Ancient Civilizations

Spanish Empire
(15th -18th Century)

Maya Empire (start: 3114 B.C - 1800 B.C

collapse: 800 A.D. - 900 A.D.)

Incan Empire
(start: 1438 A.D - collapse: 1533 A.D.)

Ancient Civilizations: The Big

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Activity: Native cultures have existed in the Americas for thousands of years. We are going to create a time line and a map of the early civilizations of North, Central, and South America.

Ancient Civilizations: The Big

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Backgroud:
- North America has a long history of Native American cultures. - People lived on this continent long before European settlers established colonies here. - Anthropologists believe people were living in the Americas as long as 20,000 years ago

How did they get here?

Ancient Civilizations: The Big

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- the most popular theory, the Americas were first
populated by peoples who had migrated to this continent by crossing the Bering Strait (between what is now Alaska and Russia) when it was frozen over during an ice age.

Ancient Civilizations: The Big

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- Over thousands of years, people gradually moved south - down through North America, Central America, and some as far as South America. - For many years, people hunted and foraged for food. Between 5000 and 3000 B.C., early Americans first began to farm the land.

Ancient Civilizations: The Big

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The first known civilization was the Olmec. They flourished from about 1300 to 400 B.C. in Central America. In the centuries to follow, other civilizations would form in the Americas, including the:
Maya Inca Aztec Anasazi

Ancient Civilizations: Timeline

Task: Create a timeline of early American societies. Begin the time line with 3000 B.C. and end with the current year 2000, marking every 500 years. Using colored lines, mark the period of each early American culture, and include significant dates of other ancient cultures for comparison; eg. ancient Egypt, 300030 B.C. (Pyramids completed around 2500 B.C); ancient Greece (Athens and Sparta), 500 to 300 B.C.

Ancient Civilizations: Map

use a world map or print one off the online maps suggested below to locate these ancient American civilizations geographically. Place colored labels or use colored pencils to indicate the locations of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca.

Ancient Civilizations Maps