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Fossil bones from human ancestors - like
the Neanderthals have not been found in America. This is evidence
enough that physiologically, modern humans first arrived
in America.
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Archaeologists in Asia claim that humans
did not appear in Siberia until 35,000 years ago. Though no
definite date for the arrival of Indians in America has been
established, one can safely conclude that they arrived there
some time after the first humans made an appearance in Asia.
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Also climatic conditions favored migration.
About 20,000 years ago, as the last ice Age made its appearance
on Earth, huge glaciers covered the entire regions of Canada.
Due to these glaciers a lot of water was concentrated and the
water levels in the oceans went down, revealing a 1,000-mile
landmass between Siberia and Alaska. Geographers have called
this landmass the Bering Land Bridge or Beringia. Further, due
to the glaciation much of the natural vegetation shifted southwards.
The animals that are today found in cold regions followed them.
For instance, the reindeer, lemmings etc. then lived in places
that are extremely warm for them today. Archaeological evidence
shows that the walrus existed in parts of Virginia during that
age.
The first American Indians were hunters and gatherers
who stayed in bands of twenty to fifty people. Through the centuries,
these Indians (called ’Clovis’ by archaeologists) lived and
adapted themselves to the new geographical conditions after the Ice
Age. And about eleven thousand years ago, these tribes died. But the
others who separated from the ’Clovis’, to exploit the resources of
the grassland survived and continued to adapt. Before the first Indians
disappeared, hundreds of tribes spread out in the continent, and developed
their own language and culture. Many American Indian tribes today
attribute their ancestry to the ’Clovis’ Indians.
Then some of these tribes settled due to various
objective and subjective factors. And from these settled villages,
rose great civilizations in about 1500 BC. These civilizations
emerged in the South American Continent, where environmental
conditions were best suited. The earliest of these civilizations
was that of the ’Olmecs.’ The Olmec was not just a separate
culture entity that arose in the Gulf of Mexico; it was also a religion
that spread to most of the civilized parts of South America. This
religion consisted of symbols, rituals and spirits. The main god
of the Olmec religion was the Rain God, a figure with both human
and jaguar-like features. This Rain God was worshipped by later
civilizations like the Aztecs, the Mayans etc.
Civilizations like the Olmec, the Zapotec
and the Maya shared many things in common. Chief among them
was their calendar system. American civilizations had a calendar
system that consisted of 2 calendars: a solar year of 365 days and
the ritual cycle of 260-days. The two calendars worked in such a
way that they converged once every fifty-two years. For the native
Americans this convergence every 52 years was very auspicious, thus
celebrated through public ceremonies to mark the event.
Another important civilization was at Teotihuacan,
with its majestic pyramids. Not very far from Mexico City, this
civilization flourished in 150 BC and lasted for a millennium. Teotihuacan
was a well planned city, neatly divided into neighborhoods knows
as ’barrios.’ Besides Pyramids (600 totally), the town also
had beautifully carved temples, along with a huge market place.
The civilization grew due to its vast stretches of irrigated fields.
The power of the Teotihuacan declined sometime before 750 AD. By
AD 800, the people from the city migrated towards the east and the
South and soon the city was abandoned. The reasons for the decline
of this ancient city could be rebellion or because their fields
had been overused thus lowering the produce.
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Index
1.0
- Introduction
1.1 History: Meaning and Importance
1.2 Pre-historic Period
1.3 Early Civilizations
1.4 The Dark Age
1.5 The Medieval Period
1.6 Dates & Events
1.7 Points to Remember
Chapter 2
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