View source for Pre-Columbian era

{{Short description|The Americas prior to European influence}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
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| image1            = El Castillo Stitch 2008 Edit 1.jpg
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| footer            = The Mayan [[Temple of Kukulcán]] (top), the [[Aztec sun stone]] (middle) and the Inca city of [[Machu Picchu]] (bottom) are amongst the longest standing objects by pre-Columbian civilizations.
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{{Human history}}

In the [[history of the Americas]], '''pre-Columbian era''', also known as '''pre-contact era''', '''pre-Hispanic''' or as '''pre-Cabraline era''' specifically in [[Brazil]], spans from the initial [[peopling of the Americas]] in the [[Upper Paleolithic]] to the onset of [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]], which began with [[Christopher Columbus]]'s voyage in 1492. This era encompasses the history of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous cultures]] prior to significant European influence, which in some cases did not occur until decades or even centuries after Columbus's arrival.

During the pre-Columbian era, many [[civilization]]s developed permanent settlements, cities, agricultural practices, civic and monumental architecture, major [[Earthworks (archaeology)|earthworks]], and [[Complex society|complex societal]] hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had declined by the time of the establishment of the first permanent European colonies, around the late 16th to early 17th centuries,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.tripline.net/trip/Early_European_Settlements_in_North_America-066434737501100388EFEC49781BFFB4 |title=Early European Settlements in North America |work=Tripline |access-date=6 May 2017}}</ref> and are known primarily through [[Archaeology of the Americas|archaeological research of the Americas]] and oral histories. Other civilizations, contemporaneous with the colonial period, were documented in European accounts of the time. For instance, the [[Maya civilization]] maintained written records, which were often destroyed by Christian Europeans such as [[Diego de Landa]], who viewed them as [[pagan]] but sought to preserve native histories. Despite the destruction, a few original documents have survived, and others were transcribed or translated into Spanish, providing modern historians with valuable insights into ancient cultures and knowledge.

==Historiography==
Before the development of archaeology in the 19th century, historians of the pre-Columbian period mainly interpreted the records of the European conquerors and the accounts of early European travelers and antiquaries. It was not until the nineteenth century that the work of people such as [[John Lloyd Stephens]], [[Eduard Seler]], and [[Alfred Maudslay]], and institutions such as the [[Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology]] of [[Harvard University]], led to the reconsideration and criticism of the early European sources. Now, the scholarly study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific and multidisciplinary methodologies.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ignition |last=Bernal |title=A History of Mexican Archaeology: The Vanished Civilizations of Middle America |publisher=Thames & Hudson |date=1980 |isbn=978-0-5007-8008-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmexican0000bern }}</ref>

==Genetics==
[[File:Map of gene flow in and out of Beringia.jpg|thumb|Schematic illustration of maternal (mtDNA) gene-flow in and out of [[Beringia]], from 25,000 years ago to present|alt=Schematic illustration of maternal geneflow in and out of Beringia.Colours of the arrows correspond to approximate timing of the events and are decoded in the coloured time-bar. The initial peopling of Berinigia (depicted in light yellow) was followed by a standstill after which the ancestors of indigenous Americans spread swiftly all over the New World while some of the Beringian maternal lineages–C1a-spread westwards. More recent (shown in green) genetic exchange is manifested by back-migration of A2a into Siberia and the spread of D2a into north-eastern America that post-dated the initial peopling of the New World.]]
{{Main|Genetic history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
The [[haplogroup]] most commonly associated with [[Indigenous Amerindian genetics]] is [[Haplogroup Q1a3a (Y-DNA)|Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1a3a]].<ref name=demographic>{{cite journal |first1=Maria-Catira |last1=Bortolini |first2=Francisco M. |last2=Salzano |first3=Mark G. |last3=Thomas |first4=Steven |last4=Stuart |first5=Selja P. K. |last5=Nasanen |first6=Claiton H. D. |last6=Bau |first7=Mara H. |last7=Hutz |first8=Zulay |last8=Layrisse |first9=Maria L. |last9=Petzl-Erler |first10=Luiza T. |last10=Tsuneto |first11=Kim |last11=Hill |first12=Ana M. |last12=Hurtado |first13=Dinorah |last13=Castro-de-Guerra |first14=Maria M. |last14=Torres |first15=Helena |last15=Groot |first16=Roman |last16=Michalski |first17=Pagbajabyn |last17=Nymadawa |first18=Gabriel |last18=Bedoya |first19=Neil |last19=Bradman |first20=Damian |last20=Labuda |first21=Andres |last21=Ruiz-Linares |display-authors=3 |title=Y-Chromosome Evidence for Differing Ancient Demographic Histories in the Americas |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=September 2003 |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=524–539 |doi=10.1086/377588 |pmid=12900798 |pmc=1180678 }}</ref> Researchers have found genetic evidence that the Q1a3a haplogroup has been in South America for at least 18,000 years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sepúlveda |first=Paz |display-authors=etal |date=2022 |title=Human Y chromosome sequences from Q Haplogroup reveal a South American settlement pre-18,000 years ago and a profound genomic impact during the Younger Dryas. |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=17 |issue=8 |article-number=e0271971 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0271971 |pmid=35976870 |pmc=9385064 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022PLoSO..1771971P }}</ref> [[Y-chromosome DNA]], like [[Mitochondrial DNA|mtDNA]], differs from other nuclear [[chromosome]]s in that the majority of the Y-chromosome is unique and does not recombine during [[meiosis]]. This has the effect that the historical pattern of [[mutations]] can easily be studied.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Orgel |first=Leslie E. |title=Prebiotic chemistry and the origin of the RNA world |url=http://www.d.umn.edu/~pschoff/documents/OrgelRNAWorld.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.d.umn.edu/~pschoff/documents/OrgelRNAWorld.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=[[Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology]] |year=2004 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=99–123 |pmid=15217990 |doi=10.1080/10409230490460765|citeseerx=10.1.1.537.7679 |s2cid=4939632 }}</ref> The pattern indicates [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes: first with the initial [[peopling of the Americas]] and second with [[European colonization of the Americas]].<ref name=SpencerWells3>{{cite book |first1=Spencer |last1=Wells |title=The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&pg=PP1 |publisher=Random House |isbn= 978-0-8129-7146-0 |year=2002}}</ref><ref name=Genebase>{{cite web |title=Learn about Y-DNA Haplogroup Q-M242 |first=Wendy |last=Tymchuk |url=http://www.genebase.com/tutorial/item.php?tuId=16 |publisher=Genebase Systems |year=2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100622001311/http://www.genebase.com/tutorial/item.php?tuId=16 |archive-date=22 June 2010 |quote=Haplogroups are defined by unique mutation events such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs. These SNPs mark the branch of a haplogroup, and indicate that all descendants of that haplogroup at one time shared a common ancestor. The Y-DNA SNP mutations were passed from father to son over thousands of years. Over time, additional SNPs occur within a haplogroup, leading to new lineages. These new lineages are considered subclades of the haplogroup. Each time a new mutation occurs, there is a new branch in the haplogroup, and therefore a new subclade. Haplogroup Q, possibly the youngest of the 20 Y-chromosome haplogroups, originated with the SNP mutation M242 in a man from Haplogroup P that likely lived in Siberia approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before present}}</ref> The former is the determinant factor for the number of [[gene]] lineages and founding haplotypes present in today's [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous populations]].<ref name=Genebase/>

Human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from the [[Bering Sea|Bering Sea coastline]], with an initial 20,000-year layover on [[Beringia]] for the [[Founder effect|founding population]].<ref name=First>{{cite news |title = First Americans Endured 20,000-Year Layover |first=Jennifer |last=Viegas |work=Discovery News |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american.html |quote=Archaeological evidence, in fact, recognizes that people started to leave Beringia for the New World around 40,000 years ago, but rapid expansion into North America didn't occur until about 15,000 years ago, when the ice had literally broken |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313061401/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american-02.html |archive-date=13 March 2012}}</ref><ref name=first2>{{cite news |title=New World Settlers Took 20,000-Year Pit Stop |first=Ker |last=Than |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080214-america-layover.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219013512/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080214-america-layover.html |archive-date=19 February 2008 |publisher=National Geographic Society |year=2008 |quote=Over time descendants developed a unique culture—one that was different from the original migrants' way of life in Asia but which contained seeds of the new cultures that would eventually appear throughout the Americas}}</ref> The [[Microsatellite (genetics)|microsatellite]] diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicate that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.<ref name=subclades>{{cite web |title=Summary of knowledge on the subclades of Haplogroup Q |url=http://64.40.115.138/file/lu/6/52235/NTIyMzV9K3szNTc2Nzc=.jpg?download=1 |publisher=Genebase Systems |year=2009 |access-date=22 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510204204/http://64.40.115.138/file/lu/6/52235/NTIyMzV9K3szNTc2Nzc%3D.jpg?download=1 |archive-date=10 May 2011}}</ref> The [[Na-Dené]], [[Inuit]], and [[Alaska Natives|Indigenous Alaskan]] populations exhibit [[haplogroup Q-M242 (Y-DNA)]] mutations, however, and are distinct from other Indigenous peoples with various mtDNA mutations.<ref name=NaDene>{{cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.95.23.13994 |last=Ruhlen |first=M. |title=The origin of the Na-Dene |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=95 |issue=23 |pages=13994–13996 |date=November 1998 |pmid=9811914 |pmc=25007 |bibcode=1998PNAS...9513994R |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Zhivotovsky>{{cite journal |last1=Zegura |first1=Stephen L. |last2=Karafet |first2=Tatiana M. |last3=Zhivotovsky |first3=Lev A. |last4=Hammer |first4=Michael F. |title=High-resolution SNPs and microsatellite haplotypes point to a single, recent entry of Native American Y chromosomes into the Americas |journal=[[Molecular Biology and Evolution]] |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=164–175 |date=January 2004 |pmid=14595095 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msh009|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=inuit>{{cite journal |title=mtDNA Variation among Greenland Eskimos: The Edge of the Beringian Expansion |url= |first1=Juliette |last1=Saillard |first2=Peter |last2=Forster |first3=Niels |last3=Lynnerup |first4=Hans-Jürgen |last4=Bandelt |first5=Søren |last5=Nørby |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=September 2000 |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=718–726 |pmid=10924403 |pmc=1287530 |doi=10.1086/303038 |quote=The relatively lower coalescence time of the entire haplogroup A2 including the shared sub-arctic branches A2b (Siberians and Inuit) and A2a (Eskimos and Na-Dené) is probably due to secondary expansions of haplogroup A2 from the Beringia area, which would have averaged the overall internal variation of haplogroup A2 in North America.}}</ref> This suggests that the earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America and Greenland derived from later populations.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Antonio |last1=Torroni |first2=Theodore G. |last2=Schurr |first3=Chi-Chuan |last3=Yang |first4=Emoke J. E. |last4=Szathmary |first5=Robert C. |last5=Williams |first6=Moses S. |last6=Schanfield |first7=Gary A. |last7=Troup |first8=William C. |last8=Knowler |first9=Dale N. |last9=Lawrence |first10=Kenneth M. |last10=Weisss |first11=Douglas C. |last11=Wallace |display-authors=3 |title=Native American Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates That the Amerind and the Nadene Populations Were Founded by Two Independent Migrations |journal=[[Genetics (journal)|Genetics]] |date=January 1992 |volume=130 |issue=1 |pages=153–162 |doi=10.1093/genetics/130.1.153 |pmid=1346260 |pmc=1204788 |quote=The divergence time for the Nadene portion of the HaeIII np 663 lineage was about 6,000–10,000 years. Hence, the ancestral Nadene migrated from Asia independently and considerably more recently than the progenitors of the Amerinds.}}</ref>

==Peopling of the Americas==
{{main|Peopling of the Americas|Paleo-Indians}}
[[File:Peopling of America through Beringia.png|thumb|Approximate location of the [[Peopling of the Americas|ice-free corridor]] and specific [[Paleo-Indians|Paleoindian]] sites, according to the [[Clovis theory]]]]
Asian nomadic [[Paleo-Indians]] are thought to have entered the [[Americas]] via the [[Bering Land Bridge]] (Beringia), now the [[Bering Strait]], and possibly along the coast. Genetic evidence found in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]]' maternally inherited [[mitochondrial DNA]] (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia.<ref name="Stinnesbeck et al. 2017">{{Cite journal |last1=Stinnesbeck |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Becker |first2=Julia |last3=Hering |first3=Fabio |last4=Frey |first4=Eberhard |last5=González |first5=Arturo González |last6=Fohlmeister |first6=Jens |last7=Stinnesbeck |first7=Sarah |last8=Frank |first8=Norbert |last9=Terrazas Mata |first9=Alejandro |last10=Benavente |first10=Martha Elena |last11=Avilés Olguín |first11=Jerónimo |last12=Aceves Núñez |first12=Eugenio |last13=Zell |first13=Patrick |last14=Deininger |first14=Michael |date=30 August 2017 |title=The earliest settlers of Mesoamerica date back to the late Pleistocene |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=12 |issue=8 |article-number=e0183345 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0183345 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5576649 |pmid=28854194|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1283345S }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cyberwest.com/cw09/v9scwst1.html |title=Study confirms Bering land bridge flooded later than previously believed |work=Cyberwest |date=31 July 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/bering.htm |title=Bering Land Bridge National Preserve |publisher=National Park System}}</ref> After crossing the land bridge, they moved southward along the Pacific coast<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fladmark|first=K. R.|date=January 1979|title=Routes: Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0002731600079774/type/journal_article|journal=American Antiquity|language=en|volume=44|issue=1|pages=55–69|doi=10.2307/279189|jstor=279189|s2cid=162243347|issn=0002-7316|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and through an interior ice-free corridor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meltzer |first=David J.|title=First peoples in a new world: colonizing ice age America|date=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94315-5|location=Berkeley|oclc=609850106}}</ref> Throughout millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout the rest of North and South America.

Exactly when the first people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate.<ref name="Stinnesbeck et al. 2017" /> One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the [[Clovis culture]], with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dillehay |first=Tom D. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdrBUR6jtIYC&pg=PT2 |title=A Companion to Latin American History |date=21 March 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-9164-0 |editor-last=Holloway |editor-first=Thomas H. |chapter=Early Population Flows In the Western Hemisphere}}</ref> However, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some [[Indigenous Amerindian genetics|genetic]] studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago.<ref name="SpencerWells2">{{cite book |first1=Spencer |last1=Wells |first2=Mark |last2=Read |title=The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&pg=PA138 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-8129-7146-9 |year=2002 |pages=138–140}}</ref> The chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the ''short chronology theory'' with the first movement beyond [[Alaska]] into the [[New World|Americas]] occurring no earlier than 14,000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants.<ref>{{cite news |first=Stefan |last=Lovgren |title=Americas Settled 15,000 Years Ago, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |date=13 March 2008 |url=https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080313-first-americans.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314172308/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080313-first-americans.html|archive-date=14 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="dnaa">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encarta.msn.com/text_701509129___0/First_Americans.html |title=First Americans |encyclopedia=Encarta Online Encyclopedia |publisher=Microsoft |first=David J. |last=Meltzer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091021004428/http://encarta.msn.com/text_701509129___0/First_Americans.html |archive-date=21 October 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.013 |last1=Fagundes |first1=Nelson J. R. |first2=Ricardo |last2=Kanitz |first3=Roberta |last3=Eckert |first4=Ana C. S. |last4=Valls |first5=Mauricio R. |last5=Bogo |first6=Francisco M. |last6=Salzano |first7=David Glenn |last7=Smith |first8=Wilson A. |last8=Silva |first9=Marco A. |last9=Zago |first10=Andrea K. |last10=Ribeiro-dos-Santos |first11=Sidney E. B. |last11=Santos |first12=Maria Luiza |last12=Petzl-Erler |first13=Sandro L. |last13=Bonatto |display-authors=3 |title=Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |volume=82 |issue=3 |year=2008 |pages=583–592 |pmid=18313026 |pmc=2427228}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Paul Robert |editor-last=Magocsi |title=Beginnings to 1500 C.E. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples |publisher=Multicultural History Society of Ontario |date=1999 |isbn=978-0-8020-2938-6 |url=http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/p4/1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206163225/http://multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/p4/1 |archive-date=6 December 2010}}</ref> The second belief is the ''long chronology theory'', which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at a much earlier date, possibly 30,000–40,000 years ago or earlier.<ref name="national">{{cite web |title=Atlas of the Human Journey |url=https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501094643/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003 |archive-date=1 May 2011 |work=National Geographic}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Marder|first=William|title=Indians in the Americas: The Untold Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Obgdz8auwkMC&pg=PA11|year=2005|publisher=Book Tree|isbn=978-1-58509-104-1|page=11}}</ref><ref name="kind">{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ |title=Journey of mankind |work=BradShaw Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | first=Vaughn M. Jr. |last=Bryant |title=Pre-Clovis |editor-last=Gibbon |editor-first=Guy E. |encyclopedia=Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0u2y_SVnmoC&pg=PA682 |year=1998 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-0725-9 |pages=682–683}}</ref>

Artifacts have been found in both North and South America which have been [[carbon dating|dated]] to 14,000 years ago,<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/science/04fossil.html |title=Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 April 2008}}</ref> and accordingly humans have been proposed to have reached [[Cape Horn]] at the southern tip of South America by this time. In that case, the people that would become the [[Inuit]] would have arrived separately and at a much later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago, moving across the ice from [[Siberia]] into Alaska.

[[File:Map of Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Areas of the Americas.svg|thumb|400px|Major peoples and cultural areas of the pre-Columbian Americas]] 

==North America==
{{further|Aboriginal peoples in Canada#History|History of North America#Pre-Columbian era|List of archaeological periods (North America)|Native Americans in the United States#History|Pre-Columbian Mexico}}

===Lithic and Archaic periods===
{{Main|Lithic stage|Archaic period in the Americas}}

The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded during the [[Lithic stage]]. It finally stabilized about 10,000 years ago; climatic conditions were then very similar to today's.<ref name="icaage">{{cite book|last1=Imbrie|first1=John|last2=Imbrie|first2=Katherine Palmer|title=Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GIxRp9fRDGwC&pg=PP1|year=1979|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-44075-3}}</ref> Within this time frame, roughly about the [[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic Period]], numerous [[archaeological culture]]s have been identified.

====Lithic stage and early Archaic period====
The unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early [[Paleo-Indian]]s soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes.<ref>Jacobs (2002).{{full citation needed|date=January 2018}}</ref> The Paleo-Indians were [[hunter-gatherer]]s, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family. These groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/281017 |last1=Kelly |first1=Robert L. |first2=Lawrence C. |last2=Todd |title=Coming into the Country: Early Paleo-Indian Hunting and Mobility |jstor=281017 |journal=[[American Antiquity]] |volume=53 |issue=2 |year=1988 |pages=231–244|s2cid=161058784 }}</ref> During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct [[megafauna|giant land animals]] such as [[mastodon]] and [[bison antiquus|ancient bison]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Breitburg |first1=Emanual |first2=John B. |last2=Broster |first3=Arthur L. |last3=Reesman |first4=Richard G. |last4=Stearns |title=Coats-Hines Site: Tennessee's First Paleo-Indian Mastodon Association |journal=Current Research in the Pleistocene |volume=13 |year=1996 |pages=6–8}}</ref> Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools, including distinctive projectile points and knives, as well as less distinctive butchering and hide-scraping implements.

The vastness of the North American continent, and the variety of its climates, [[ecology]], [[vegetation]], [[fauna]], and landforms, led ancient peoples to coalesce into many distinct [[linguistics|linguistic]] and cultural groups.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fagan|first1=Brian|last2=Durrani|first2=Nadia|title=People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8lwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|edition=fourteenth|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-34682-1}}{{page needed|date=January 2018}}</ref> This is reflected in the oral histories of the indigenous peoples, described by a wide range of traditional [[creation stories]] which often say that a given people have been living in a certain territory since the creation of the world.

Throughout thousands of years, paleo-Indian people domesticated, bred, and cultivated many plant species, including crops that now constitute 50–60% of worldwide agriculture.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allbusiness.com/agriculture-forestry-fishing-hunting/331083-1.html |title=Native Americans: The First Farmers |work=AgExporter |date=1 October 1999 |publisher=Allbusiness.com |access-date=3 June 2011}}</ref> In general, Arctic, Subarctic, and coastal peoples continued to live as hunters and gatherers, while [[plant cultivation|agriculture]] was adopted in more temperate and sheltered regions, permitting a dramatic rise in population.<ref name="icaage"/>

====Middle Archaic period====
After the migration or migrations, it was several thousand years before the first complex societies arose, the earliest emerging about seven to eight thousand years ago.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} As early as 5500 BCE, people in the Lower Mississippi Valley at Monte Sano and other sites in present-day [[Louisiana]], [[Mississippi]], and [[Florida]] were building complex [[earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] [[mound]]s, probably for religious purposes. Beginning in the late twentieth century, archeologists have studied, analyzed, and dated these sites, realizing that the earliest complexes were built by [[hunter-gatherer]] societies, whose people occupied the sites on a seasonal basis.<ref>Gibson, John L. "Navels of the Earth: Sedentism in Early Mound-Building Cultures in the Lower Mississippi Valley." ''World Archaeology'', Vol. 38, No. 2 (June 2006), pp. 311-329. Stable URL: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40024503]. P. 311</ref> [[Watson Brake]], a large complex of eleven platform mounds, was constructed beginning in 3400 BCE and added to over 500 years. This has changed earlier assumptions that complex construction arose only after societies had adopted agriculture, and become sedentary, with stratified hierarchy and usually ceramics. These ancient people had organized to build complex mound projects under a different social structure.

====Late Archaic period====
[[File:Poverty Point Aerial HRoe 2014.jpg|thumb|left|Artist's reconstruction of [[Poverty Point]], 1500&nbsp;BCE]]
{{Mound Builders}}
Until the accurate dating of Watson Brake and similar sites, the oldest mound complex was thought to be [[Poverty Point]], also located in the [[Lower Mississippi Valley]]. Built about 1500 BCE, it is the centerpiece of a culture extending over 100 sites on both sides of the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]]. The Poverty Point site has earthworks in the form of six concentric half-circles, divided by radial aisles, together with some mounds. The entire complex is nearly a mile across.

Mound building was continued by succeeding cultures, who built numerous sites in the middle Mississippi and [[Ohio River]] valleys as well, adding [[effigy mounds]], conical and ridge mounds, and other shapes.

===Woodland period===
{{Main|Woodland period}}
[[File:Mound City Chillicothe Ohio HRoe 2008.jpg|thumb|Hopewell mounds from the [[Hopewell Culture National Historical Park|Mound City group]] in Ohio]]

The [[Woodland period]] of North American pre-Columbian cultures lasted from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. The term was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites between the [[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic period]] and the [[Mississippian culture]]s. The [[Adena culture]] and the ensuing [[Hopewell tradition]] during this period built monumental earthwork architecture and established continent-spanning trade and exchange networks.

This period is considered a developmental stage without any massive changes in a short period but instead has a continuous development in stone and bone tools, leatherworking, textile manufacture, tool production, cultivation, and shelter construction. Some Woodland people continued to use spears and [[atlatl]]s until the end of the period when they were replaced by [[bow and arrow|bows and arrows]].

===Mississippian culture===
{{Main|Mississippian culture}}
The Mississippian culture was spread across the Southeast and Midwest of what is today the United States, from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the plains, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Upper Midwest, although most intensively in the area along the [[Mississippi River]] and [[Ohio River]]. One of the distinguishing features of this culture was the construction of complexes of large earthen [[Platform mound|mounds]] and grand plazas, continuing the [[Mound Builders|mound-building]] traditions of earlier cultures. They grew [[maize]] and other crops intensively, participated in an extensive trade network, and had a complex stratified society. The Mississippians first appeared around 1000 CE, following and developing out of the less agriculturally intensive and less centralized Woodland period. The largest urban site of these people, [[Cahokia]]—located near modern [[East St. Louis, Illinois]]—may have reached a population of over 20,000. Other chiefdoms were constructed throughout the Southeast, and its trade networks reached to the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries, Cahokia was the most populous city in North America. (Larger cities did exist in Mesoamerica and the Andes.) [[Monks Mound]], the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of the prehistoric [[New World|Americas]]. The culture reached its peak in about 1200–1400 CE, and in most places, it seems to have been in decline before the arrival of Europeans.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Many [[List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition|Mississippian peoples]] were encountered by the expedition of [[Hernando de Soto]] in the 1540s, mostly with disastrous results for both sides. Unlike the Spanish expeditions in Mesoamerica, which conquered vast empires with relatively few men, the de Soto expedition wandered the American Southeast for four years, becoming more bedraggled, losing more men and equipment, and eventually arriving in [[Mexico]] as a fraction of its original size. The local people fared much worse though, as the fatalities of diseases introduced by the expedition devastated the populations and produced much social disruption. By the time Europeans returned a hundred years later, nearly all of the Mississippian groups had vanished, and vast swaths of their territory were virtually uninhabited.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hudson|first=Charles M.|author-link=Charles M. Hudson (author)|title=Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eapFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|year=1997|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-5290-9}}</ref>
{{Gallery|align=center
|width=180|File:Monks Mound in July.JPG|[[Monks Mound]] of [[Cahokia]] ([[UNESCO World Heritage Site]]) in summer. The concrete staircase follows the approximate course of the ancient wooden stairs.
|File:Chromesun kincaid site 01.jpg|An artistic recreation of [[Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site|The Kincaid site]] from the prehistoric Mississippian culture as it may have looked at its peak 1050–1400 CE
|File:Moundville Archaeological Park 64.JPG|Engraved stone [[Cosmetic palette|palette]] from [[Moundville phase|Moundville]], illustrating two [[Horned Serpent|horned rattlesnakes]], perhaps referring to [[Southeastern Ceremonial Complex#Great Serpent|The Great Serpent]] of the [[Southeastern Ceremonial Complex]]
|File:Hampson effigypot HRoe 2006.jpg|A human head effigy pot from the Nodena site
}}

=== Ancestral Puebloans ===
{{Main|Ancestral Puebloans}}
[[File:Cliff_Palace.JPG|thumb|The [[Cliff Palace]] in [[Mesa Verde National Park]], Colorado.]]
The Ancestral Puebloans thrived in what is now the [[Four Corners]] region in the United States. It is commonly suggested that the culture of the Ancestral Puebloans emerged during the [[Early Basketmaker II Era]] during the 12th century BCE. The Ancestral Puebloans were a complex [[Oasisamerica]]n society that constructed [[kiva]]s, multi-story houses, and apartment blocks made from stone and adobe, such as the [[Cliff Palace]] of [[Mesa Verde National Park]] in Colorado and the [[Great house (pueblo)|Great Houses]] in [[Chaco Culture National Historical Park|Chaco Canyon]], [[New Mexico]]. The Puebloans also constructed a [[Great North Road (Ancestral Puebloans)|road system]] that stretched from Chaco Canyon to Kutz Canyon in the [[San Juan Basin]].{{sfn|Vivian|Hilpert|2012|p=137}} The Ancestral Puebloans are also known as "Anasazi", though the term is controversial, as the present-day [[Pueblo peoples]] consider the term to be derogatory, due to the word tracing its origins to a [[Navajo]] word meaning "ancestor enemies".<ref>Cordell, pp. 18–19</ref>

=== Hohokam ===
{{Main|Hohokam}}
The Hohokam thrived in the [[Sonoran Desert|Sonoran desert]] in what is now the U.S. state of Arizona and the Mexican state of [[Sonora]]. The Hohokam were responsible for the construction of a series of irrigation canals that led to the successful establishment of [[Phoenix, Arizona]] via the [[Salt River Project]]. The Hohokam also established complex settlements such as [[Hohokam Pima National Monument|Snaketown]], which served as an important commercial trading center. After 1375 CE, Hohokam society collapsed and the people abandoned their settlements, likely due to drought.

=== Mogollon ===
{{Main|Mogollon culture}}
The Mogollon resided in the present-day states of [[Arizona]], New Mexico, and [[Texas]] as well as [[Sonora]] and [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]]. Like most other cultures in Oasisamerica, the Mogollon constructed sophisticated kivas and cliff dwellings. In the village of [[Casas Grandes|Paquimé]], the Mogollon are revealed to have housed pens for [[scarlet macaw]]s, which were introduced from [[Mesoamerica]] through trade.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Di Peso |first1=Charles |title=Casas Grandes: A Fallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca (Vols. 1–3) |date=1974 |publisher=Northland Press |location=Flagstaff, AZ}}</ref>

=== Sinagua ===
{{Main|Sinagua}}
The Sinagua were hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists who lived in central Arizona. Like the Hohokam, they constructed kivas and great houses as well as [[Mesoamerican ballcourt|ballcourts]]. Several of the Sinagua ruins include [[Montezuma Castle National Monument|Montezuma Castle]], [[Wupatki National Monument|Wupatki]], and [[Tuzigoot National Monument|Tuzigoot]].

=== Salado ===
{{Main|Salado culture}}
The Salado resided in the [[Tonto Basin]] in southeastern Arizona from 1150 CE to the 15th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that they traded with far-away cultures, as evidenced by the presence of seashells from the [[Gulf of California]] and [[macaw]] feathers from Mexico. Most of the cliff dwellings constructed by the Salado are primarily located in [[Tonto National Monument]].

=== Iroquois ===
{{Main|Iroquois}}
The [[Iroquois]] League of Nations or "People of the Long House", or the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, was a politically advanced, democratic society. It is thought by some historians to have influenced the [[United States Constitution]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Daly |first=Janet L. |year=1997 |title=The Effect of the Iroquois Constitution on the United States Constitution |url=http://www.ipoaa.com/iroquois_constitution_united_states.htm |journal=IPOAA Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702105730/http://www.ipoaa.com/iroquois_constitution_united_states.htm |archive-date=2 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Woods |first=Thomas E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMcnBRKR-0C&pg=PA62 |title=33 Questions about American History You're Not Supposed to Ask |publisher=Crown Forum |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-307-34668-1 |page=62}}</ref> with the [[United States Senate|Senate]] passing a resolution to this effect in 1988.<ref>{{cite web |date=21 October 1988 |title=H. Con. Res. 331 |url=https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/hconres331.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/hconres331.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |publisher=United States Senate}}</ref> Other historians have contested this interpretation and believe the impact was minimal or did not exist, pointing to numerous differences between the two systems and the ample precedents for the constitution in European political thought.<ref name="Shannon">{{cite book |last=Shannon |first=Timothy J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gz-ApAxMaPIC&pg=PA6 |title=Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-8014-8818-4 |pages=6–8}}</ref><ref name="Tooker">{{cite book |title=Invented indian |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1990 |isbn=978-1-4128-2659-4 |editor-last=Clifton |editor-first=James A. |pages=107–128 |chapter=The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARbVmr941TsC&pg=PA107}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Rakove |first=Jack |date=21 July 2005 |title=Did the Founding Fathers Really Get Many of Their Ideas of Liberty from the Iroquois? |url=http://hnn.us/articles/12974.html |work=History News Network |publisher=Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, [[George Mason University]]}}</ref>

=== Calusa ===
{{Main|Calusa}}
The Calusa were a complex paramountcy/kingdom that resided in southern [[Florida]]. Instead of agriculture, the Calusa economy relied on abundant fishing. According to Spanish sources, the "king's house" at [[Mound Key Archaeological State Park|Mound Key]] was large enough to house 2,000 people.<ref>Marquardt, W. H. (2014). Tracking the Calusa: A Retrospective. Southeastern Archaeology, 33(1), 1–24.</ref> The Calusa ultimately collapsed into extinction at around 1750 after succumbing to diseases introduced by the Spanish colonists.

=== Wichita ===
{{Main|Wichita people}}
The [[Wichita people]] were a loose confederation that consisted of sedentary agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers who resided in the eastern [[Great Plains]]. They lived in permanent settlements and even established a city called [[Etzanoa]], which had a population of 20,000 people. The city was eventually abandoned around the 18th century after it was encountered by Spanish conquistadors [[Jusepe Gutierrez]] and [[Juan de Oñate]].

===Historic tribes===
When the Europeans arrived, [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples of North America]] had a wide range of lifeways from sedentary, agrarian societies to semi-nomadic [[hunter-gatherer]] societies. Many formed new [[tribe]]s or confederations in response to European colonization. These are often classified by [[cultural region]]s, loosely based on geography. These can include the following:
* [[Circumpolar peoples|Arctic]], including [[Aleut people|Aleut]], [[Inuit]], and [[Yupik peoples]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic|Subarctic]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands|Northeastern Woodlands]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands|Southeastern Woodlands]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains|Great Plains]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin|Great Basin]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau|Northwest Plateau]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast|Northwest Coast]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of California|California]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest|Southwest]]

Numerous pre-Columbian societies were sedentary, such as the [[Tlingit]], [[Haida people|Haida]], [[Chumash people|Chumash]], [[Mandan]], [[Hidatsa]], and others, and some established large settlements, even cities, such as [[Cahokia]], in what is now [[Illinois]].

==Mesoamerica==
{{Further|Mesoamerican chronology}}
[[File:Yaxchilan 1.jpg|thumb|One of the pyramids in the upper level of [[Yaxchilán]]|alt=|left]] [[Mesoamerica]] is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of [[Costa Rica]] that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the visits to the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus. ''Mesoamerican'' is the adjective generally used to refer to that group of pre-Columbian cultures. This refers to an environmental area occupied by an assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology in the Americas for more than three thousand years. Between 2000 and 300 BCE, complex cultures began to form in Mesoamerica. Some matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the [[Olmec]], [[Teotihuacan]], [[Maya civilization|Mayas]], [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotecs]], [[Mixtec]]s, [[Huastec civilization|Huastecs]], [[Tarascan state|Purepecha]], [[Toltec]]s, and [[Mexica]]/[[Aztec]]s. The Mexica civilization is also known as the [[Aztec Triple Alliance]] since they were three smaller kingdoms loosely united together.<ref name=1491Book>{{cite book |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |author-link=Charles C. Mann |title=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus |orig-date=2005 |year=2006 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=1-4000-3205-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/149100char/page/199 199–212] |title-link=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus }}</ref>[[File:Telamones Tula.jpg|thumb|Atlantes at [[Tula (Mesoamerican site)|Tula]], [[Hidalgo (Mexico)|Hidalgo]]|alt=|left]]

These Indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions: building [[pyramid]] temples, [[mathematics]], [[astronomy]], medicine, writing, highly accurate [[calendar]]s, [[Native American art|fine arts]], intensive agriculture, [[engineering]], an [[abacus]] calculator, and complex [[theology]]. They also invented the wheel, but it was used solely as a toy. In addition, they used native [[copper]], [[silver]], and [[gold]] for metalworking.

Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of [[Nuevo León]]) demonstrate an early propensity for counting. Their number system was [[Vigesimal|base 20]] and included [[zero]]. These early count markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore the influence that astronomical activities had upon Mesoamerican people before the arrival of Europeans. Many of the later Mesoamerican civilizations carefully built their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events.

The biggest Mesoamerican cities, such as [[Teotihuacan]], [[Tenochtitlan]], and [[Cholula (Mesoamerican site)|Cholula]], were among the largest in the world. These cities grew as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, and theology, and they radiated influence outwards onto neighboring cultures in central Mexico.

While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mesoamerica can be said to have had five major civilizations: the Olmecs, Teotihuacan, the Toltecs, the Mexica, and the Mayas. These civilizations (except for the politically fragmented Maya) extended their reach across Mesoamerica—and beyond—like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these civilizations over 4,000 years. Many made war with them, but almost all peoples found themselves within one of their spheres of influence.

[[Regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica]] have been the subject of considerable research. There is evidence of trade routes starting as far north as the [[Mexican Plateau|Mexico Central Plateau]], and going down to the Pacific coast. These trade routes and cultural contacts then went on as far as [[Central America]]. These networks operated with various interruptions from pre-Olmec times and up to the Late Classical Period (600–900 CE).

===Olmec civilization===
{{Main|Olmec}}
The earliest known civilization in Mesoamerica is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint by which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico. Pre-Olmec civilization began with the production of pottery in abundance, around 2300 BCE in the [[Grijalva River]] delta. Between 1600 and 1500 BCE, the Olmec civilization had begun, with the consolidation of power at their capital, a site today known as [[San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán]] near the coast in southeast [[Veracruz]].<ref name=OLMECS>{{cite book|title=The Olmecs: America's First Civilization|author-link= Richard Diehl|last=Diehl|first=Richard A.|publisher=Thames and Hudson|year=2004|location=London|isbn=0-500-28503-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/olmecsamericasfi0000dieh/page/9 9]–25|url=https://archive.org/details/olmecsamericasfi0000dieh|url-access=registration}}</ref> The Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into [[Central America]], and along the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. They transformed many peoples' thinking toward a new way of government, pyramid temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, economics, and religion. Their achievements paved the way for the Maya civilization and the civilizations in central Mexico.

===Teotihuacan civilization===
{{Main|Teotihuacan}}
The decline of the Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 BCE. By 150 CE, Teotihuacan had risen to become the first true [[metropolis]] of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Maya cities of [[Tikal]], [[Copan]], and [[Kaminaljuyú]].<ref>Sharpe, Ashley E., Bárbara Arroyo, Javier Estrada, Gloria Ajú, and Emanuel Serech. “Dogs for the Gods, Fish for the Feast: The Ceremonial Role of Animals at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala.” Latin American Antiquity 33, no. 2 (2022): 238. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27362414.
</ref> Teotihuacan's influence over the Maya civilization cannot be overstated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotecs]] from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to the city's economic and cultural prowess. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a monumental new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 CE—but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millennium, to around 950 CE.
[[File:Uxmal-mexico.jpg|thumb|Maya architecture at [[Uxmal]]]]

===Maya civilization===
{{Main|Maya civilization}}

Contemporary to Teotihuacan's greatness was that of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 CE and 650 CE was a time of intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and calendrics. The [[Maya script]] also developed using pictographs and syllabic elements in the form of [[text (literary theory)|texts]] and [[codex|codices]] inscribed on stone, pottery, wood, or perishable books made from bark paper.

=== Huastec civilization ===
{{Main|Huastec civilization}}

The Huastecs were a [[Maya peoples|Maya]] ethnic group that migrated northwards to the Gulf Coast of Mexico.<ref>Foster 2002, p. 274.</ref> The Huastecs are considered to be distinct from the Maya civilization, as they separated from the main Maya branch at around 2000 BCE and did not possess the [[Maya script]].<ref>Richter 2010, pp. 2–3.</ref><ref name="Richter10p3">Richter 2010, p. 3.</ref> Other accounts also suggest that the Huastecs migrated as a result of the [[Classic Maya collapse]] around the year 900 CE.

=== Zapotec civilization ===
{{Main|Zapotec civilization}}

The Zapotecs were a civilization that thrived in the [[Oaxaca Valley]] from the late 6th century BCE until their downfall at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors. The city of [[Monte Albán]] was an important religious center for the Zapotecs and served as the capital of the empire from 700 BCE to 700 CE. The Zapotecs resisted the expansion of the Aztecs until they were subjugated in 1502 under Aztec emperor [[Ahuitzotl]]. After the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]], the Zapotecs resisted Spanish rule until King [[Cosijopii I]] surrendered in 1563.

=== Mixtec civilization ===
{{Main|Mixtec culture}}

Like the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs thrived in the Oaxaca Valley. The Mixtecs consisted of separate independent kingdoms and city-states, rather than a single unified empire. The Mixtecs would eventually be conquered by the Aztecs until the Spanish conquest. The Mixtecs saw the Spanish conquest as an opportunity for liberation and established agreements with the conquistadors that allowed them to preserve their cultural traditions, though relatively few sections resisted Spanish rule.

=== Totonac civilization ===
{{Main|Totonac culture}}

[[File:Zempoala-06.jpg|thumb|267x267px|The Totonac city of [[Cempoala]].]]
The Totonac civilization was concentrated in the present-day states of [[Veracruz]] and [[Puebla]]. The Totonacs were responsible for the establishment of cities, such as [[El Tajín]] as important commercial trading centers. The Totonacs would later assist in the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]] as an opportunity to liberate themselves from Aztec military imperialism.

=== Toltec civilization ===
{{Main|Toltec Empire}}

The Toltec civilization was established in the 8th century CE. The Toltec Empire expanded its political borders to as far south as the [[Yucatán Peninsula|Yucatán peninsula]], including the Maya city of [[Chichen Itza]]. The Toltecs established vast trading relations with other Mesoamerican civilizations in Central America and the [[Puebloans]] in present-day [[New Mexico]]. During the Post-Classic era, the Toltecs suffered a subsequent collapse in the early 12th century, due to famine and civil war.<ref name="duran">Durán, D. ''Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e islas de Tierra Firme'' [http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/historia-de-las-indias-de-nueva-espana-y-islas-de-tierra-firme-tomo-ii--0/html/f33a7d7c-f71b-4823-a8e0-0a0cd3ece6c1_398.htm]</ref> The Toltec civilization was so influential to the point where many groups such as the Aztecs claimed to be descended from.<ref name="kuku">León-Portilla, M. (2002) ''América Latina en la época colonial''. Grupo Planeta [https://books.google.com/books?id=ba896R61H6QC&dq=nobleza+tolteca+portilla&pg=PA19]</ref><ref>León-Portilla, M. (2016) ''Toltecáyotl: Aspectos de la cultura náhuatl''. Fondo de Cultura Economica [https://books.google.com/books?id=966-DAAAQBAJ&dq=nobleza+tolteca+portilla&pg=PT246]</ref>

===Aztec/Mexica/Triple Alliance civilization===
{{Main|Aztec Empire}}

[[File:Templo Mayor in Mexico-Tenochtitlan 16th century (illustration 1900).jpg|thumb|left|247x247px|[[Tenochtitlan]], the capital of the [[Aztec Empire]].]]
With the decline of the [[Toltec]] civilization came political fragmentation in the [[Valley of Mexico]]. Into this new political game of contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the [[Mexica]]. They were also a desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves "Azteca", in memory of [[Aztlán]], but they changed their name after years of migrating. Since they were not from the Valley of Mexico, they were initially seen as crude and unrefined in the ways of the [[Nahua peoples|Nahua]] civilization. Through political maneuvers and ferocious martial skills, they managed to rule Mexico as the head of the 'Triple Alliance' which included two other Aztec cities, [[Tetzcoco (altepetl)|Tetxcoco]] and [[Tlacopan]].

Latecomers to Mexico's central [[plateau]], the Mexica thought of themselves, nevertheless, as heirs of the civilizations that had preceded them. For them, arts, sculpture, architecture, engraving, feather-mosaic work, and the calendar, were bequest from the former inhabitants of Tula, the Toltecs.

The Mexica-Aztecs were the rulers of much of central Mexico by about 1400 (while [[Yaqui]]s, Coras, and [[Apache]]s commanded sizable regions of northern desert), having subjugated most of the other regional states by the 1470s. At their peak, the Valley of Mexico where the Aztec Empire presided, saw a population growth that included nearly one million people during the late Aztec period (1350–1519).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Michael E. |date=1997 |title=Life in the Provinces of the Aztec Empire |journal=Scientific American |volume=277 |issue=3 |pages=76–83 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0997-76 |jstor=24995914 |bibcode=1997SciAm.277c..76S |issn=0036-8733}}</ref>

Their capital, [[Tenochtitlan]], is the site of modern-day [[Mexico City]]. At its peak, it was one of the largest cities in the world with population estimates of 200,000–300,000.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the last stand of the Aztecs |last=Levy |first=Buddy |date=2008 |publisher=Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks |isbn=978-0-553-38471-0 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jSfO7xFo3BIC&pg=PA106}}</ref> The market established there was the largest ever seen by the [[conquistador]]es on arrival.

===Tarascan/Purépecha civilization===
{{Main|Purépecha Empire}}

Initially, the lands that would someday comprise the lands of the powerful Tarascan Empire were inhabited by several independent communities. Around 1300, however, the first Cazonci, Tariacuri, united these communities and built them into one of the most advanced civilizations in Mesoamerica. Their capital at Tzintzuntzan was just one of the many cities—there were ninety more under its control. The Tarascan Empire was among the largest in Central America, so it is no surprise that they routinely came into conflict with the neighboring [[Aztec Empire]]. Out of all the civilizations in its area, the Tarascan Empire was the most prominent in metallurgy, harnessing copper, silver, and gold to create items such as tools, decorations, and even weapons and armor. Bronze was also used. The great victories over the Aztecs by the Tarascans cannot be understated. Nearly every war they fought in resulted in a Tarascan victory. Because the Tarascan Empire had little links to the former [[Toltec Empire]], they were also quite independent in culture from their neighbors. The Aztecs, [[Tlaxcaltec]], Olmec, Mixtec, Maya, and others were very similar to each other, however. This is because they were all directly preceded by the Toltecs, and they therefore shared almost identical cultures. The Tarascans, however, possessed a unique religion, as well as other things.{{Vague|date=June 2020}}

=== Tlaxcala republic ===
{{Main|Tlaxcala (Nahua state)}}
Tlaxcala was a Nahua republic and confederation in central Mexico. The Tlaxcalans fiercely resisted Aztec expansion during the [[Flower war|Flower Wars]] ever since the Aztecs expelled them from [[Lake Texcoco]]. The Tlaxcalans would later ally with the Spanish conquistadors under [[Hernán Cortés]] as an opportunity to liberate them from the Aztecs and managed to successfully conquer the Aztecs with the help of the conquistadors. The Spaniards would reward the Tlaxcalans for preserving their culture and for their assistance in defeating the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans would once again assist to the Spaniards during the [[Mixtón War]] and the [[Spanish conquest of Guatemala|conquest of Guatemala]].<ref>Restall and Asselbergs 2007, pp. 79–81.</ref>

=== Cuzcatlan ===
{{Main|Cuzcatlan}}
Cuzcatlan was a [[Pipil people|Pipil]] confederacy of kingdoms and city-states located in present-day [[El Salvador]]. According to legend, Cuzcatlan was established by Toltec migrants during the [[Classic Maya collapse]] in approximately 1200 CE. During the [[Spanish conquest of El Salvador]], Cuzcatlan was forced to surrender to conquistador [[Pedro de Alvarado]] in 1528.

=== Lenca ===
{{Main|Lenca}}
The Lenca people were composed of several distinct multilingual confederations and city-states in present-day El Salvador and [[Honduras]]. Cities such as [[Yarumela]] were important commercial centers for the Lenca. During the Spanish conquest, several Lenca leaders such as [[Lempira (Lenca ruler)|Lempira]] resisted conversion to Christianity, while others converted peacefully.

=== Nicānāhuac ===
{{Main|Nicarao people}}
Nicānāhuac ("Here Surrounded By Water" in [[Nahuatl]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nahuatl Dictionary: Letter N Wordlist |date=31 March 2025 |url=https://www.vocabulario.com.mx/nahuatl/diccionario_nahuatl_n.html}}</ref> was the geographical [[endonym]] used by the [[Nicarao people|Nicarao]], an offshoot of the Pipil people from [[El Salvador]], to refer to western [[Nicaragua]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://etimologias.dechile.net/?Nicaragua|title= Etymology of Nicaragua}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mined.gob.ni/biblioteca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Libro-Toponimia-Octubre-2022.pdf|title= Nicaraguan place names}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://planlea.edu.do/2017/02/origen-de-los-nombres-de-los-paises-de-latinoamaerica/|title= Origin of the names of the Latin American countries|date= 8 February 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://elcafelatino.org/es/latinoamerica-origen-nombre-paises/|title= The curious story of the origin of the names of Latin American countries|date= 16 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cclec.org/membership/nicaragua/|title= Nicaragua|date= 11 July 2024}}</ref> The Nicarao had multiple [[chiefdom]]s that were independent from one another, these chiefdoms ranged from the [[Chinandega department]] in northwestern Nicaragua to [[Guanacaste province]] in northwestern [[Costa Rica]].<ref>{{Cite book |title = Las culturas indígenas y su medioambiente| jstor=j.ctv1qr6sk7.7 | last1=Newson | first1=Linda A. | last2=Bonilla | first2=Adolfo | date=2021 | pages=21–54 | publisher=Uol Insti for the Study of the Americas | isbn=978-1-908857-87-3 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Central-American-Nahua-distribution-based-on-Fowler-1981-469-523-The-enclaves-in_fig1_265144861|title= Central American Nahua}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/El-Reino-De-Este-Mundo/563206.html|title= The Kingdom of this world}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1901_num_3_2_3365|title= The Aboriginals of Costa Rica|journal= Journal de la Société des Américanistes|date= 1901|volume= 3|issue= 2|pages= 125–139|doi= 10.3406/jsa.1901.3365|last1= Peralta|first1= De|last2= M|first2= Manuel}}</ref><ref>Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano; por el Capitán Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés; Primer Cronista del Nuevo Mundo; publícala la Real Academia de la Historia.- Tomo IV.- Libro XLII.- Capitulo XIII.</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=16 March 2014 |author=Manuel Orozco y Berra |date=1864 |title=Geografía de las lenguas y carta etnográfica de México: precedidas de un ensayo de clasificación de las mismas lenguas y de apuntes para las inmigraciones de las tribus |url=http://www.biblioteca.org.ar/libros/154756.pdf}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> Although the Nicarao chiefdoms shared the same language, culture, and ethnicity, they were never unified under a single political entity as [[Cuzcatlan|Kuskatan]] was in El Salvador. The Nicarao civilization collapsed during the [[Spanish conquest of Nicaragua]] in 1522.

=== Nicoya kingdom ===
{{Main|Kingdom of Nicoya}}
The Nicoya kingdom was an elective monarchy that thrived in the [[Nicoya Peninsula|Nicoya peninsula]] in [[Costa Rica]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Molina Jiménez |first=Iván |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6KMU1rNvakoC&q=historia++Nicoya |title=Historia de Costa Rica: breve, actualizada y con ilustraciones |publisher=Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica |year=1997 |isbn=9977-67-411-6 |page=148 |language=es |access-date=18 August 2013}}</ref> It existed from 800 CE until the Spanish arrival in the 16th century.

== South America ==
{{main|Pre-Columbian Peru|Inca Empire|Muisca Confederation}}
{{see also|Andean civilizations|Isthmo-Colombian Area}}
[[File:Gold Museum, Bogota (36145671394).jpg|thumb|left|[[Muisca raft]]. The figure refers to the ceremony of the legend of [[El Dorado]].]]
By the first millennium, South America's vast rainforests, mountains, plains, and coasts were the home of millions of people. Estimates vary, but 30–50 million are often given, and 100 million by some estimates. Some groups formed permanent settlements. Among those groups were [[Chibcha language|Chibcha]]-speaking peoples ("[[Muisca people|Muisca]]" or "Muysca"), Valdivia, [[Quimbaya culture|Quimbaya]], [[Calima culture|Calima]], [[Marajoara culture]], and the [[Tairona]]. The Muisca of [[Colombia]], postdating the [[Herrera Period]], [[Valdivia culture|Valdivia]] of [[Ecuador]], the [[Quechuas]], and the [[Aymara people|Aymara]] of [[Peru]] and [[Bolivia]] were the four most important sedentary Amerindian groups in South America. Since the 1970s, numerous [[geoglyph]]s have been discovered on [[deforestation|deforested]] land in the [[Amazon rainforest]], [[Brazil]], supporting Spanish accounts of complex and ancient Amazonian civilizations, such as [[Kuhikugu]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=14 January 2012 |title=Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon's Lost World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/americas/land-carvings-attest-to-amazons-lost-world.html |access-date=6 July 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] |date=December 2009 |volume=83 |issue=322 |pages=1084–1095 |title=Pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in the upper Purús: a complex society in western Amazonia |first1=Martti |last1=Pärssinen |first2=Denise |last2=Schaan |first3=Alceu |last3=Ranzi |doi= 10.1017/s0003598x00099373|s2cid=55741813 }}</ref> The [[Upano Valley sites]] in present-day eastern Ecuador predate all known complex Amazonian societies.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Yuhas |first1=Alan |last2=Jiménez |first2=Jesus |date=23 January 2024 |title=Remnants of Sprawling Ancient Cities Are Found in the Amazon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/23/science/ecuador-amazon-cities-discovery.html |access-date=6 July 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The [[Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories|theory of pre-Columbian contact]] across the South Pacific Ocean between South America and [[Polynesia]] has received support from several lines of evidence, although solid confirmation remains elusive. A diffusion by human agents has been put forward to explain the pre-Columbian presence in [[Oceania]] of several [[plant cultivation|cultivated plant]] species native to South America, such as the [[bottle gourd]] (''Lagenaria siceraria'') or [[sweet potato]] (''Ipomoea batatas''). Direct archaeological evidence for such pre-Columbian contacts and transport has not emerged. Similarities noted in the names of edible roots in Maori and Ecuadorian languages ("kumari") and Melanesian and Chilean ("gaddu") have been inconclusive.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Polynesian Society#Publications|Journal of the Polynesian Society]] |year=1923 |volume=32 |issue=128 |first=F. W. |last=Christian |page=255 |title=The Story of the Kumara |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=1242 |access-date=15 December 2013 |archive-date=20 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520233112/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=1242 }}</ref>

A 2007 paper published in ''[[PNAS]]'' put forward [[DNA]] and archaeological evidence that domesticated [[chicken]]s had been introduced into South America via Polynesia by late pre-Columbian times.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Storey |first1=Alice A. |first2=José Miguel |last2=Ramírez |first3=Daniel |last3=Quiroz |first4=David V. |last4=Burley |first5=David J. |last5=Addison |first6=Richard |last6=Walter |first7=Atholl J. |last7=Anderson |first8=Terry L. |last8=Hunt |first9=J. Stephen |last9=Athens |first10=Leon |last10=Huynen |first11=Elizabeth A. |last11=Matisoo-Smith |display-authors=3 |date=June 2007 |title=Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] |volume=104 |issue=25 |pages=10335–10339 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0703993104 |pmc=1965514 |pmid=17556540 |bibcode=2007PNAS..10410335S |doi-access=free }}</ref> These findings were challenged by a later study published in the same journal, that cast doubt on the dating calibration used and presented alternative [[mtDNA]] analyses that disagreed with a Polynesian genetic origin.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gongora |first1=Jaime |first2=Nicolas J. |last2=Rawlence |first3=Victor A. |last3=Mobegi |first4=Han |last4=Jianlin |first5=Jose A. |last5=Alcalde |first6=Jose T. |last6=Matus |first7=Olivier |last7=Hanotte |first8=Chris |last8=Moran |first9=Jeremy J. |last9=Austin |first10=Sean |last10=Ulm |first11=Atholl J. |last11=Anderson |first12=Greger |last12=Larson |first13=Alan |last13=Cooper |display-authors=3 |date=29 July 2008 |title=Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=105 |issue=30 |pages=10308–10313 |pmc=2492461 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0801991105 |pmid=18663216 |bibcode=2008PNAS..10510308G |doi-access=free }}
</ref> The origin and dating remain an open issue. Whether or not early Polynesian–American exchanges occurred, no compelling human-genetic, archaeological, cultural, or linguistic legacy of such contact has turned up.

===Norte Chico civilization===
{{Main|Norte Chico civilization}}
[[File:Caral-Supe in Peru.jpg|thumb|The ancient city of [[Caral]]]]
On the north-central coast of present-day [[Peru]], Norte Chico or Caral-Supe (as known in Peru) was a civilization that emerged around 3200 BCE (contemporary with urbanism's rise in [[Mesopotamia]]).<ref name="1491Book" /> It had a cluster of large-scale urban settlements of which the [[Sacred City of Caral]], in the Supe Valley, is one of the largest and best-studied sites. The civilization did not know machinery or pottery but still managed to develop trade, especially cotton and dehydrated fish. It was a hierarchical society that managed its ecosystems and had intercultural exchange. Its economy was heavily dependent on agriculture and fishing on the nearby coast.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Caral, cradle of the oldest civilization in America |url=https://www.peru.travel/en/masperu/caral-cradle-of-the-oldest-civilization-in-america#:~:text=With%20more%20than%205%20thousand,civilization%20in%20the%20American%20continent.&text=Between%20the%20years%203000%20and,to%20exchanged%20products%20and%20merchandise. |access-date=2 May 2022 |website=www.peru.travel}}</ref> It is considered one of the [[cradles of civilization]] in the world<ref name="1491Book" /> and Caral-Supe is the oldest known [[civilization]] in the [[Americas]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Centre |first=UNESCO World Heritage |title=Sacred City of Caral-Supe |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1269/ |access-date=2 May 2022 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |language=en}}</ref>

===Valdivia culture===
{{Main|Valdivia culture}}
The [[Valdivia culture]] was concentrated on the coast of [[Ecuador]]. Their existence was recently discovered by archeological findings. Their culture is among the oldest found in the Americas, spanning from 3500 to 1800 BCE. The Valdivia lived in a community of houses built in a circle or oval around a central plaza. They were sedentary people who lived off farming and fishing, though occasionally they hunted for deer. From the remains that have been found, scholars have determined that Valdivians cultivated [[maize]], [[kidney bean]]s, [[squash (plant)|squash]], [[cassava]], [[chili pepper]]s, and [[cotton]] plants, the last of which was used to make clothing. Valdivian pottery initially was rough and practical, but it became showy, delicate, and big over time. They generally used red and gray colors, and the polished dark red pottery is characteristic of the Valdivia period. In its ceramics and stone works, the Valdivia culture shows a progression from the most simple to much more complicated works.

===Cañari people===
{{Main|Cañari}}
The Cañari were the indigenous natives of today's Ecuadorian provinces of [[Cañar Province|Cañar]] and [[Azuay Province|Azuay]]. They were an elaborate civilization with advanced architecture and complex religious beliefs. The Inca destroyed and burned most of their remains. The Cañari's old city was replaced twice, first by the Incan city of [[Tumebamba]] and later on the same site by the colonial city of [[Cuenca, Ecuador|Cuenca]]. The city was also believed to be the site of [[El Dorado]], the city of gold from the mythology of Colombia.

The Cañari were most notable for having repelled the Incan invasion with fierce resistance for many years until they fell to [[Tupac Yupanqui]]. Many of their descendants are still present in Cañar. The majority did not mix with the colonists or become Mestizos.

===Chavín civilization===
[[File:Museolarco.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Larco Museum]] houses the largest private collection of pre-Columbian art. [[Lima]], [[Peru]].]]
{{Main|Chavín culture}}
The Chavín, a Peruvian preliterate civilization, established a trade network and developed agriculture by 900 BCE, according to some estimates and archeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called [[Chavín de Huántar]] in modern Peru at an elevation of {{Convert|3177|m|ft|sp=us}}. The Chavín civilization spanned from 900 to 300 BCE.

=== Muisca confederation ===
{{Main|Muisca people}}
The [[Chibcha language|Chibcha]]-speaking communities were the most numerous, the most territorially extended and the most socio-economically developed of the pre-Hispanic Colombians. By the 8th century, the indigenous people had established their civilization in the northern [[Andes]]. At one point, the Chibchas occupied part of what is now [[Panama]], and the high plains of the Eastern Sierra of [[Colombia]].

The areas that they occupied in Colombia were the present-day Departments of [[Santander Department|Santander]] (North and South), [[Boyacá Department|Boyacá]], and [[Cundinamarca Department|Cundinamarca]]. This is where the first farms and industries were developed. It is also where the independence movement originated. They are currently the richest areas in Colombia {{Citation needed|date=April 2026}}. The Chibcha developed the most populous zone between the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] region and the [[Inca Empire]]. Next to the [[Quechua people|Quechua]] of [[Peru]] and the [[Aymara people|Aymara]] in [[Bolivia]], the Chibcha of the eastern and north-eastern Highlands of Colombia developed the most notable culture among the [[sedentism|sedentary]] Indigenous peoples in South America.

In the Colombian Andes, the Chibcha comprised several tribes who spoke similar languages (Chibcha). They included the following: the [[Muisca people|Muisca]], [[Guane people|Guane]], [[Lache people|Lache]], [[Cofán people|Cofán]], and [[Chitarero people|Chitareros]].

=== Tairona confederation ===
{{Main|Tairona}}
[[File:Lost_City_Ruins.jpg|thumb|[[Ciudad Perdida]] ("The Lost City")]]
The Tairona civilization thrived in the [[Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta]] mountain range in northern [[Colombia]]. Studies suggest that the civilization thrived from the 1st century CE until the Spanish arrival in the 16th century. The descendants of the Tairona, such as the [[Kogi people|Kogi]] were one of the few indigenous groups in the Americas to have escaped full colonial conquest and retain a majority of their indigenous cultures.

===Moche civilization===
{{Main|Moche culture}}
The Moche thrived on the north coast of Peru from about 100 to 800 CE. The heritage of the Moche is seen in their elaborate burials. Some were recently excavated by [[UCLA]]'s [[Christopher B. Donnan]] in association with the [[National Geographic Society]].

As skilled artisans, the Moche were a technologically advanced people. They traded with distant peoples such as the Maya. What has been learned about the Moche is based on the study of their ceramic pottery; the carvings reveal details of their daily lives. The [[Larco Museum]] of [[Lima]], Peru, has an extensive collection of such ceramics. They show that the people practiced [[human sacrifice]], had blood-drinking rituals and that their religion incorporated non-procreative sexual practices (such as [[fellatio]]).

=== Wari Empire ===
{{Main|Wari Empire}}
The Wari Empire was located in the western portion of Peru and existed from the 6th century to the 11th century. [[Wari ruins|Wari]], as the former capital city was called, is located 11&nbsp;km (6.8&nbsp;mi) northeast of the city of [[Ayacucho]]. This city was the center of a civilization that covered much of the highlands and coast of Peru. The best-preserved remnants, besides the Wari Ruins, are the recently discovered [[Northern Wari ruins]] near the city of [[Chiclayo, Peru|Chiclayo]], and Cerro Baul in [[Moquegua]]. Also well-known are the Wari ruins of ''Pikillaqta'' ("Flea Town"), a short distance southeast of the [[Cusco]] ''en route'' to [[Lake Titicaca]].

===Tiwanaku Empire===
[[File:Zonnepoort tiwanaku.jpg|thumb|Gate of the Sun in Tiwanaku]]
{{main|Tiwanaku Empire}}
The Tiwanaku empire was based in western [[Bolivia]] and extended into present-day [[Peru]] and [[Chile]] from 300 to 1000 CE. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important South American civilizations before the birth of the [[Inca Empire]] in Peru; it was the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five hundred years. The ruins of the ancient city state are near the south-eastern shore of [[Lake Titicaca]] in [[Tiwanaku Municipality]], [[Ingavi Province]], [[La Paz Department, Bolivia|La Paz Department]], about {{convert|72|km|miles}} west of [[La Paz, Bolivia|La Paz]].

===Inca Empire===
{{Main|Inca Empire}}
Holding their capital at the great [[cougar]]-shaped city of [[Cusco]], Peru, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as ''Tawantinsuyu'', or "the land of the four regions", in [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]], the Inca civilization was highly distinct and developed. Inca rule extended to nearly a hundred linguistic or ethnic communities, some 9 to 14 million people connected by a 40,000-kilometer [[Inca road system|road system]]. Cities were built with precise stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. [[Terrace farming]] was a useful form of agriculture. There is evidence of excellent metalwork and even successful [[brain surgery]] in the Inca civilization.
{{wide image|95 - Machu Picchu - Juin 2009.jpg|600px|The iconic [[Machu Picchu]], symbol of the Inca civilization|center}}

=== Aymara kingdoms ===
{{Main|Aymara kingdoms}}
The Aymara kingdoms consisted of a confederation of separate diarchies that lasted from 1151 after the fall of Tiwanaku until 1477 when they were conquered by the Inca Empire. The Aymara kingdoms were primarily located in the [[Altiplano]] in Bolivia as well as some parts of Peru and [[Chile]].

===Caribbean coast of South America===
[[Archeologist]]s have discovered evidence of the earliest known inhabitants of the Venezuelan area in the form of [[leaf]]-shaped [[Lithic flake|flake]] [[tool]]s, together with [[Cutting|chopping]] and [[Plane (tool)|plano]]&ndash;[[wikt:convex|convex]] [[scraper (archaeology)|scraping]] implements exposed on the high riverine terraces of the [[Pedregal River]] in western [[Venezuela]].<ref name="Kipfer_2000_91">
{{Cite book|last=Kipfer|first=Barbara Ann|year=2000
|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of archaeology
|publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum
|location=New York|isbn=0-306-46158-7|page=91
}}</ref> [[Late Pleistocene]] hunting artifacts, including [[spear]] tips, come from a similar site in northwestern Venezuela known as ''El Jobo''. According to [[radiocarbon dating]], these date from 13,000 to 7000 BCE.<ref name="Kipfer_2000_172">
Kipfer 2000, p. 172.
</ref>

[[Taima-Taima]], yellow Muaco, and El Jobo in Falcón are some of the sites that have yielded archeological material from these times.<ref>Silverman, Helaine; Isbell, William (Eds.) (2008): Handbook of South American Archaeology 1st ed. 2008. Corr. 2nd printing, XXVI, 1192, {{ISBN|978-0-387-74906-8}}. pp.  430,  433–434</ref> These groups co-existed with megafauna like [[megatherium]], [[Glyptodontidae|glyptodonts]], and [[toxodon]]ts.

[[File:palafito.jpg|left|thumb|190px|A [[palafito]] like the ones seen by [[Amerigo Vespucci]]]]It is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish Conquest]]; it may have been around a million people,<ref name=Wunder/> in addition to today's peoples included groups such as the [[Lokono]], [[Kalina people|Kalina]], and [[Timoto-cuicas]]. The number was much reduced after the Conquest, mainly through the spread of new diseases from Europe.<ref name=Wunder>Wunder, Sven (2003), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=n2nQ0A8BmCYC&pg=PA130 Oil wealth and the fate of the forest: a comparative study of eight tropical countries]'', [[Routledge]]. p. 130.</ref> There were two main north–south axes of the pre-Columbian population, producing [[maize]] in the west and [[manioc]] in the east.<ref name=Wunder/> Large parts of the [[Llanos]] plains were cultivated through a combination of [[slash-and-burn]] and permanent settled agriculture basically maize and tobacco.<ref name=Wunder/> The indigenous peoples of Venezuela had already encountered crude [[oil]]s and asphalts that seeped up through the ground to the surface. Known to the locals as ''mene'', the thick, black liquid was primarily used for medicinal purposes, as an illumination source, and for the caulking of canoes.<ref>{{cite book | title=Chronology of Venezuelan Oil | year=1969 | publisher=Purnell and Sons | author=Anibal Martinez}}</ref>

In the 16th century when [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonization]] began in Venezuelan territory, the population of several [[Indigenous people of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]] such as the [[Mariches]] (descendants of the [[Kalina people|Kalina]]) declined.

=== Diaguita confederation ===
{{Main|Diaguita}}
[[File:Ruinas_Quilmes.jpg|thumb|The [[Ruins of Quilmes]] in [[Tucumán Province]], Argentina.]]
The Diaguita consisted of several distinct chiefdoms across the [[Argentine Northwest]]. The Diaguita culture emerged around 1000 CE after the replacement of the [[Las Ánimas complex]].<ref name="MCLpueblosdiaguitas">{{citation |title=Pueblos diaguitas |url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-97190.html |work=Memoria chilena |access-date=30 January 2014 |publisher=[[Biblioteca Nacional de Chile]] |language=es}}</ref> The Diaguita resisted Spanish colonialism during the [[Calchaquí Wars]] until they were forced to surrender and submit to Spanish rule in 1667.<ref name="Lorandi1988">{{cite book |last=Lorandi |first=A.M.|author-link=Ana María Lorandi |title=La frontera del estado Inca |year=1988 |editor-last1=Dillehay |editor-first1=Tom |pages=197–214 |language=es |chapter=Los diaguitas y el tawantinsuyu: Una hipótesis de conflicto |editor-last2=Netherly |editor-first2=Patricia}}</ref>

=== Taíno ===
{{Main|Taíno}}
The Taíno people were fragmented into numerous chiefdoms across the [[Greater Antilles]], the [[Lucayan Archipelago]], and the northern [[Lesser Antilles]]. The Taíno were the first pre-Columbian people to encounter [[Christopher Columbus]] during his voyage in 1492.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2018 |title=Taino |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> The Taíno would later be subject to slavery by the Spanish colonists under the ''[[encomienda]]'' system until they were deemed virtually extinct in 1565.

=== Huetar kingdoms ===
{{Main|Huetar people}}
The Huetar people were a major ethnic group that lived in Costa Rica. The Huetar were composed of several independent kingdoms, such as the [[Western Huetar Kingdom|western kingdom]] ruled by [[King Garabito|Garabito]] and the [[Eastern Huetar Kingdom|eastern kingdom]] ruled by [[El Guarco]] and [[Correque]]. After their annexation into Spanish administration, the descendants of the Huetar currently reside in the [[Quitirrisí]] [[Indigenous territory (Costa Rica)|reserve]].

=== Marajoara culture ===
{{Main|Marajoara culture}}
The Marajoara culture flourished on [[Marajó|Marajó Island]] at the mouth of the Amazon River in northern Brazil between 800 and 1400 CE. The Marajoara consisted of a complex society that built mounds and constructed sophisticated settlements. The indigenous people of the area adopted methods of large-scale agriculture through the use of ''[[terra preta]]'', which would support complex chiefdoms. Studies suggest that the civilization housed around 100,000 inhabitants.

=== Kuhikugu ===
{{Main|Kuhikugu}}
Located in the [[Xingu Indigenous Park]] in Brazil, Kuhikugu consisted of an urban complex that housed around 50,000 inhabitants and 20 settlements. The civilization was likely established by the ancestors of the [[Kuikuro]] people. The people also constructed roads, bridges, and trenches for defensive purposes and were purported to be farmers, as evidenced by the fields of cassava and the use of ''[[terra preta]]''. Like most other Amazonian civilizations, the disappearance of Kuhikugu was largely attributed to Old World diseases introduced by European colonists.<ref>{{cite web |date=28 August 2008 |title=Ancient Amazon Actually Highly Urbanized |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-amazon-cities |access-date=20 January 2021 |website=scientificamerican.com}}</ref>

===Cambeba===
{{Main|Cambeba people}}
Also known as the Omagua, Umana, and Kambeba, the Cambeba are an [[Indigenous peoples of Brazil|indigenous people]] in Brazil's [[Amazon basin]]. The Cambeba were a populous, organized society in the late pre-Columbian era whose population suffered a steep decline in the early years of the [[Columbian Exchange]]. The Spanish explorer [[Francisco de Orellana]] traversed the [[Amazon River]] during the 16th century and reported densely populated regions running hundreds of kilometers along the river. These populations left no lasting monuments, possibly because they used local wood as their construction material as stone was not locally available. While it is possible Orellana may have exaggerated the level of development among the Amazonians, their semi-nomadic descendants have the odd distinction among tribal indigenous societies of a hereditary, yet landless, [[aristocracy]]. Archaeological evidence has revealed the continued presence of semi-domesticated orchards, as well as vast areas of land enriched with ''[[terra preta]]''. Both of these discoveries, along with Cambeba ceramics discovered within the same archaeological levels suggest that a large and organized civilization existed in the area.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302302.html |title=Scientists find evidence discrediting theory Amazon was virtually unlivable |first=Juan |last=Forero |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=5 September 2010}}</ref>

=== Upano Valley cultures ===
{{Main|Upano Valley sites}}
In the [[Upano River]] valley of eastern [[Ecuador]], several cities were established by the Upano and Kilamope cultures around 500 BCE.<ref name="Sci.org">{{Cite journal |last=Wade |first=Lizzie |date=11 January 2024 |title=Laser mapping reveals oldest Amazonian cities, built 2500 years ago |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/laser-mapping-reveals-oldest-amazonian-cities-built-2500-years-ago |url-status=live |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |doi=10.1126/science.zzti03q |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112000516/https://www.science.org/content/article/laser-mapping-reveals-oldest-amazonian-cities-built-2500-years-ago |archive-date=12 January 2024 |access-date=12 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{Cite web |last=Rannard |first=Georgina |date=11 January 2024 |title=Huge ancient lost city found in the Amazon |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67940671 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111234436/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67940671 |archive-date=11 January 2024 |access-date=12 January 2024 |website=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> The cities in the Upano Valley consisted of agricultural societies that cultivated crops such as [[corn]], [[manioc]] and [[sweet potato]]. The cities fell into decline around 600 CE.<ref name="Guardian2">{{Cite web |date=11 January 2024 |title=Valley of lost cities that flourished 2,000 years ago found in Amazon |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/11/amazon-archaeology-lost-cities-ecuador |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112002219/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/11/amazon-archaeology-lost-cities-ecuador |archive-date=12 January 2024 |access-date=12 January 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

==Agricultural development==
{{Further|Eastern Agricultural Complex|Agriculture in the prehistoric Southwest|Agriculture on the prehistoric Great Plains|Incan agriculture|Hoe-cultivation belt}}
{{See also|Columbian Exchange|List of pre-Columbian engineering projects in the Americas}}
Early inhabitants of the Americas developed agriculture, developing and breeding wild [[teosinte]] into modern corn. [[Potato]]es, [[cassava]], [[tomato]]es, [[tomatillo]]s (a husked green relative of the tomato), [[pumpkin]]s, [[chili pepper]]s, [[Cucurbita|squash]], [[bean]]s, [[pineapple]], [[sweet potato]]es, the [[Cereal|grains]] [[quinoa]] and [[amaranth]], [[cocoa bean]]s, [[vanilla]], [[onion]], [[peanut]]s, [[Strawberry|strawberries]], [[Raspberry|raspberries]], [[Blueberry|blueberries]], [[Blackberry|blackberries]], [[papaya]], and [[avocado]]s were among other plants grown by natives. Over two-thirds of all types of food crops grown worldwide are native to the Americas.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}

Early Indigenous peoples began using fire in a widespread manner. Intentional burning of vegetation was taken up to mimic the effects of natural fires that tended to clear forest understories, thereby making travel easier and facilitating the growth of herbs and berry-producing plants that were important for both food and medicines. This created the [[pre-Columbian savannas of North America]].<ref name="Owen2002">{{cite web |url=http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/sustain/report/terra2/terra2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040126012651/http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/sustain/report/terra2/terra2.htm |archive-date=26 January 2004 |title=Chapter 2 (TERRA–2): The History of Native Plant Communities in the South |last=Owen |first=Wayne |work=Southern Forest Resource Assessment Final Report |publisher=[[United States Department of Agriculture]], [[United States Forest Service]], Southern Research Station |date=8 December 2013}}</ref>

While not as widespread as in [[Afro-Eurasia]], indigenous Americans did have [[livestock]]. [[Domesticated turkey]]s were common in Mesoamerica and some regions of North America; they were valued for their meat, feathers, and, possibly, eggs. There is documentation of Mesoamericans utilizing hairless dogs, especially the [[Xoloitzcuintle]] breed, for their meat. Andean societies had [[llama]]s and [[alpaca]]s for meat and wool, as well as for [[Working animal|beasts of burden]]. [[Guinea pig]]s were raised for meat in the [[Andes]]. [[Iguana]]s and a range of wild animals, such as deer and [[pecari]], were another source of meat in Mexico, Central, and northern South America.

By the 15th century, maize had been transmitted from [[Mexico]] and was being farmed in the [[Mississippi embayment]], as far as the [[East Coast of the United States]], and as far north as southern Canada. Potatoes were used by the Inca, and [[chocolate]] was used by the Aztecs.

==See also==
{{Portal|History|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
* ''[[1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus]]'', 2005 book by Charles C. Mann
* ''[[Before the Revolution (book)|Before the Revolution]]'', 2013 book by Daniel K. Richter
* [[List of pre-Columbian cultures]]
* [[Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America]]
* [[Periodization of pre-Columbian Peru]]
* [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas]]
* [[Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories]]
* [[Pre-Columbian history of Brazil]]
{{clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Michael D. |first2=Seyed H. |last2=Hosseini |first3=Antonio |last3=Torroni |first4=Hans-Jürgen |last4=Bandelt |first5=Jon C. |last5=Allen |first6=Theodore G. |last6=Schurr |first7=Rosaria |last7=Scozzari |first8=Fulvio |last8=Cruciani |first9=Douglas C. |last9=Wallace |display-authors=3 |date=December 1998 |title=mtDNA haplogroup X: An ancient link between Europe/Western Asia and North America? |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=63 |issue=6 |pages=1852–1861 |pmc=1377656 |doi=10.1086/302155 |pmid=9837837 }}
* {{cite book |author=Fernández-Armesto, Felipe |author-link=Felipe Fernández-Armesto |year=1987 |title=Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic: 1229–1492 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-333-40382-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAFzrIOrP6MC&pg=PP1}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Schurr |first1=Theodore G. |first2=Scott W. |last2=Ballinger |first3=Yik-Yuen |last3=Gan |first4=Judith A. |last4=Hodge |first5=D. Andrew |last5=Merriwether |first6=Dale N. |last6=Lawrence |first7=William C. |last7=Knowler |first8=Kenneth M. |last8=Weiss |first9=Douglas C. |last9=Wallace |display-authors=3 |date=March 1990 |title=Amerindian mitochondrial DNAs have rare Asian mutations at high frequencies, suggesting they derived from four primary maternal lineages |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=613–623 |pmc=1683611 |pmid=1968708 }}
*{{citation|last1=Vivian|first1=R. Gwinn|last2=Hilpert|first2=Bruce|title=The Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide|year=2012|publisher=University of Utah Press|edition=2|isbn=978-1-60781-195-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Wright |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Wright |year=2005 |title=Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-618-49240-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RmqmSdjbyikC&pg=PP1}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Commons category|Pre-Columbian era}}
*{{YouTube|id=JF7-uFbE5Mc|title=Ancient civilizations can show us how to protect the Amazon rainforest}} published on 5 July 2019, [[Quartz (publication)|Quartz]]
*[https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23830 Collection: "Pre-Columbian Central and South America"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705052120/https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23830/ |date=5 July 2022 }} from the [[University of Michigan Museum of Art]]
*[https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/collection/art-ancient-americas Ancient American art at the Denver Art Museum]
*[https://www.clevelandart.org/art/departments/art-americas Art of the Americas at the Cleveland Museum of Art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704052237/https://www.clevelandart.org/art/departments/art-americas |date=4 July 2022 }}

{{Pre-Columbian era}}
{{Pre-Columbian North America}}
{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
{{Prehistoric technology}}
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