Sources/Evidence
This type of source comes directly from the time being studied, such as an artifact made by early people.
What is a primary source?
This land bridge connected Asia and North America during the Ice Age.
What is Beringia?
This term means the natural surroundings where people live, including land and climate.
What is environment?
This Mississippian city was built near the Mississippi River and became the largest city in North America before European contact.
What is Cahokia?
A conclusion based on clues and what you already know is called this.
What is an inference?
This type of source explains or interprets information about the past rather than being a firsthand artifact.
What is a secondary source?
What happened to sea levels during the Ice Age that allowed Beringia to exist?
Sea levels were lower.
People living near rivers could use fertile land for this activity.
What is farming?
This major river helped Cahokia's people farm and trade.
What is the Mississippi River?
A strong historical answer should use this to support a claim.
What is evidence?
Archaeologists discover a 13,000-year-old stone spear point. Name one thing it can tell them about early people.
What tools they used or how they hunted.
According to the migration theory on the test, early people entered North America by crossing what feature?
The Beringia land bridge.
What is one way a river could help a civilization grow besides providing land for farming?
It could make travel and trade easier.
The Mississippian people built large structures from soil called these.
What are earthen mounds?
Large earthen mounds and a special place for leaders suggest that Cahokia had this.
What is organized leadership or an organized society?
An archaeologist examines an artifact and asks how it was made. This is an example of what kind of historical question?
A supporting question.
Why is a map useful for understanding how early people migrated into North America?
It shows the route and geographic features they could travel across.
Why might people in forests live differently from people living near rivers?
Their environments offered different resources and affected food, homes, and travel.
What was Monks Mound used for, according to the test passage?
Ceremonies and as a place where important leaders lived.
You find animal bones, spear points, and a campsite. Make one reasonable inference about the people who lived there.
They likely hunted animals and used the campsite as a place to live or prepare food.
Why might an archaeologist use artifacts and written explanations together when studying the past?
To gather different kinds of evidence and develop a better-supported understanding of the past.
An archaeologist finds stone spear points and animal bones at an ancient campsite. What do these clues suggest about how the people may have survived?
They likely hunted animals for food.
Two groups live in different environments. One farms near a river, while the other relies more on hunting and gathering in a forest. What does this suggest about geography?
Geography influences how people live and how communities develop.
How did Cahokia's location help its people survive and grow? Give two ways.
Fertile land supported farming, and the river helped with travel and trade.
A student claims Cahokia was an organized civilization. Which is stronger evidence: its location near a river or the fact that Monks Mound was used for ceremonies and housed leaders? Explain why.
The evidence about Monks Mound, because it directly suggests organized leadership and ceremonial activities.