Early Civilizations of the Americas

Early Civilizations of the Americas — page 7 — EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF THE AMERICA THIE CLOVIS AND FOLSOM DISCOVERIES In 1908 George McJunkin a ranch foreman and former slave reported that the bones of an extinct form of giant bison were eroding out of a wash near Folsom N M An ancient spear point was later found embedded in the animal's skele ton In 1929 teenager Ridgley Whiteman found a similar site near Clovis N M albeit with mam moth rather than bison remains The Folsom and Clovis sites yielded the first indisputable evidence that ancient Americans had co existed with and hunted the huge now extinct mam mals called megafauna including giant bison mammoths mastodons giant ground sloths and saber toothed cats Previously most schol ars had doubted this possibility The earliest peoples of the Americas are known as Paleo Indians They lived by hunt ing and gathering As people began to settle down and expand their diets they developed what are called Archaic cultures In addition to foraging Archaic peoples began to experi ment with agriculture By about 2300 BC Indians in the Andes Mountains of South America had adopted a fully agricultural way of life They began to 12

Early Civilizations of the Americas — page 8 — TTER ORIGINS or EARAYAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS settle in villages Farming villages appeared by 2000 BC in Middle America present day Mexico and Central America and somewhat later in Northern America present day United States and Canada Over time these prehis toric farmers developed new kinds of societies Advanced cultures arose in Middle and South America that rivaled the great civilizations of ancient Egypt Mesopotamia and China PALEO INDIANS The very early people of the Americas were the Paleo Indians They shared some cul tural traits with peoples of Asia such as the use of fire and domesticated dogs However they do not seem to have used other Old World technologies such as grazing animals domesticated plants and the wheel Paleo Indians shared the land with such large mammals as mammoths mastodons and giant bison Archaeological sites of Paleo Indians often include bones from these animals This has sometimes led to the mis taken idea that these peoples only hunted big game By the turn of the 21st century however excavations had shown that Paleo Indians used both animal and wild plant foods includ ing fruit tubers and even seaweed 13

Early Civilizations of the Americas — page 9 — EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF THE AMERICAs American mastodon woolly mammoth African savanna elephant Mastodons and woolly mammoths were bunted by some Paleo Indians These animals were similar in size to modern African elephants but unlike the modern variety they were adapted to Ice Age temperatures Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc COVIS AND FoLSOM CULTURES The best known Paleo Indian cultures of North America are Clovis and Folsom The Clovis culture was the older of the two Its people left behind one of the most distinc tive Paleo Indian artifact types the Clovis point These spear points are leaf shaped and made of stone They are also fluted mean ing that they have grooves on each flat side The culture was named for an archaeological site near Clovis N M where the first such point was found among mammoth bones in 1929 Scrapers used to clean the hide and other artifacts used to process meat have also 14

Early Civilizations of the Americas — page 10 — THE ORIGINS OF EARLYAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS The Clovis spear point is a characteristic Paleo Indian artifact iStockphoto Thinkstock been found at Clovis sites The Clovis culture was long believed to have lasted from about 9500 to 9000 BC However early 21st century research suggested it may have lasted a shorter time from about 9050 to 8800 BC Folsom culture seems to have developed from Clovis culture It is also known for its own distinctive spear point Like Clovis points Folsom points are leaf shaped but they are more carefully made and have much larger flutes The first Folsom point was dis covered in 1908 at a site near Folsom N M along with the remains of a now extinct form of giant bison The Lindenmeier site a Folsom campsite in northeastern Colorado has yielded a variety of scrapers gravers used IAEA 15

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