First+Americans

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The First Americans

How did people first come to America? That is a great question!!!! A long time ago America was connected by land to the rest of the world. During the Ice Age, the earth became very cold. Scientists have studied the earth's surface during the Ice Age. They think that much of the earth's water froze into huge sheets of ice, or glaciers.

What is a glacier? A huge sheet of ice. There is an island in Lake Erie called Kelley's Island that has some of the best Glacial Grooves ever. This island is located near Sandusky, Ohio in Lake Erie. Sandusky, Ohio is the town where Cedar Point Amusement park is located.

See Glacial Grooves

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I have never personally visited Kelley's Island - but have visited neighboring Put in Bay (also called South Bass Island). These islands have a lot of natural beauty and are popular vacation destinations as well as very popular for freshwater fishing.

Ok, back to the glaciers!!!! As the ice froze, the seas fell. Dry land appeared between Asia and Alaska. Scientists call this land bridge Beringia. It is named after Virus Bering, a European explorer. They think people in Asia followed animals across the land beidge into the Americas. It is believed the first people came between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago. See the picture below of the land bridge called Beringia!



The Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago. The glaciers melted and the water went back into the seas. The land bridge to Americ was covered by water. This was bad news for many of the animals because they became extinct, meaning they disappeared from earth and no longer exist.

Be sure to check out this cool link to an interesting current mammoth discovery! Mammoth Discovery

Hunting and Gathering

Hunters in the Americas were always moving and looking for food. They fished and gathered nuts, fruits, or roots. They hunted huge animals such as the woolly mammoth, antelope, caribou and bison. Woolly Mammoths could weigh as much as 9 tons. It took several hunters to kill them. They got meat, hides and bones from the huge creatures. Think about what they could have used all of the parts of the mammoth for!

As the Ice Age ended the hunters and gatherers lost some of their animals. They had to learn to adapt and they did this by learning to plant seeds and grow crops. Farming began in Mesoamerica 9,000 - 10,000 years ago.

Meso is greek for middle. This region includes lands stretching from the Valley of Mexico to Costa Rica in Central America. This region was ideal for farming. Much of the area had a rich volcanic soil and a mild climate.

The first crops grown in the Americas included pumpkins, peppers, squash, gourds and beans. They also developed corn, but it took a long time to perfect corn crops. Corn is also known maize, and became the most impotant food in the Americas.

Mesoamerican Civilizations

Due to the growing of crops, the Mesoamericans didn't need to wander in search of food any longer. Their lifestyle changed and they formed more complex societies. Arund 1500 B.C. the first of several ancient civilizions appeared.

The Olmec built a far-reaching trading empire (see the green area on the map above). This lasted about 800 years. Some of the items they traded were salt and beans in exchange for jade to make jewelry and obsidian or volcanic glass to make sharp edged knives. They also traded hematite, a shin volcanic stone, to make polished mirrors and basalt for carving gigantic stone heads.

Below are some of the gigantic stone heads carved by the Olmec people.



I put this picture on with the older gentlemen - because he reminded me of my grandfather!!!!! It is an effective way to realistically tell how large a figure is, when you can compare the size with something else.



Thursday, May 27, 2010

Today is my nephew Kyle's birthday - I can't believe he is already 21!!!!!

We learned about the Olmec people, we will now learn about the Maya. They lived in the steamy rain forests of the Yucatan' Peninsula. The Maya used their central location to trade in today's southern Mexico and Central America. They could have also reached the U.S. The Mayan cities hit their peaks in A.D. 400s and A.D. 500s. Then in A.D. 600 the civilization began to decline.

We still do not know exactly what happened, but there are many theories:

Possible overpopulation - which led to lack of food and resources

Long drought (period of time without rain)

Rebellion of the por against the rich

Whatever the reason - by A.D. 750 the city had been destroyed.

I found this great article written by a woman who actually visited the Mayan Pyramids and writes about her experience!!!
 * == Mayan Pyramids ==

By Linda Aksomitis
Some visit Mexico for the beautiful azure blue water and white sandy beaches. Some for tropical weather getaways from colder climates. Me, I planned my trip to Cancun to discover the secrets of the Mayan pyramids, some of Mexico’s most beautiful treasures. First stop on my quest to learn more about the Mayan people and their pyramids was Chichen Itza. This ancient city, whose name means “in the mouth of the Itzáe’s well,” was once home to about 50,000 people during the time of its grandeur, between 800 and 1200 A.D. An important archaeological site since the 1920s, much has been discovered about the Maya civilization as more and more of the 20 square miles area of Chichen Itza has been mapped and uncovered.

According to my tour guide, the temples and palaces tell much about these fascinating people of Mesoamerica. Traders from the Yucatan and Cozumel visited the powerful city during the 10th century, bringing goods to share. ​Builders created elaborate, highly decorated structures using triangular rocks and arches. The Toltecs from Central Mexico followed, leaving their imprint in square pillars and ornately carved rattlesnake designs. There is even some Viking influence visible, pointing to an early visit from them as well. The pyramids show us not only the ingenuity of the Maya people, who created these massive structures without the use of even simple machines—like the wheel, but also their mathematic skills and knowledge of astronomy. Indeed, the Mayan calendar had 365 days, at a time when Europe was still using the Gregorian Calendar.

Roughly at the center of the site, the massive Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, called "El Castillo" (the castle) tempts visitors to climb all of its ninety-one steps. The base of this square structure is 60 yards (55.5 meters) on each side and rises to a height of 79 feet with 4 sloping walls leading to a temple at the top of the pyramid. During solstice sunlight passes through the openings to show 7 Triangles of light and 6 darker triangles, corresponding to the 13 overall levels of the underworld the Maya believed existed. My favourite part of the site, however, was the ball court, where games were held, presumably during the equinox. Many believe the winners were killed and sent on to glory in the afterlife, skipping those 13 levels of the underworld. With walls 545 feet long and 225 feet wide overall, players on the court wore two different shoes, a sandal and a boot, and could not use their hands to throw the ball through the hoop that hung high at its center. The most intriguing feature of the court however, is that the acoustic principles, which we still can’t replicate, allow a whisper made at one end of the court to be amplified and heard at the opposite end. The Maya truly had secrets we still haven’t uncovered in the 21st century!

The next site I visited was Cobà, which is home to the tallest pyramid in the Northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. A few new experiences waited for me here. Nohoch Muul has 120 steps and is close to 140 ft high. The view—even from the halfway point—is spectacular. This site is one of Mexico’s more recently discovered ancient ruins, only unearthed in the 1980s, so it is a new find in terms of Mayan treasures. Hidden in a tall forest, I was more than happy to take a ride in a Mayan taxi, which turned out to be a bicycle-driven two-wheeled carriage pedalled by a smiling member of the Mayan village, to Nohoch Muul. The steamy jungle atmosphere soon made me feel I’d travelled back in time to a day when Cobà or the “City of Ghosts” was teeming with a population of 50 to 60 thousand people. I could almost see them—laborers carrying the rich in litters down the extensive sacbeob or Mayan roads constructed of stone. With a little imagination I could hear the voices of children at play, see iguanas strolling along the path. Comprised of over 6500 structures, only 10% of the treasures at Cobà have actually been excavated. The area, which is occupied by the local Maya people, is over 50 sq. km in size, and is about 50 km west of Tulum. Here, opportunities for a true Mayan Adventure abound! Whatever reason you have for visiting Cancun and Mexico, make sure to include a day discovering one of the true marvels of the continent—the Mayan pyramids. ||  ||

The Moche and Inca developed anvanced civilizations in South America. The Moche civilization was located along the west coast of South America in what is now known as Peru.

They had an ove abundance of food and fish from the Pacific Ocean. Because of their wealth of food they had free time to design huge pyramids and exchanged good such as pottery, cloth and jewelry. The Moche people never expanded much beyond their homeland.

The Incas

The Incan homeland lay in teh Andes mountain ranges of present-day Peru.