In 1925 an African American cowboy named George McJunkin was riding along a gully near the town of Folsom, New Mexico, when he noticed something gleaming in the dirt.  He began digging and found a bone and a flint arrowhead.  J.D. Figgins of the Colorado Museum of Natural History knew the bone belonged to a type of bison that had been extinct for 10,000 years.  The arrowhead’s proximity to the bones implied that human beings had been in America at least 10,000 years, which no one had believed at that time.

The following year, Figgins found another arrowhead embedded in similar bones.  In 1927 he led a group of scientists to the find.  Anthropologist Frank H.H. Roberts, Jr., wrote, “There was no question but that here was the evidence. ...  The point was still embedded ... between two of the ribs of the animal skeleton.”  Further digs turned up more arrowheads, now called Folsom points.  Roberts later noted:  “The Folsom find was accepted as a reliable indication that man was present in the Southwest at an earlier period than was previously supposed.” 

Essential Question:
How did regional geography affect the development of Native American cultures?

Mesoamerican Cultures
An agricultural revolution led to the first civilizations in Mesoamerica, whose people built large, elaborate cities.

No one knows for certain when the first people arrived in the Americas.  Current scientific evidence suggests that the first humans arrived between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago.  Based on DNA tests and other evidence, some scientists think the earliest Americans came from northeast Asia.  Some may have arrived during the last Ice Age, when much of the earth’s water became frozen and created a land bridge between Alaska and Asia along the Bering Strait.  Along this stretch of land, known as Beringia, nomadic hunters may have crossed to the Americas as they followed large prey, such as the wooly mammoth, antelope, and caribou.  These people did not come all at once, and some may have come by boat.

Over time, the descendants of these early settlers spread southward and eastward across the Americas.  Between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago, some early Americans learned to plant and raise crops.  This agricultural revolution began in Mesoamerica, the region that today includes central and southern Mexico and Central America.  The agricultural revolution made possible the rise of Mesoamerica’s first civilizations.

Anthropologists think the first people to develop a civilization in Mesoamerica were the Olmec.  Olmec culture emerged between 1500 and 1200 B.C., near where Veracruz, Mexico, is located today.  The Olmec developed a sophisticated society with large villages, temple complexes, and pyramids.  They also sculpted huge monuments, including 8-foot-high heads weighing up to 20 tons, from a hard rock known as basalt.  Olmec culture lasted until about 300 B.C.

Olmec ideas spread throughout Mesoamerica, influencing other peoples.  One of these peoples constructed the first large city in the Americas, called Teotihuacán, about 30 miles northeast of where Mexico City is today.  The city was built near a volcano, where there were large deposits of obsidian, or volcanic glass.  Obsidian was very valuable.  Its sharp, strong edges were perfect for tools and weapons.

The people of Teotihuacán built up a trade network based on obsidian, which influenced the development of Mesoamerica.  The city lasted from about 300 B.C.  to about A.D.  650.

The Maya

Around A.D.  200, as Teotihuacán’s influence spread, the Maya civilization emerged in the Yucatán Peninsula and expanded into what is now Central America and southern Mexico.  The Maya had a talent for engineering and mathematics.  They developed complex and accurate calendars linked to the positions of the stars.  They also built great temple pyramids.  These pyramids formed the centerpieces of Maya cities, such as Tikal and Chichén Itzá.  Marvels of engineering, some pyramids were 200 feet (61 m) high.  At the top of each pyramid was a temple where priests performed ceremonies dedicated to the many Maya gods.  Although trade and a common culture linked the Maya, they were not unified.  Each city-state controlled its own territory.  Because of the fragmented nature of their society, the different cities frequently went to war.

The Maya continued to thrive until the A.D. 900s, when they abandoned their cities in the Yucatán for unknown reasons.  Some anthropologists believe Maya farmers may have exhausted the region’s soil.  This in turn would have led to famine, riots, and the collapse of the cities.  Others believe that invaders from the north devastated the region.  Maya cities in what is today Guatemala flourished for several more centuries, although by the 1500s they too were in decline.

The Toltec and the Aztec

North of the Maya civilization, the Toltec people built a large city called Tula.  The Toltec were master architects.  They built large pyramids and huge palaces with pillared halls.  They were among the first American peoples to use gold and copper in art and jewelry.

About A.D.  1200, Tula fell to invaders from the north, known as the Chichimec.  One group of Chichimec, called the Mexica, built the city of Tenochtitlán in 1325 on the site of what is today Mexico City.  The Mexica took the name Aztec for themselves, from the name of their original homeland, Aztlán.  Aztlán is thought to have been located in the American Southwest.

The Aztec created a mighty empire by conquering neighboring cities.  Using their military power, they controlled trade in the region and demanded tribute, or payment, from the cities they conquered.  They also brought some of the people they conquered to Tenochtitlán to sacrifice in their religious ceremonies.  When the Europeans arrived in the 1500s, an estimated 5 million people were living under Aztec rule.

Examining
What are some of the theories that explain the decline of Maya cities?
 

REVIEW & DO NOW Answer the following questions:
When did the first people arrive in the Americas? What do historians mean by "civilization"?	When did the first civilization rise in the Americas?  What was this civilization? BONUS: Name a concurrent civilization in the Old World at this same time.