to America

Coming to America
First humans in North America walked from Asia across the
Bering Strait.

Siberia and Alaska are separated by less than 65 miles at

their closest point.

During colder intervals of Pleistocene, when global sea levels

were much lower, the strait became dry land.
Coming to America
A major question to be resolved is when the first inhabitants
of the New World came from Asia. And how they migrated
southward…

By 13,000 years ago, human groups had occupied most of

the New World from Alaska to the southern Chile.
Coming to America
Occupation in eastern Siberia at least 14,000 years ago.

Although it is still debated, Beringia was probably dry land

between 60,000 and 13,000 years ago.

Sites from the early period are quite rare, and the dates are
usually debated.
Pleistocene
America
Pleistocene
America
Pleistocene
America
Pleistocene
America
 MEGA-
THERIUM
Newest Oldest Evidence
Recent finds in New
Mexico’s White Sands
date human footprints to
23,000 years ago.

Dated with help of

fossilized grass seed.

Footprints eroding
rapidly.

Changes Everything.
Newest Oldest Evidence
Recent finds in New
Mexico’s White Sands
date human footprints to
23,000 years ago.

Dated with help of

fossilized grass seed.

Footprints eroding
rapidly.

Changes Everything.
Newest Oldest Footprints
Recent finds in New
Mexico’s White Sands
date human footprints to
23,000 years ago.

Dated with help of

fossilized grass seed.

Footprints eroding
rapidly.

Changes Everything.
 COASTAL ROUTE?
All evidence would
be underwater.

Didn’t use to think

good enough boat
technology existed
yet.

Kelp highway!
 COASTAL ROUTE?
All evidence would
be underwater.

Didn’t use to think

good enough boat
technology existed
yet.

Kelp highway!
• Common stone artifact
found all over the
Clovis
Americas around 13,000
years ago. People?
• Are all the people using
this blade style part of
the same culture?

• Do they speak the same

language?

• Did they arrive from Asia

at the same time?
Dating Debates
Dating Debates
Concerns:
Taphonomy
Disturbances
Contamination
Monte Verde • Monte Verde in Chile
dates to at least
13,000 years ago

• Contains remains of
extinct elephants and
other animals, along
with other stone tools.

• Conclusion: Multiple
waves of migration
from Asia into the
Americas?

• At least for 20,000

years.
Monte Verde • Monte Verde in Chile
dates to at least
13,000 years ago

• Contains remains of
extinct elephants and
other animals, along
with other stone tools.

• Conclusion: Multiple
waves of migration
from Asia into the
Americas.

• At least for 20,000

years.
MESOAMERICA
Cultures
Olmec

Mexican basin
Maya

Zapotec
THE
MAYA
• ca. 1800 BCE?
MAYA
• Located in dense forests in Central America
(Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)

• An odd place for an agricultural empire?

• Mesoamerican civilization does not radiate out

from Olmec centers in waves. It is sewn together
through autonomous networks.
 MAYA
• Classic Maya society was not egalitarian, contrary
to earlier beliefs.
• Important births/deaths of kings and rulers is well
documented.

• Mayan society thrives until about 950 AD, then

begins to diminish—temples and cities become
abandoned.

• BUT! Mayan culture never disappeared entirely,

and it still exists today. Millions of Mayan speakers
today.
 MAYA
Mayans NOT wiped out by
invading Europeans!
Reading,
Writing,
Counting,
& Calendars
The
The Long Count
Long Count
• Four different writing systems in Mesoamerica:
The Mayan, Zapotec, Mixtec & Aztec.

• Calendric, celestial and dynastic writings.

• Pictographs, ideographs and phonetics.

• Mayans used Long Count calendar to track long

periods.
The
The Long Count
Long Count
• Base-20 counting system

• Calendar begins with a mythical creation that

corresponds to August 11th, 3,114 B.C. on the
Gregorian Calendar

• One of the first counting systems to utilize the

concept zero.
The
The Long Count
Long Count
Very roughly:

1 day = 1 kin
20 kins = 1 uinal (kinda like a month)
18 uinals = 1 tun (kinda like a year)
20 tuns = 1 katun (two decades?)
400 tuns = 1 baktun (four centuries?)
13.0.0.0.0 = December 21, 2012
(The end of the world?)
The
The Long Count
Long Count
Very roughly:

1 day = 1 kin
20 kins = 1 uinal (kinda like a month)
18 uinals = 1 tun (kinda like a year)
20 tuns = 1 katun (two decades?)
400 tuns = 1 baktun (four centuries?)
13.0.0.0.0 = December 21, 2012
The
The Long Count
Long Count
The
The Long Count
Long Count
The
The Long Count
Long Count
• Historically oriented, stratified
societies construct more
“complex” representations
and ideologies of time.

• Long count calendar,

because of its scope, is clearly
about something much more
than coordinating daily
activities.
The
The Long Count
Long Count
Tiempo / Tiempo

Time / Weather
Sustainability & “Collapse”
in Mesoamerica
A look at (Meso)America…
Were early settlers of the
region Mayan?

Ancestral Mayan?

The Maya grow up with

the forest?
A look at (Meso)America…

“people were part of the Holocene adaptation to

the tropical environment, including the
establishment and expansion of the rainforest after
circa 8,000 years ago”
A look at (Meso)America…
Not all human
impacts on
environment are
bad?

“people were part of the Holocene adaptation to

the tropical environment, including the
establishment and expansion of the rainforest after
circa 8,000 years ago”
A look at (Meso)America…
Clearing area for
planting (very labor
intensive)

Intense cultivation for

1 to 3 years; then
leaving fallow for 5-20
years

Forest grows back;

repeat
A look at (Meso)America…

Maya “Classic”
period between 2kya
and 1kya.

After 1000AD, less

large-scale
architecture, urban
centers are
abandoned
A look at (Meso)America…

Maya “Classic”
period between 2kya
and 1kya.

After 1000AD, less

large-scale
architecture, urban
centers are
abandoned
COLLAPSE?
COLLAPSE?
COLLAPSE?
v.
 is “collapse” just absence?

is “collapse” really adaptation?

v.
fall of cities is dispersal of power?

less intense farming is a failure?

Paleoclimatology //
Paleoecology

Palynology
 Do people
change?
move?
Innovate?
disappear?

Archaeology offers
opportunity to study
how populations
change over time;
respond to precarious
situations.
ANDEAN
SOCIETY
ANDEAN
SOCIETY
Long settlement
history
ANDEAN
SOCIETY
Long settlement
history
ANDEAN
SOCIETY
Long settlement
history

Early Holocene occupation of coast in

highlands (13,000 – 9800 BP)

Some indication of semi-sedentism

and incipient horticulture
ANDEAN
SOCIETY “Complex” societies
Long settlement appear around 3000 BCE
Mesoamerica: 1700 BCE
history Mesopotamia: 4000 BCE

Early Holocene occupation of coast in

highlands (13,000 – 9800 BP)

Some indication of semi-sedentism

and incipient horticulture
ANDEAN
SOCIETY “Complex” societies
Long settlement appear around 3000 BCE
Mesoamerica: 1700 BCE
history Mesopotamia: 4000 BCE

Animal burials (pets?)

Mound building
Early Holocene occupation of coast in Widespread exchange
highlands (13,000 – 9800 BP)
Elite burials (stratification?)
Some indication of semi-sedentism Irrigation
and incipient horticulture City planning
 Intricate artwork
ANDEAN Imaginative friezes depicting
cats, humans, public/private

SOCIETY “Complex” societies

Long settlement appear around 3000 BCE
Mesoamerica: 1700 BCE
history Mesopotamia: 4000 BCE

Animal burials (pets?)

Mound building
Early Holocene occupation of coast in Widespread exchange
highlands (13,000 – 9800 BP)
Elite burials (stratification?)
Some indication of semi-sedentism Irrigation
and incipient horticulture City planning
ANDEAN
SOCIETY
ANDEAN
SOCIETY
Relationship between
Coast – Highlands –
Amazon?

Coastal sites first?

Coastal sites
subservient?

Knowledge of
Amazonian flora &
fauna
ANDEAN
SOCIETY Timeline of Andean
Relationship between
societies:
Coast – Highlands – Late Preceramic: 3500-2000 BC
Amazon? Initial Period: 2000-1000 BC
Early Horizon: 1000-200 BC
Coastal sites first? Moche Civilization: 100-700 CE
Inka Civilization: 1400-1600 CE
Coastal sites
subservient?

Knowledge of
Amazonian flora &
fauna
ANDEAN
SOCIETY Timeline of Andean
societies:
Late Preceramic: 3500-2000 BC
Initial Period: 2000-1000 BC
Early Horizon: 1000-200 BC
Moche Civilization: 100-700 CE
Inka Civilization: 1400-1600 CE
ANDEAN
SOCIETY

Advanced writing
and accounting
system?
 The Aztecs
• Aztecs claim to be descended from the
Toltecs of modern-day Tula

• Tula rose in prominence after the fall of

Teotihuacán

• Tenochtitlán was founded by the Aztecs

(who referred to themselves as the
Mexica) ca. 1325 A.D.
 The Aztecs
• Tenochtitlán was an island in the heart
modern Mexico City.

• The island was also a prime location for

controlling transportation in the basin.

• It lacked building materials and had

other disadvantages, but by draining
standing water and raising the surface of
the swamp, intensive agriculture was
possible.
 The Aztecs
• By A.D. 1428, Tenochtitlán joined with
petty states, forming an alliance that put
the Aztec empire in supreme political
position in the region.
• When the Spanish arrived, the site had
a population of 150,000-200,000
people.
• Cortés referred to Tenochtitlán as
“another Venice.”
 The Aztecs
HUMAN SACRIFICE?
• Estimates of tens of thousands of sacrifices
per year

• Nourishment for the deities, not the humans!

• Scant evidence for any cannibalism among

the sacrificed
 The Aztecs
HUMAN SACRIFICE?
• Spanish descriptions of Aztec bloodlust
exaggerated?

• Used as justification for colonial expansion?

• Hypocrisy? Spain concurrently endeavoring

in the Spanish inquisition
 The Aztecs
• Cortés quickly and easily defeated the
Aztecs.

• Due to high tribute demands by the Aztecs

and heavy penalties for noncompliance,
Cortés received support from surrounding
groups that despised the Aztecs.
 The Aztecs
• Once victorious, the Spanish destroyed the
ceremonial core of Tenochtitlán, replacing
temples with churches, governmental
buildings, and residences.

• Mexico City quickly grew over the Aztec

center.
 Earth

Mound
Builders!
 Poverty Earth
Point

Mound
Builders!
 Poverty Earth
Point

Occupied between
Mound
1700-1100 BCE

Builders!
Not agricultural?

Meeting place for

many cultures?
Earth
Illinois Earth
Cahokia
Mounds
Largest American
pyramids north of
Mesoamerica

Occupied ~900-1350
CE. Highest density
~1050 CE.

Period of intense
rainfall, followed by
intense drought.
Social structure,
environment &
Earth
Cahokia
architecture
Mounds
Social structure,
environment &
Earth
Cahokia
architecture
Mounds
Mississippi Valley area is
highly wet.

Confluence of three
rivers and many
tributaries.

Wetlands are highly

diverse, productive
subsistence zones
Social structure,
environment &
Earth
Cahokia
architecture
Mounds
During population and
architectural explosion
heavy reliance on
domesticated corn

Less use of diverse

wetland resources

…Then drought ~1100 CE

Social structure,
environment &
Earth
Cahokia
architecture
Mounds
Gradual abandonment
as droughts make corn
supply less stable.

Significant population
decline by 1275.

Collapse?
Or Adjustment?
Social structure,
environment &
Earth
Cahokia
architecture
Mounds
Gradual abandonment
as droughts make corn
supply less stable.

Significant population
decline by 1275.

Collapse?
Or Adjustment?
Southwestern…
Southwestern…
Great Drought
between 1150 –
1350 AD causes
these robust
populations to
disappear?
Southwestern…

Hohokam

Collapse?
Southwestern…
Ancestral Pueblo

Warfare?
Southwestern…
Mogollon

Dispersal?
CONTACT

When Worlds
Collide
 CONTACT
Cultural
contact
always has a
two-way
influence
 CONTACT
Cultural
contact
always has a
two-way
influence No societies are
ever static.
 CONTACT
Cultural
contact
always has a
two-way
influence No societies are
ever static.
Indigenous and Euro
relations change over time
 CONTACT
Yes, there were
large-scale
“complex”
societies in
Americas with
advanced
technology
and social
relations.
 CONTACT
Yes, there were
large-scale
“complex”
societies in
Americas with
advanced
But is that
technology
besides the
and social
relations. point?