•nomadic
•Olmec
•Maya
•Aztec
•Inca
•Hohokam
•Anasazi
•Adena
•Hopewell
•Mississippian
1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
MAIN IDEA
2. TAKING NOTES
In a chart like the one below, list the
early civilizations of the Americas.
Include the approximate dates they
flourished and their locations.
What are some similarities that you
have noticed among these early
civilizations?
CRITICAL THINKING
3. ANALYZING
How did the development of
agriculture affect ancient societies
in the Americas?
4. EVALUATING
Evaluate the achievements of the
ancient cultures of the Americas.
Which single accomplishment do
you find most remarkable and why?
5. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
Which ancient American empire
do you think was most advanced?
Support your choice with details
from the text. Think About:
• the cultural achievements
of each empire
• the characteristics of modern
civilizations
These empires’ achievements rivaled those of ancient
cultures in other parts of the world. The peoples of these
American empires built great cities and ceremonial centers,
some with huge palaces, temple-topped pyramids, and
central plazas. To record their histories, some of these civ-
ilizations invented forms of glyph writing—using symbols
or images to express words and ideas.
ANCIENT DESERT FARMERS
As early as 3,000 years
ago, several North American groups, including the
Hohokam and the Anasazi, introduced crops into the
arid deserts of the Southwest. Later, between 300
B.
C. and
A.D. 1400, each group established its own civilization. The
Hohokam settled in the valleys of the Salt and Gila rivers
in what is now central Arizona. The Anasazi took to the
mesa tops, cliff sides, and canyon bottoms of the Four
Corners region—an area where the present-day states of
Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet.
MOUND BUILDERS
To the east of the Mississippi River,
in a region extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico, another series of complex societies developed.
There the Adena, the Hopewell, and the Mississippian
societies excelled at trade and at building. Some Adena and
Hopewell structures consisted of huge burial mounds filled
with finely crafted objects. Other mounds were sculpted
into effigies, or likenesses, of animals so large that they can
be seen clearly only from the air. People of the Mississippian
culture constructed gigantic pyramidal mounds.
Although societies such as the Mississippian and the
Aztec still flourished when Christopher Columbus reached American shores in
1492, others had long since disappeared. Despite their fate, these early peoples
were the ancestors of the many Native American groups that inhabited North
America on the eve of its encounter with the European world.
Three Worlds Meet 7
THE “OTHER” PYRAMIDS
The stone pyramids of Egypt,
which were used as elaborate
tombs for Egyptian kings more
than 4,000 years ago, are some
of today’s most famous struc-
tures. However, they were not the
only pyramids to tower over the
ancient world.
On the American side of the
Atlantic, the Maya built giant flat-
topped pyramids with stairs lead-
ing to rooftop temples, where
Mayan priests performed reli-
gious ceremonies.
Farther north, at Cahokia, in
what is now Illinois, people of the
Mississippian culture constructed
more than 100 massive earthen
mounds. The mounds served as
tombs, temples, and foundations
for elaborate homes. The largest
of these mounds is Monk’s
Mound, which is 100 feet high and
covers about 16 acres at its base.
B. Answer
They built great
cities and cere-
monial centers
and developed
forms of writing.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
B
Summarizing
What were
some of the
achievements
of the early
civilizations of
the Americas?
Civilization Dates Location
B
