Beringia: the

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Beringia the Land Bridge between Asia and
America
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The Big Question

• Question
• Where did the Native Americans come from?
• Answer
• Asia.

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a definition Migration

• Migration when people or animals move from one
  place to live in another place
• Notice
• Migrate is the root word of immigrate
• Migration is the root word of immigration

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The Clovis People were the first North American
Culture.
Or so we used to think!

• Named for the flint arrowheads and spear points
  found near Clovis New Mexico

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They Arrived and Populated the Continent Around
13000-14 000 YBP!
They left stone and flint tools, beautifully
crafted.
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5 Migration Theories

• Two migration theories suggest humans crossed the
  Pacific Ocean to get to America.
• Two migration theories suggest humans crossed the
  Atlantic Ocean to get to America.
• One migration theory suggests humans crossed dry
  land or ice-covered land to get to America.

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BERINGIA

• Based on the work of anthropologists and by
  examining the artifacts found by
  archaeologiststhe most widely accepted migration
  theory is the Beringia land crossing theory.

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three definitions

• Anthropologist someone who studies people and
  their culture (the way they live their lives)
• Archaeologist someone who searches for the
  artifacts of the people of the past
• Artifact anything that was made by a human
  (tools, weapons, clothes, etc.)

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BERINGIA

• Beringia is the term used to describe the area
  between Siberia (in Asia) and Alaska (in North
  America).
• The Bering Strait (water) lies between Siberia
  and Alaska today.
• Anything named Bering is named in honor of the
  Russian explorer, Vitus Bering.

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The Last Ice Age

• c. 35,000 years ago the last ice age began
• Earths temperatures fell
• glacier ice grew larger and thicker
• sea levels fell because water was sucked up and
  frozen into the glaciers

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Migration

• c. 30,000 years ago people began to travel back
  and forth between Asia and America
• probably following animal herds for food
• large numbers of people moving to new places is
  called migration
• people who move from place to place are called
  nomads

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Animals of North America at the time of the
arrival of humans.
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Migration, cont

• c. 15,000 years ago people began shifting
  further to the south and east
• moved into what is the present-day USA
• moved through present-day Mexico
• settled as far south as present-day Chile

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End of the Last Ice Age

• c. 10,000 years ago the last Ice Age began to
  end
• Earths temperature began to rise
• climates warmed, vegetation and animals began to
  change
• glaciers melted and sea levels rose Beringia was
  covered with water

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A big discovery

• c. 9,000 years ago people living in Central
  America discovered how to cultivate maize
• Maize corn

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The effects of Maize

• people who cultivated maize provided an abundant
  food supply for their family group
• encouraged permanent communities
• encouraged the growth in population

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Native American Cultures

• people changed
• from hunting and gathering to farming and herding
• from Asian style culture to Native
  American culture

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Native American Cultures

• empires grewMaya, Aztec, Inca, etc.

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Beringia theBridge between Asia and
America