Which early american civilization is the oldest

The city of Caral included enormous earthen platform mounds, monuments so large that they were hidden in plain sight thought to be low hills. The Olmec civilization flourished on the gulf coast of Mexico and constructed the first stone pyramids in the North American continent, as well as the famous stone "baby-faced" head monuments. The Olmec had kings, built enormous pyramids, invented the Mesoamerican ballgame , domesticated beans, and developed the earliest writing in the Americas.

The Olmec also domesticated the cacao tree and gave the world chocolate! The ancient Maya Civilization occupied much of the central North American continent based on the gulf coast of what is now Mexico between B. The Maya were a group of independent city-states, which shared cultural qualities. This includes their amazing complex artwork particularly murals , their advanced water control system, and their graceful pyramids.

Monte Alban is one of the most intensively studied archaeological sites in the Americas, and one of the very few "disembedded capitals" in the world. The capital is also known for its astronomical observatory Building J and Los Danzantes, a stunning carved record of captive and slain warriors and kings.

The people of the Nasca civilization on the south coast of Peru are best known for drawing huge geoglyphs. These are geometric drawings of birds and other animals made by moving around the varnished rock of the vast arid desert. They were also master makers of textiles and ceramic pottery. The capital of the Tiwanaku Empire was situated on the shores of Lake Titicaca on both sides of the border between what today is Peru and Bolivia.

Their distinctive architecture shows evidence of construction by workgroups. During its heyday, Tiwanaku also spelled Tiahuanaco controlled much of the southern Andes and coastline of South America. In direct competition with Tiwanaku was the Wari also spelled Huari state. The Wari state was located in the central Andes mountains of Peru, and their impact on the succeeding civilizations is remarkable, seen at sites like Pachacamac.

The Inca civilization was the largest civilization in the Americas when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the early 16th century.

Known for their unique writing system called the quipu , a magnificent road system , and the lovely ceremonial center called Machu Picchu, the Inca also had some pretty interesting burial customs and an amazing ability to build earthquake-proof buildings.

The Mississippian culture is a term used by archaeologists to refer to cultures inhabiting the length of the Mississippi River, but the highest level of sophistication was reached in the central Mississippi River valley of southern Illinois, near present-day St. Louis, Missouri, and the capital city of Cahokia.

We know quite a bit about the Mississippians in the American southeast because they were first visited by the Spanish in the 17th century. The best-known civilization in the Americas, I'll wager, is the Aztec civilization, largely because they were at the height of their power and influence when the Spanish arrived.

Warlike, intractable, and aggressive, the Aztecs conquered much of Central America. But the Aztecs are so much more than simply warlike. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. In fact evidence supports some were alive when they were buried, attempting to claw their way out of the mass of dead bodies. Excavations around Mound 34 have discovered an ancient Cahokia copper workshop.

This is significant because prior to this discovery, experts did not definitively know how early copper technology starting appearing around the United States. The primary hypotheses are erosion from over-hunting and deforestation, invasion from outside tribes, disease, or abandonment due to political collapse.

Trees would have been sparse and pollutants from centuries of crude copper operations would contaminate the surrounding soil, making any crops poisonous even before harvest. Defeat through invasion was possible but less likely considering little has been found of battle, and no mass civilian graves have been discovered — something likely to be found had the entire population been killed during a siege.

I am Canadian, and in our school system from grade we learn extensively the history of North America and how it was colonized and how the Aboriginal people lives before colonization etc.

But I only just learned about Cahokia in University, as well as some other places like it scattered throughout North America. I was outraged, I feel like the government is STILL trying to convince us that the savage natives needed to be colonized by conveniently leaving out entire civilizations and only showing us the nomadic ones. This is an excellent post.

I live about an hour north of this site and have visited it often although it has been quite a while since my last visit — a fact I hope to rectify this summer.

There are a lot of exciting events held here during the summertime and are generally pretty affordable due to subsidies given by several different organizations. They are also usually interested in volunteer offers or at least used to be last I was there.

Due to the fact that people like those writing these articles and taking pictures and travelling around to find what they can find, we are all a bit smarter, hopefully. I will now try to find out more about this ancient civilization.

I am in Canada, but the world being so small, all of it is my home. I was raised by a step-father that was an anthropologist. I traveled this continent and half of Europe with him.

He organized many trips to Cahokia for those in my home town, Highland, KS… mostly college and high school students. I actually learned about this in high school! I live in Oklahoma, and we had to learn about the Native American mound civilizations as a part of a required Oklahoma history class. Cahokia is actually not the only site of an ancient mound civilization, they can be found in many states along rivers.

We actually have two sites here in Oklahoma, the Spiro mounds being the largest. There was actually a large number of mound cities located on rivers across the US, though I believe Cahokia was the largest. There is evidence that shows that the mound people traveled by riverboat to other cities across the country and traded! It was not only a civilized culture, but an advanced one! However, the mound civilizations only thrived during cool and fertile climates.

Due to climate change, the civilization ultimately fell. The last recorded evidence of a mound civilization and the first recorded European encounter with a mound civilization was during the French colonization of Louisiana. Thanks for stopping by! To all you aspiring explorers of the past, we can never underestimate the desire of human kind to make life better for the next generation. This desire alone drove the development of humans to become organized, civilized, and technologised.

Remember it is greed that holds us back and also drives us forward. There is a great book titled Medieval Mississippians — The Cahokian World, for all those interested in a good overview with many different voices incl. ISBN I am in 10 grade and I have a table group and we had to research things similar to this and I had this civilization to research and I am glad that this was the cite that work for me.

Thanks Sometimes Interesting. That is very irresponsible and VERY wrong. This area was farmed from the s until the mid 20th century when the state of Illinois began buying the property for the state park.

After the expanded excavations and discoveries, additional land was purchase. I you bothered to take photos from the top of the main mound, you would see considerable forest and ground cover. Also remember this is a state park, it is mowed, and generally landscaped to be low profile to direct focus to the major structures. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Sign in. Log into your account.