The Ancient Americas

Overview

Earth's most recent Ice Age—a time when global temperatures were cooler—began 2 million years ago and lasted until roughly 11,000 years ago. Glaciers covered large parts of the Earth and sea levels were lower than they are today. But Ice Age lands were not all snow and ice...

Environmental Changes
Around 14,000 years ago, glaciers were melting, and forests and tundra grew on the ice-free lands. Large animals like mammoths, mastodons, and bison roamed the Americas.

The First Americans
The first people to discover this vast territory arrived towards the end of the Ice Age sometime before 13,000 years ago. These original "Americans" were biologically modern humans, meaning they were members of the Homo sapiens species, just like we are. Ancestors of today's Indigenous peoples of the Americas, these groups created thriving societies and adapted successfully to different environments.

But exactly how did these people first come to the Americas, and where did they come from? Archaeologists and Indigenous peoples have points of difference and agreement on these issues.

Exactly what is an Ice Age?
An Ice Age is simply a long time—thousands or millions of years—when conditions are cold enough that large masses of ice form and stay on the planet. Geologically speaking, the last Ice Age isn't actually over yet; we're just living in an interim warmer period.

Ice Ages are actually a series of two-part cycles:

Part One is a glacial period, with colder winters and shorter summers where ice sheets extend well beyond the north and south poles.

Part Two is an interglacial period, with warmer seasons and longer summers, where ice sheets are mostly confined to the poles (like today.)

During Earth's past, there have been at least five major Ice Ages, including the one we're in today. (Large areas of the Earth currently covered in glaciers tell us that we're still the warmer period of an Ice Age.)

Continue to Archaeological Evidence. >>