Life & Culture
Early Native American cultures did not have a system of writing to record their daily lives or stories. What specific vocabulary word describes time periods before written records exist?
What is prehistoric?
Made of bent wood and animal fibers, this was the primary weapon used by Mississippians for both hunting wild game and fighting enemy tribes.
What is the bow and arrow?
Driven by a desire for global conquest and new riches, this nation became the very first European power to explore the region that is now Georgia.
What is Spain?
Spanish priests used the missions to change native culture by teaching indigenous people how to speak, read, and write in what European language?
What is Spanish?
Historians study human history by examining physical objects made and used by people in the past, such as pottery fragments, tools, and spear points.
What are artifacts?
Built out of massive amounts of earth in the center of towns, these impressive structures had flat tops where chiefs lived and important religious ceremonies took place.
What are mounds?
To defend their large towns against enemy attacks and wild animals, Mississippians surrounded their entire village with a tall wooden wall made of sharpened logs. What were they called?
What are palisades?
The primary motivations for Spanish exploration in the New World are summarized by which three famous words starting with the same letter: spread religion, gain wealth, and achieve personal fame.
What are God, Gold, and Glory?
England adopted an economic policy designed to build national wealth by starting colonies that provided raw materials to send to the mother country. Then England would create products and send them back to the colonies to purchase. What was this policy called?
What is mercantilism?
Mississippians were skilled farmers whose primary agricultural crop was this grain, which remains a staple food today.
What is maize (or corn)?
What were the three distinct levels of individuals in the chiefdom society?
What are chiefs, elites, and commoners?
Mississippian homes were built using a strong construction technique where a network of woven wooden sticks was completely plastered over with a thick coat of mud or clay.
What is wattle and daub?
Spanish military explorers sent to conquer foreign lands, defeat native populations, and claim vast territories for the Spanish monarchy went by this collective term.
What are conquistadors?
Serving as the very first permanent European settlements built inside Georgia, these religious outpost compounds were established by Spanish priests along the coast. What were they called?
What are Spanish missions?
This term refers to the process of establishing permanent settlements in a new region controlled by a mother country.
What is colonization?
Mississippians organized their society into a strict social hierarchy that was ruled by a powerful leader at the top. What is the name of this social structure?
What is a chiefdom?
Mississippian craftsmen created arrowheads, axes, and sharp cutting knives by carefully chipping away at this specific type of sedimentary rock.
What is chert?
Marching through the interior of Georgia in 1540 with hundreds of armed soldiers, pigs, and horses, this man was the first European explorer to traverse the state.
Who is Hernando de Soto?
Spanish priests built their mission posts along this series of landforms along Georgia’s coast, which protected the mainland from ocean storms and rival ships.
What are the Barrier Islands?
Unlike man-made objects, historical clues that come directly from nature—such as animal bones, plant seeds, or shark teeth—are known by this specific term.
What are ecofacts?
Sitting directly below the chief in the social hierarchy, this wealthy and privileged group of high-ranking individuals held power over the commoners.
Who are the elites?
Mississippian villages were deliberately built next to what natural geographic features to ensure easy access to fresh drinking water and fertile soil for farming.
What are rivers?
De Soto’s expedition proved fatal to thousands of Native Americans primarily because Europeans introduced invisible, microscopic killers like smallpox against which native people had no natural protection.
What are diseases?
Joining Spain in the race to explore and colonize the fertile lands of southeastern North America, this island nation eventually built thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast.
What is England?
Georgia's most advanced prehistoric American Indian culture, living in large towns organized around river systems were called by this name.
What are Mississippians?