The Ancient Americas

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The Ancient Americas Chapter 8
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The Far North
This is the region of North America that is
called the Canadian Shield. It has poor thin soil
that is covered with ice and snow for much of the
year.
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A mountain range runs from north to south across
this region. The people who settled in this
region were hunters who followed herds.
Agriculture was difficult because of the thick
roots of prairie grasses.
The West Central Regions
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Some groups settled in an area of thick forests
and broad rivers. Water and animals were
plentiful in this part of North America. People
lived in tents, and used the rivers for
transportation.
The East Central Region
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Middle America
The deserts of the American Southwest down to
northern Mexico are in this region. This region
has many active volcanoes and thick rain forests.
Rainforest
A rain forest receives more than 80 inches of
rain each year. It has so many trees that very
little sunlight can reach the floor of the
forest.Central America and the southern part of
Mexico have these.
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During the Ice Age, glaciers contained so much
frozen water that the level of the oceans
dropped. This exposed a land bridge.
Land Bridge
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Bering Strait
The land bridge that was exposed during the Ice
Age is called the Bering Strait.
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Olmec
These people livedd in the rain forest along the
west coast of the gulf of Mexico Lived there
over 3000 years ago. Hunted and gathered food,
but also relied on agriculture.
Around 400 B.C. the Olmec civilization began to
disappear.
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Olmec
Colossal heads glorified the rulers while they
were alive, and commemorated them as revered
ancestors after their death.
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Olmec
In 1862 a colossal stone head was discovered in
the state of Veracruz along the steaming Gulf
Coast of Mexico. In the years to come, artifacts
from the culture later termed Olmec turned up at
widespread sites in Mexico and adjacent Central
America.
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This is a map showing where all the Olmec
monument stone heads were found.
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Slash and burn
The Olmec used a land-clearing method known as
slash and burn. Farmers clear, or slash, the
dense jungle growth with stone axes. Then they
burn the dead brush.
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Slash and burn
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Maize
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Pueblos
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Supernova
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Teotihuacán
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• Bibliography Page
• http//www.crystalinks.com/olmec.html