What is prehistory?

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What is prehistory?

• Umthe history before history

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PREHISTORY before written records were kept

• 1st system of writing Africa 6,000 years ago (
  4,000 BC)
• Oral traditions older persons in the family/
  group repeated tales of past events to younger
  generations until they learned them by heart
• Beliefs, traditions, folklore passed down from
  generation to generation through stories
• Later civilizations recorded events on cave walls
  and animal hides with symbols that later evolved
  into a system of writing

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So how did the first humans come to the Americas?
Asia
North America
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Beringia an icey land bridge
North America
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Why did they come here?
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(No Transcript)
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WHEN did they come here?
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Essential Questions

• How did changes over time in prehistoric Indian
  technology and food affected Indian settlement
  patterns?
• How did changes in settlement patterns affect
  religious practices?

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Georgias Prehistoric Periods
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The Paleo Period
Paleo Very old / few lived
to be 30 yrs. old

• Dates
• 10,000-8,000 B.C.
• Weapons
• Clovis points
• Stone spear points
• Knives and scrapers
• Atlatl used to propel spears long distances
• Food
• Large game hunted animals
• Mammoths, bisons, ground sloths, and mastadons
• Wild berries and nuts gathered

• Dwellings
• Lived in groups of 25-50
• Always on the move for food (nomadic) no
  permanent housing
• Slept in caves, under cliffs, and dug out
  sleeping pits
• Religion
• Artifacts to suggest general spirituality
  nothing specific

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Snapshots of Paleo-Indian Life
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The Archaic Period
Things becoming more settled

• Dates
• 8,000 1,000 B.C.
• Weapons
• New tools invented to save time and effort (ex.
  weighted spear, grinding stone)
• Clovis points become smaller and sharper for
  smaller game
• Grooved Axe stone head w/ wood handle. Used
  primarily to chop wood / remove brush
• Food
• Hunted smaller game as period progresses
• Deer, bear, turkey, rabbit, birds, fish
• Fishing and gathering important
• Large remains of middens (trash heaps of shells )
  found on Stallings Island in GA
• Clay pots to store and transport food in created

• Dwellings
• Small groups gathered to form larger groups of
  50-100
• Would move from season to season
• Semi-permanent housing w/ wooden poles covered by
  animal hides, braches, and bark
• Religion
• Proper burial of the dead seems to be important
• Tools, weapons, and ornaments found in tombs

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Snapshots of Archaic-Indian Life
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The Woodland Period
The Mound-Builders!

• Dates
• 1,000 B.C. 1,000 A.D.
• Weapons
• Bow and Arrow better accuracy/saves time
• Arrowheads become smaller and sharper
• Food
• Beginning of Horticulture (farming)
• Seeds are saved for planting
• Nuts, corn, squash, and bottle-gourd
• Small game hunted
• Developed clay pottery that lasted longer

• Dwellings
• More sturdy houses (huts) as small groups join
  together and form tribes
• Flat-topped mounds for gathering/ceremonies
• Animal effigy mounds Rock Eagle created in 200
  A.D.
• Religion
• Burial mounds with more elaborate tombs
  containing jewelry, pottery, figurines, and
  ceremonial objects suggests belief in life after
  death

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Snapshots of Woodland-Indian Life
Evidence of long-distance trading
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The Mississippian Period

• Dates
• 1,000 A.D. 1,600 A.D.
• Weapons
• All tools and weapons from previous periods
  only better-made and more effective
• Food
• Farmed most food
• Corn, beans, pumpkin, and squash (tobacco for
  ceremonies)
• Used slash-and-burn technique
• Prepare land with bone/stone hoes
• Stored food in storehouses for constant supply

• Dwellings
• Large-scale communities w/ palisades and moats
• Several 1,000 families living together
• Wattle and daub houses made of clay and wood
• Mound communities like Etowah and Ocmulgee
• Religion
• Priest-chief presides over religious ceremonies
• Religious aspects controlled by govt.

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Snapshots of Mississippian-Indian Life
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End of Prehistory?

• Prehistory ends in Georgia with the arrival of
  Spanish-Explorer Hernando deSoto. (around 1539)
• Beginning of traditional European written records
  of GA

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Essential Questions

• How did changes over time in prehistoric Indian
  technology and food affected Indian settlement
  patterns?
• How did changes in settlement patterns affect
  religious practices?

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• SETTLEMENT

• WEAPONS/ TOOLS

• RELIGION

• FOOD

• Proper burial of the dead
• Buried with objects
• afterlife
• Religious ceremonies
• Ceremonial mounds
• Burial mounds
• tombs
• Priest chiefs

• Nomadic (always moving)
• Semi-permanent huts
• Seasonal movement
• Permanent houses
• Large villages
• Bands of people (25-50)
• Tribes (more than 100)

• Spear
• Atalatal
• Smaller spear points
• Grooved axe
• Bow arrow
• Pottery

• Hunter/ gather
• Large animals (Mammoth)
• Nuts/berries
• Small game (deer/rabbits)
• Agriculture (growing food)
• Farming
• Beans, squash, corn