Early Civilizations

Early Civilizations

	Location	When	Crafts	Food	Home	Advances	Government	Religion	Building
The Olmecs	Mexico's east coast	1500 B.C. to A.D. 300	large stone faces small jade carvings pottery	avocados corn chili peppers and squashes pumpkins beans		developed own number & writing systems with hieroglyphs calendar trade	powerful priests	many gods rain god appears as jaguar	stone temples Some temples on top of pyramids
The Mound Builders	Ohio River Valley eastern half of US	1000 B.C. to A.D. 1500	ceramic pots wove mats carved bone, wood and metal	corn squash pumpkins sunflowers gatherers and hunters	round homes made from wood thatch and mud	trade	chief was priest and ruler	built snake-like mounds burnt dead with possessions then covered with earth
The Mayas	Rainforest of Middle America	Begin 500 B.C. power diminished after about 600 AD and came to an end in 1428	colorful murals clay pots stone sculptures	corn beans squash avocados tomatoes chili peppers cacao tobacco cotton	thatched roof homes	astronomers-built observatories made calendars picture writing used cacao bean as currency made paper from fig trees and wrote their hieroglyphs on books made from this paper	each city had ruler and government classes of people priest nobles traders and craftspeople farmers slaves	gods of the sun rain and other qualities of nature	100 stone cities temple pyramids palaces towers ball courts paved roads
The Aztecs	Valley of Mexico	A.D. 1200	sculptures decorated buildings	corn peppers avocados tomatoes sweet potatoes onions limes beans chicken turkeys fish rabbits dogs	one-room houses made from branches and plastered together with mud	Aztec Calendar - Sun Stone	emperor 3 classes- slaves, commoners, and nobility	worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses	palaces with hundreds of rooms white flat-topped pyramids built small islands then connected them by canals and roads to shore

Sources

http://www.crystalinks.com/ancient.html

http://www.up140.jacksn.k12.il.us/Wright/seventh/tribes/Mound.htm

http://www.edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension_Geography_9_1.html

Harcourt Brace Social Studies