Prehistoric Cultures

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Prehistoric Cultures
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Bering Land Bridge From this map you can see
where a strip of land across the Bering Sea
connected Asia and North America during the last
Ice Age. The first humans came to the Americas
from Asia across this land bridge, perhaps in
search of large game animals. Scholars estimate
that this migration took place somewhere between
14,000 and 50,000 years ago. When the Ice Age
ended around 7000 B.C., melting glaciers raised
the level of the seas so that water covered the
land bridge.
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Process of Movement
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Pal eolithic Era

• About 11,000 B.C. 6,000 B.C.
• Followed mammoths and giant bison (nomadic
  moved around)
• Used spears made with flint to hunt

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Archaic Era

• 6,000 B.C. A.D. 700
• Ice Age ended by this time
• Used atlatl, a hand-held spear thrower to hunt
  (more force/power to kill)
• Traveled in small groups called bands
  (hunter-gatherers)
• Had more tools than Paleo-Indians
• Developed use of the bow and arrow at the end of
  the era

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Late Prehistoric/Formative Era

• A.D. 700 A.D. 1500s
• Many cultures now developed
• Some lived in permanent villages and farmed
• Some still hunter-gatherers
• Plains Indians mastered the bow and arrow
• Europeans arrived in Texas

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Terms To Know

• Hunter-gatherers people who survive searching
  for wild plants and animals
• Prehistory time before written records
• Artifacts objects made by humans that show how
  they once lived
• Pictographs pictures drawn or painted on cave
  walls, ledges, or cliffs
• Petroglyphs carvings made in rock

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More Terms

• Archaeologist Scientist who study and learn
  about past cultures from the artifacts they find
• Carbon-14 dating used to determine the age of
  bones, firewood, and seed found at ancient
  campsites (formerly living things)
• DNA testing genetic testing on ancient bones and
  tissue samples (age, gender, height, even disease
  or cause of death)

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Notes Summary

• Using the words to know list you will create a
  narrative about prehistoric culture. You will
  need to use at least 5 words from the list and
  any other information from your notes that you
  would like to use.