American Civilizations

Many impressive civilizations flourished in North, Central and South America. The Native Americans who created these civilizations built cliff-top palaces, huge earth mounds and pyramid temples. A few fragments of their civilizations’ achievements survive today.

The Anasazi people lived in what is now the southwestern USA. They grew corn and built amazing cliff houses called pueblos, in which as many as 5,000 people lived.

To the east, the Mississippian people built well-planned towns of single-family houses.

Around AD 700, the largest city in America was in central Mexico. Teotihuacan was home to more than 100,000 people and was at the height of its power from about AD 350 to 750. From then on it was overshadowed by a new power, the Toltecs, who built their own temple-city at Tula.

In South America, high in the Andes, was the city of Tiahuanaco, which flourished between AD 500 and 1000. Here, people used llamas as pack animals and paddled reed boats on Lake Titicaca. Other city-states of the Andes, such as Huari in Peru, were greatly influenced by Tiahuanaco.

The Maya were at their most powerful from about AD 200 to 900, although their culture lasted until the early 1500s. They lived in well-organized city-states, each with its own ruler. The largest Mayan city was Tikal, in what is now Guatemala, with a population of 60,000. Crowds filled the large squares to watch ceremonies conducted by priests. Religion was important to the Maya. They made sacrifices to please their gods. Mostly, they sacrificed animals, but they also threw human victims into sacred wells. The Maya invented the first writing in America.

They wrote codexes (folding books) on pages of tree bark. They also set up tall carved stones to commemorate dates and important events.

GREAT SERPENT MOUND

This snake-shaped earthworks was made in about AD 1000 by Native Americans in what is now Ohio, USA. it is about 400 metres long. The snake grew bigger as more burials were added. Similar mounds were built by others peoples, including the Hopewell (c. 300 BC to AD 200).