1. Pre-Columbian Time Periods

2. What does Pre-Columbian mean?
Pre-Columbian literally means before Columbus (pre 1492), but it is used to refer to
time periods in the history of the Americas before any European influence.

3. What does Pre-Columbian mean?
All of the Americas were pre-
Columbian before 1492, but European
influence didn’t happen everywhere
all at the same time. Cultures in what
England
is now northern Canada would have
France
been influenced much later than
Netherlands
culture in what is now the eastern
Russia
United States.
Spain
Unclaimed
The European influence would also
have been different based on what
European nations claimed what
territory.

4. The problem of history in the Americas
Prehistory
The period of time before written record
How we know
We know things about prehistory by looking at what cultures left behind
like art, building, funerary artifacts, and other archaeological remains.
Benefit
Drawing information from artifacts leads us closer to unbiased information
about a culture.
Problem
We don’t often have much left and have to fill in a larger picture about a
culture. If a culture doesn’t leave much behind, we don’t know much.
Nomadic cultures and cultures who did not use durable building materials
don’t tend to leave a lot behind for us to find. These sort of cultures were
prevalent in the Americas.

5. The problem of history in the Americas
History
The period of time for which we have a written record
How we know
We still pull information from art, buildings, funerary artifacts, and other
archaeological remains, but we become dependent on the information we
can gather from a written record.
Benefit
Once we have a translatable written record, we know much more about a
culture or civilization.
Problem
Written records aren’t always reliable, but the bigger issue is who the written
record is provided by. If it is produced by the culture, we feel we get a more
accurate picture of a culture. It is more problematic if what we know is based
on a written record by another culture, especially when it is a conquering
and/or more powerful culture because we see that record as distorted.

6. The Writing about the Americas
Pre-Columbian cultures who had writing
Culture Type of Writing
Olmec Geometric and pictorial
hieroglyphs Mi’kmaq
Maya Logograms and syllabic
glyphs
Ojibwe
Aztec Pictographs and
ideographs Olmec
Ojibwe Geometric and pictorial
hieroglyphs Aztec Mayans
Mi’kmaq Logographic, alphabetic,
and ideographic glyphs

7. Time Periods
These are pre-Columbian time periods, and for the most
part, they are prehistoric as well.
Stage Dates
Lithic Stage/Paleo-Indian Period Pre 8000BCE
Archaic Stage 8000BCE – 1000BCE
Formative Stage 1000BCE – 500CE
Classic Stage 500CE – 1200CE
Post-Classic Stage 1200 – European influence

8. Lithic Stage/Paleo-Indian Period
Pre 8,000 BCE
Cultures:
Clovis culture
Folsom Culture
Stage Defined by Plainview Culture
• People migrated to and spread
throughout the Americas anywhere
between 50,000-17,000 years ago
• Adaptations to hunt big game
• Subsidence mainly based on
megafunda (mastodon and bison
antiquus).

9. Archaic Stage
8,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE
Stage Defined by Cultures:
Archaic Southwest
Artic small tool tradition
• Climate becomes much like the current Poverty Point culture
climate Mound builders
Chan-Chan culture
• Dramatic increase in population Northwest Coast
• Megafunda becomes extinct.
• Shift toward dependence on more
abundant vegetation
• Some development of sedentary
lifestyle/organized society
• Domestication of plants/rise of
agriculture in some areas

10. Formative Stage
1,000 BCE – 500 BCE
Cultures:
Dorset Culture
Stage Defined by Zapotec Culture
Mibres
• Development of villages/permanent Olmec
settlements and ceremonial centers Woodland cultures
Mississippian cultures
• Further development of agriculture Adena culture
• Monumental earthworks
• Establishment of trade
• Development of technologies such as
pottery and weaving

11. Classical Stage
500 BCE – 1,200 CE
Cultures:
Stage Defined by Great Civilizations
Early Maya
Toltecs
• Rise of complex civilizations Cultures that developed
during this period
• Limited beginning of urbanism Hohokam people
Mogollon Culture
• Development of more cultures that Anasazi
don’t achieve civilization status but are Hopewell Culture
complex Teotihuacan
• Craft Specialization
• Beginning of metallurgy

12. Post Classical Stage
1,200 CE – European Influence
Cultures:
Stage Defined by Aztecs
Late Mayans
• Possessed developed metallurgy
• Complex urbanism
• Militarism
• Secularization of society