicaca and Huari, farther to the north in southern...

300 - 900

1 comment

700

Anasazi culture

Perhaps the most famous of the southwestern regional traditions is that of the Anasazi (Navajo for "the ancient ones"), who lived in the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah...

700 - 1250

1 comment

Crisis in Mesoamerica

Between about AD 700 and 900, the Mesoamerican world was shaken by the cataclysmic decline of the great cultural centers. The reasons for this collapse are not fully understood, but the phenomenon was general...

700 - 900

1 comment

800

Mississippian culture

After a hiatus of about 400 years, the Hopewell culture was succeeded by a new complex that spread widely throughout the Mississippi valley. Between AD 800 and 1300 very large towns and ceremonial centers, such as Moundville (Alabama) and Cahokia...

800 - 1300

1 comment

Chimu state

In the 9th century AD, about the same time as the end of the classic period in Mesoamerica, Tihuanaco and Huari cultures went into decline. Whether these two processes were connected remains unknown...

800 - 1465

1 comment

1000

Toltecs

After AD 1000 one of the new groups that occupied the central plateau after the fall of Teotihuacan, the Nahuatl-speaking Toltecs, established political control over a large territory and eventually extended their influence into Maya territory...

1000 - 14. November 1200

2 comments

1428

Aztec Empire

The collapse of Toltec civilization might have been triggered by a southward migration of peoples (mostly hunter-gatherers) from the Northern Mexican plateau in the 12th century. One of these peoples, the Aztecs, speaking the Nahuatl language, settled...

1428 - 1521

2 comments

1438

Inca Empire

Sometime in the 13th century, a new powerful civilization emerged in the highlands of Peru. Its creators, the Inca people, were a pastoral tribe in the Cuzco area who spoke the Quechua language...

1438 - 1533

1 comment

1492-10-12

Americans on the moment of Columbian contact

By the end of the 15th century, two great imperial systems had risen to dominate the two major centers of civilization in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Both of these empires were built on the achievements of their predecessors, and both reflected a...

12. October 1492

1 comment

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