Summary: Similarities In Early Native American Culture

Words: 527
Pages: 3

Zach Miles
Dr.Ann Waters
ARH2050
6 November 2015
Similarities in Early Native American cultures
When people speak of Native Americans, many think of the modern natives mistakenly known as Indians. But, there were actually early settlers who had established civilizations far before the current inhabitants. Human presence in the Americas dates back as far 13,000 BCE with some of the first civilizations beginning around 1,200 BCE. Many believe that humans made their way into the Americas originally through the area that is now known as the Bering Strait. The area is currently submerged but many speculate that during the most recent ice age that the planet had become much cooler than presently, forming incredibly large glaciers at the polar ice caps, which caused the planets water levels to drop vastly exposing the ocean floor which provided a pathway into the Americas.
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The Olmec settled in what is present day Mexico around 1200 BCE and left behind immense amounts of artwork. The Olmec lived in what is known as the preclassic period. They left behind several temples and pyramids, though their pyramids vastly differed from that of the Egyptians. They primarily used volcanic stones as their medium for their buildings, because it was fairly common in the region. Many of the Olmec pyramids served religious purposes, some even having humans as sacrifices buried in the foundations. The most famous of Olmec art would probably be their colossal heads. All 17 of the heads discovered are made from basalt, varying in size with the largest of the heads weighing in at over 40 tons (Fig. 1) and the smallest of the heads coming in around 6 tons. The primary source for the basalt used for all seventeen of the discovered heads was excavated from the la Cobata region and moved to their respective locations, in some instances several