[2015] Lacey Oviyach: The Ancient Americas: The Ice Age Americans

The Ancient Americas:The Ice Age AmericansBy, Lacey Oviyach

People Arrive in the AmericasThe very first people to come to the Americas were Homo Sapiens, modern-day humans, just like we are. It is believed that these people came from Asia into the Americas sometime before 13,000 years ago. However, it is not certain how they came to the Americas. Some people believe that they walked across a land bridge, when the water level was lower, to reach the Americas, but others think that they arrived by boat. Flint Knapping and SpearheadsThe ancient Americans began to settle in North and South America. They carved spear heads from a flimsy stone called flint to hunt. There were two different types of spear heads. The North Americans carved "Clovis" spear heads, while the South Americans carved "Fish Tail" spearheads. The Clovis spearheads were narrow and long. The Fish Tail spearheads, however, were more rounded off. To make these spearheads, the ancient Americans would take big blocks of stone and use another stone as a hammer to flake off pieces from the block and to shape the spearhead.

Clovis Spearhead

What did the Ancient Americans Hunt?Archeologists often find bones of animals near sites where spearheads were found. This is evidence of what animals the Ancient Americans hunted. They hunted Western horses, ancient bison, giant ground sloths, American mastodons, and woolly mammoths in large groups. The North Americans especially relied on the woolly mammoth for survival. Archeologists call the North Americans "the mammoth hunters".

The Land Bridge Theory

Fish Tail Spearhead

Woolly Mammoth

Ancient Bison

American Mastodon

Western Horse

Giant Ground Sloth

Resourceshttp://fieldmuseum.org/ancientamericas (Information and Images)http://google.com/images (Wall)http://youtube.com (Video)