Archeology Final Flashcards
Glacial extent
a period of time where certain parts of the land are covered in ice, which sculpts and forms the land beneath it, and moves earth materials
Palaeolithic period
start of humans in North America until 8000 BC
Laurentide Ice Sheet
glacier that covered almost all of Canada until around 18 to 10,000 BC
Bering Land Bridge
a theory of how people originally got to North America, where they traveled over from Russia through land that connected Russia and modern day Alaska, after the sea levels in this area dropped enough 33,000 BC
Kelp hypothesis
a theory of how people originally arrived in North America, where they traveled along kelp in the Pacific Ocean from South East Asia
Solutrean hypothesis
a theory that people originally came to North America from Europe, travelling along packs of ice in the Atlantic Ocean
Ceruti Mastodon site (San Diego, USA)
mammoth bones dating to 130,000 years ago that were smashed by humans with rock weapons, earliest evidence of humans in North America
Earliest clear and undisputed evidence of humans in North America
around 10 or 12,000 BC, after a period of warming in Greenland
Chiquihuite Cave (Mexico)
evidence of humans from the last glacial interval in North America in 30,000 BC
Lake Otero Basin
site in New Mexico where they found fossilized footprints dating 21,000 BC
Clovis culture
one of the oldest North American civilizations, lived in the time of mammoths
Cactus Hill
site in Virginia, likely pre-dates the Clovis civilization
Gault
site in Texas where artifacts dated 18,000 BC were found
Swan Point
site in Alaska that shows evidence of immigration from Japan and Siberia
Squash / Cucurbits / Pumpkin
originally hollowed out and used to carry water
Common bean
domesticated in North America 6000 BC
Chenopodium berlandieri
seeds native to Ontario and USA
Natural corn / maize
native to Mexico since 7000 BC, became the main food source later on
Cacao
native to Mesoamerica 2000 BC
Mesoamerica period
8000 to 2000 BC
4.2-kiloyear event
2200 BC, massive worldwide period of extreme drying (East NA), while some other areas had massive flooding (West NA)