The Ancient Americas

Between 11,000 and 30,000 years ago, glaciers covered large parts of the Earth. From this time—towards the end of the last ice age—archaeologists find the first evidence of people in the Americas.

These people were biologically modern humans (Homo sapiens) just like us. They likely came from Asia into the Americas via land bridges, perhaps to hunt big game such as mammoths and mastodons.

Campsites of Ice Age Americans are found scattered from the Pacific Northwest to the southern tip of South America. Strikingly similar stone spear points like those of the Clovis or Fishtail people and other tools reveal that many of these ingenious humans shared their skills and knowledge from group to group, quickly spreading information across great distances—without modern means of communication.

To explore the keys to their success, select from the following:

	Overview Get the full story on where the first "Americans" came from, how they arrived, and what it was like to live in an Ice Age World. You can even listen to modern Indigenous peoples of the Americas as they share the origin stories of their ancestors.
	Featured Culture Meet the Clovis People, an Ice Age American society that lived off the land, gathering plants and working in groups to hunt down mammoths and more.
	Image Gallery View sophisticated spear points of Ice Age Americans and see fossils of the now-extinct animals they hunted.

Continue to the Overview. >>