Ancient Migrations & Cultures
This 5,000-year historical era beginning around 8000 BCE saw humans shift from big-game hunting to gathering and early farming.
What is the Archaic Period?
This agricultural staple originated in Mesoamerica and formed the economic backbone of major American civilizations.
What is Corn (Maize)?
The densely populated settlements in New Mexico and the Southwest consisting of terraced stone and adobe apartment buildings
What are Pueblos?
The Mississippian trade city near modern St. Louis that peaked around 1200 CE with ~10,000 residents and massive earthen mounds.
What is Cahokia?
European name given to North and South America once Europeans realized they were distinct from Asia.
What is the New World?
These early migrants crossed the Bering land bridge into Alaska roughly 13,000 years ago using fluted stone spearheads.
Who are the "Clovis" People?
The magnificent island capital of the Mexica empire built on Lake Texcoco with a population around 100,000.
What is Tenochtitlán?
Indigenous groups inhabiting the forested eastern third of North America who combined farming, hunting, and fishing.
Who are Woodland Native Americans?
The northern confederacy of five nations (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk) located in upstate New York.
Who are the Iroquois?
The devastating bubonic plague beginning in 1347 that decimated one-third of Europe's population.
What is the Black Death?
Land-based migrants who came from modern-day Siberia and formed the primary genetic stock of Native Americans.
Who are Mongolian migrants?
The ancient civilization emerging around 1000 BCE that created the first complex society in Mesoamerica.
Who are the Olmec?
The largest Native American language family in North America, ranging along the Atlantic coast from Canada to Virginia
What is Algonquian?
Heavy compulsory taxes in crops, textiles, or animals collected by Mexica conquerors from subjugated tribes.
What is Tribute?
The European intellectual and cultural rebirth that generated nautical innovations like the caravel, astrolabe, and compass.
What is the Renaissance?
This lifestyle of permanent agriculture replaced nomadic hunting and allowed large, stationary civilizations to develop.
What is Sedentary farming?
The Mesoamerican civilization in the Yucatán that developed a written language, accurate calendar, and numerical system with zero.
Who are the Maya (or Mayan)?
The Ancestral Pueblo stone canyon settlement in New Mexico famous for its massive multi-story communal buildings.
What is Chaco Canyon?
Kinship and inheritance systems common among the Iroquois and West Africans where clan membership passes through the mother.
What is Matrilineal?
Consolidated monarchical kingdoms (such as Spain, England, and France) with national tax systems and armies that financed exploration.
What are Nation-States?
Medieval Scandinavian voyagers who sailed the North Atlantic and made early landings in North America around 1000 CE.
Who are the Norse (or Leif Eriksson)?
The 15th-century Inca emperor of Cuzco ("world shaker") who unified an empire stretching 2,000 miles through administrative alliances.
Who is Pachacuti?
The third-largest Native language family, which included southern nations such as the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles.
What is Muskogean?
The name used by different tribes in central Mexico to describe themselves, commonly known to Europeans as Aztecs.
Who are the Mexica?
The rapid reawakening of trade networks, foreign markets, and the merchant class in late-15th-century Europe.
What is Commerce?