Download Group 1 Olmec The Olmec were the first `major` civilization in Mexico

Group 1
Olmec
The Olmec were the first 'major' civilization in Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco[1]. They lived in the
tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco. By 1600–1500 BCE, Early Olmec
culture had emerged, centered on the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz.[1]
A nearby garden was used for medicinal and cooking herbs and for smaller crops such as the domesticated sunflower. Fruit trees, such
as avocado or cacao, were probably available nearby. Fields were located outside the village, and were used for maize, beans, squash,
manioc, sweet potato,as well as cotton. Based on archaeological studies of two villages in the Tuxtlas Mountains, it is known that
maize cultivation became increasingly important to the Olmec over time, although the diet remained fairly diverse. The fruits and
vegetables were supplemented with fish, turtle, snake, and mollusks from the nearby rivers, and crabs and shellfish in the coastal
areas. Despite the wide range of hunting and fishing available, midden surveys in San Lorenzo have found that the domesticated dog
was the single most plentiful source of animal protein.[90]
Anasazi
The ancient Pueblo (popularly-called "Anasazi" ,lived in the four corners region of the American Southwest until about 1300 CE.
After spending centuries building beautiful buildings and homes, the ancient Pueblos rose and thrived as a full civilization. Yet, at the
peak of their existence, they suddenly set fire to their creations and left.
The Anasazi society had its roots well over 10,000 years ago as nomadic hunter-gatherers upon the planes of North America. About
2000 years ago, there seemed to be a small shift as corn was introduced into the diet of the ancient Pueblos, and they started to become
a more sedimentary people and began to focus their lives in the area around Colorado.
Huaca Prieta
Huaca Prieta, at the mouth of the Chicama river in Peru. By about 2500 BC the people here have as yet no corn, but they cultivate
squash, gourds and chili. They also grow cotton, from which they weave a coarse cloth. Corn appeared on the coast by the 9 th century
BC.
Group 2
Dorset Culture
The Dorset culture (also called the Dorset Tradition) was a Paleo-Eskimo culture (500 BCE–1500 CE) that preceded the Inuit culture
in Arctic North America. It is named after Cape Dorset in Nunavut, Canada where the first evidence of its existence was found. The
Dorset were highly adapted to living in a very cold climate, and much of their food came from hunting sea mammals through holes in
the ice. The massive decline in sea-ice which the Medieval Warm Period produced would have had a devastating impact upon their
way of life. They seem to have had great difficulty adapting to this change. They apparently followed the ice north. During the Late
and Terminal periods, they concentrated their settlements in the High Arctic. [citation needed] As mentioned below, an isolated remnant of
the Dorset may have survived on a few small Hudson Bay islands until 1902. Most of the evidence demonstrates that by 1500 they had
essentially disappeared.
Maya
The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural
diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya;
however, their civilization fully developed them.
The roots of Maya civilization remain obscure, but archeology, linguistics, and modern science grant us enough tantalizing clues to
allow us to loosely sketch out a broad picture. By 2000BC, speakers of the Mayan Languages had already occupied the southern Maya
area. It appears that around this time the Maya people began to transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a culture based around
agricultural villages. The process appears to have been a gradual one. Analysis of bones from early Maya grave sites indicate that,
although maize had already become a major component of the diet (under 30% at Ceullo, Belize) by this time, fish, meat from game
animals, and other hunted or gathered foods still made up a major component of the diet.
The Mississippians
Perhaps fueled by a climate shift from cooler, drier conditions to warmer, wetter ones, major changes in subsistence began taking
place in the Southeast and in Arkansas around AD 900. The Southeastern Indians, who grew native North American domesticates on a
small scale during the Woodland Era, began intensive farming of maize (corn). Along with corn, Mississippian farmers grew squash
and, later in the Mississippian Period, beans.
In Arkansas, most Mississippian farming settlements were located along the rivers in the Mississippi River Valley. These locations
took advantage of the excellent, high fertility soils of the natural levees. An added benefit was the availability of fish from the rivers.
Fishing proved highly important to Mississippians because heavy dependence on corn alone can result in nutritional deficiencies. Fish,
meat, or other plant foods, such as beans, are necessary to compensate for corn’s lack of lysine, an essential amino acid, and niacin.
Group 3
Eastern Agricultural Complex
The indigenous crops were replaced slowly by other more productive crops: maize, beans and additional varieties of squash. Maize
was first grown in the eastern United States around 200 BCE, and highly productive adapted strains became widely used around 900
CE. It seems that maize was adopted first as a supplement to existing agricultural plants, but gradually came to dominate as its yields
increased. Ultimately, the Eastern Agricultural Complex was thoroughly replaced by maize-based agriculture;[8] Most EAC plants are
no longer cultivated, and some of them (such as little barley) are regarded as pests by modern farmers.
Hohokam
The term Hohokam is used to define an archaeological culture that existed from the beginning of the current era to about the middle
of the 15th century AD. As an abstract construct, this culture was centered on the middle Gila River in what is known as the Phoenix
basin.
Living as farmers raising corn and beans, these early Hohokam founded a series of small villages along the middle Gila River. The
communities were located near good arable land, with dry farming common in the earlier years of this period. Wells, usually less than
10 feet (3 m) deep, were dug for domestic water supplies. Early Hohokam homes were constructed of branches bent in a semi-circular
fashion and covered with twigs, reeds and heavily applied mud and other items at hand.
Zinu
The tribes along the Caribbean cost of Colombia began domesticating corn around 1500-1000 BCE. Around 200 BCE, communities
of farmers and goldsmiths lived in the valleys of the Sinú, San Jorge, Cauca and lower Nechí rivers, all culturally related with similar
artistic expressions, concepts of life and death, and environmental practices. Their means of subsistence were hunting, farming,
fishing, and trading in raw materials and finished products. Around 950 CE, about 160 inhabitants per square kilometer lived in the
San Jorge basin.[2] After 1100, the Zenú population decreased for unknown reasons and moved to higher pastures that did not flood,
requiring no drainage works, where they lived until the Spanish conquest.
By 1200, the Glades III culture exhibited the height of their development. Pottery became ornate enough to be subdivided into types of
decoration. More importantly, evidence of an expanding culture is revealed through the development of ceremonial ornaments made
from shell, and the construction of large earthworks associated with burial rituals.[11] From the Glades III culture developed two
distinct tribes that lived in and near the Everglades: the Calusa and the Tequesta.
Group 4
Ohlone
Native Americans have called the San Francisco Bay region home for over 10,000 years. Like almost all California tribes known, the
Ohlones never developed agriculture or tilled the soil. Their staple diet consisted of crushed acorns, nuts, grass seeds, and berries,
although other vegetation, hunted and trapped game, fish and seafood, were also important to their diet. These food sources were
abundant in earlier times and maintained by careful work, and through active management of all the natural resources at hand.
Animals in their mild climate included the grizzly bear, elk and deer. . The streams held salmon, perch, and stickleback. Birds
included plentiful ducks, geese, quail, great horned owls, red-shafted flickers, but waterfowl were the most important birds in the
people's diet, which were captured with nets and decoys. The Ohlone inhabited fixed village locations, moving temporarily to gather
seasonal foodstuffs like acorns and berries.
Some archeologists and linguists think that these people migrated from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River system and arrived into the
San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas in about the 6th century C.E., displacing or assimilating earlier Hokan-speaking populations
of which the Esselen in the south represent a remnant. Datings of ancient shell mounds in Newark and Emeryville suggest the villages
at those locations were established about 4000 B.C.E. [20]
Although the cultures on the west coast of today's Canada and United States are not known to have developed substantial urban
centers and sophisticated writing or scientific systems, it is likely that, before European contact, the population density along the west
coast of today's Canada and United States was significantly higher than in the rest of the northern part of the continent. For example, it
has been estimated that in 1492, one-third of all Native Americans in the United States were living in California
Tehuacan Valley
In the Tehuacan valley, southeast of the present-day Mexico City, squash and chili are the earliest plants to be grown sometime around
5000 bc - soon followed by corn (or maize) and then by beans and gourds. At first these crops merely supplement the food produced
by hunting and gathering. But by 3000 BC the people of this area are settled agriculturalists. In this development they are followed by
the hunter-gatherers of south America and then, considerably later, by some in the northern part of the continent.
Pre-Columbia Guatemala
The first evidence of human settlers in Guatemala dates back to 12,000 BC. Some evidence suggests human presence as early as
18,000 BC, such as obsidian arrow heads found in various parts of the country. There is archaeological proof that early Guatemalan
settlers were hunters and gatherers, but pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast indicate that maize cultivation was developed
by 3500 BC.[12] Sites dating back to 6500 BC have been found in Quiché in the Highlands and Sipacate, Escuintla on the central
Pacific coast.
Group 5
Valdivia
The Valdivia Culture is one of the oldest settled cultures recorded in the Americas. It emerged from the earlier Las Vegas culture
(which emerged between 8000 BCE and 4600 BCE ) and thrived on the Santa Elena peninsula near the modern-day town of Valdivia,
Ecuador between 3500 BC and 1800 BC. (Some controversy about this dating exists)
The Valdivia lived in a community that built its houses in a circle or oval around a central plaza and were sedentary people that lived
off farming and fishing, though occasionally they went hunting for deer. From the remains that have been found, it has been
determined that Valdivians cultivated maize, kidney beans, squash, cassava, chili peppers and cotton plants, the latter of which was
used to make clothing.
Cahokia
Corn intensification in Southern Illinois began in 800 A.D. After seeing how much food a corn crop could produce with relative ease
in comparison to the small starchy seeds prevalent in the Late Woodland diet, Indians began to clear bottomland fields to make room
for more corn. The establishment of an authoritarian government that owed itself to the intensification of corn agriculture led to a
complete change in architecture at A.D. 1050. Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 1200 CE At the high point of its
development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico. Although it was home to only
about 1,000 people before c. 1050, its population grew explosively after that date. Archaeologists estimate the city's population at
between 6,000 and 40,000 at its peak, with more people living in outlying farming villages that supplied the main urban center. If the
highest population estimates are correct, Cahokia was larger than any subsequent city in the United States until the 1780s, when
Philadelphia's population grew beyond 40,000
Calusa
The Calusa (/kəˈluːsə/ kə-LOO-sə) were a Native American people who lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's
southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region; at the time of European contact, the
Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture. They were notable for having developed a complex culture based on estuarine
fisheries rather than agriculture. The Calusa diet at settlements along the coast and estuaries consisted primarily of fish. An analysis of
faunal remains at one coastal habitation site, the Wightman site (on Sanibel Island), showed that more than 93 percent of the energy
(kilocalories) from animals in the diet came from fish and shellfish, less than 6 percent of the energy came from mammals, and less
than 1 percent came from birds and reptiles. At an inland site, Platt Island, mammals (primarily deer) accounted for more than 60
percent of the energy from animal meat, while fish provided just under 20 percent. [6]
Group 6
Prehistoric Southwestern US Tribes:
Although it is possible that Indians grew several native plants such as gourds and chenopods at very early dates, the first evidence of
maize cultivation in the Southwest dates from about 2100 B.C. Small, primitive maize cobs have been found at five different sites in
New Mexico and Arizona. The climatic range of the sites is wide as they range from the Tucson basin in the Arizona desert, at an
elevation of 700 mts (2300 ft), to a rocky cave on the Colorado plateau at 2200 mts (7200 ft). That suggests that the primitive maize
they grew was already adapted to being grown in both hot and dry and short-season climates.[1]
Tequesta:
The Tequesta lived in the south-eastern parts of what is today known as Florida. They lived in that region since the 3rd century BC
and remained for roughly 2,000 years,[1] having disappeared by the time that Spanish Florida was traded to the British. The Tequestas
did not practice any form of agriculture. They fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of local plants. Most of their food came
from the sea. A visitor described their "common" diet as "fish, turtle and snails, whale. Despite their local abundance, clams, oysters
and conches were only a minor part of the Tequesta. Venison was also popular; deer bones are frequently found in archeological sites,
as are terrapin shells and bones. Sea turtles and their eggs were consumed during the turtles' nesting season. [9] The Tequesta gathered
many plant foods as well.
Africa
The spread of maize through East Africa in the sixteenth century is poorly mapped, though contemporary reports suggest a fairly wide
diffusion and growing adoption by Africans. African horticulture was amenable to experimentation, allowing intercropping and
therefore the dedication of part of a garden plot to new crops. However, despite lack of precise evidence for the dating of maize's
introduction, most scholars concur that maize was introduced in the sixteenth century either by the Portuguese or by trans-Saharan
Arab traders
Group 7
Chavin
The Chavín were a civilization that developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru from 900 BC to 200 BC. They extended their
influence to other civilizations along the coast.[1][2] The Chavín were located in the Mosna Valley where the Mosna and Huachecsa
rivers merge. The people domesticated camelids, such as llamas. Camelids were used for pack animals, for fiber, and for meat. The
Chavin produced ch'arki, or llama jerky.[5] This product was commonly traded by camelid herders and was the main economic source
of the Chavin people. Chavin people also successfully cultivated several crops, including potatoes, quinoa, and maize. They developed
an irrigation system to assist the growth of these crops.
Ortoiroid
The Ortoiroid people were the first human settlers of the Caribbean, who peaked culturally from 5000—200 BCE.[1][2] They are
believed to have originated in the Orinoco valley in Venezuela, migrating to the Antilles from Trinidad and Tobago to Puerto Rico.
Ortoiroid peoples were hunter-gatherers.[7] Shellfish remains have been found in these sites indicating that they constituted an
important part of the Ortoiroid diet. They also ate turtles, crabs, and fish. [2]
They were known for their lithic technology but did not have ceramics. [2] Ortoiroid artifacts include bone spearpoints, perforated
animal teeth worn as jewelry, and stone tools, such as manos and metates, net sinkers, pestles, choppers, hammerstones, and pebbles
used for grinding.[5]
Ortoiroid people lived in caves and in the open. They buried their dead in soil beneath shell middens.[2] Red ochre was found at some
sites and may have been used for body paint.
The Ortoiroid people were displaced by the Saladoid culture.
Europe
“In 1498, Columbus wrote that there was already a lot of corn in Castile, Spain. By the early 16 th century, it had become established as
a field crop in Portugal, Galicia, and Spanish-controlled Milan. The incredibly swift adoption of maize belies the fact that thos this day
it is considered animal fodder by perhaps a majority of Europeans. Only in certain areas was corn meal mush accepted as a famine
food by the peasantry. Eventually, foolds like polenta emerged as regional specialities. Exponential population growth in Southern
Europe from the 17th through 19th centuries is attributed in good measure to the widespread acceptance of maize.”
Group 8
Virginia Tribes
The first humans to visit what is now Virginia could hunt animals, gather fruits from trees/vines, and pull handfuls of seeds from wild
plants to obtain protein, carbohydrates, and lipids.
About 1,000 years ago (around 1000 A.D.), additional domesticated species - corn, beans, and a new form of squash - were
introduced. Fields were located on river floodplains and also in upland areas, where trees were killed in order to create open fields
where plants could obtain essential sunlight.
Even after adopting corn, however, many Virginian tribes still lived as semi-nomadic bands rather than settled full-time into towns.
Hunting and fishing in the summer and winter, but returning in the fall to harvest bottomlands planted in the spring, was an effective
lifestyle for several thousand years until the arrival of Europeans disrupted the pattern. In Tidewater, where the available protein from
the Chesapeake Bay estuary was particularly accessible, a town site might be occupied for several seasons while the natives harvested
nearby beds of oysters, caught crabs and fish, and hunted deer. Once the easy pickings were gone, however, the structures that
identified a site as a town might be moved, and the site not reoccupied for a period of time. Intermittent migrations, rather than living
in permanent settlements with concentrations of human and animal waste, also reduced the risks of disease.
Saladoid
Saladoid culture is a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of territory in present-day Venezuela and the Caribbean that flourished from
500 BCE to 545 CE. This culture is thought to have originated at the lower Orinoco River near the modern settlements of Saladero and
Barrancas in Venezuela. Seafaring people from the lowland region of the Orinoco River migrated into and established settlements in
the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola.[1] They displaced the pre-ceramic Ortoiroid culture. As a horticultural people, they
initially occupied wetter and more fertile islands that could best support agriculture. These Indigenous peoples of the Americas were
an Arawak-speaking culture. The first group to immigrate into the Antilles, the Saladoids brought horticulture (cassava, yucca, and
maize) and pottery technology to the islands. It is generally accepted that they originated in the lower Orinoco River Valley of
Venezuela before spreading throughout the Antilles pushing the Mesoindian groups to western Cuba.
Note: The Taino, the tribe that Columbus met in 1492 on the island of Hispaniola, were descendants or displacers of the Saladoid.