1st millennium in North American history
Encyclopedia
1st millennium BCE - 1st millennium - 11th century 11th century in North American history The 11th century in North American history provides a timeline of events occurring within the North American continent from 1001 to 1100 CE in the Gregorian calendar. This time period is known as the Post-archaic period... |
The 1st millennium in North American history provides a timeline of events occurring within the North American continent from 1–1000 CE in the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
. This time period is part of the Post-archaic period (Post-archaic stage), and 1–500 CE is known as the Middle Woodland Period, while 500–1000 CE is known as the Late Woodland Period in Eastern North America. Although this time line segment may include some European or other world events that profoundly influenced later American life, it focuses on developments within Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
communities. The archaeological records supplements indigenous recorded and oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
.
Because of the inaccuracies inherent in radiocarbon dating and in interpreting other elements of the archaeological record, most dates in this timeline represent approximations that may vary a century or more from source to source. The assumptions implicit in archaeological dating methods also may yield a general bias in the dating in this timeline.
List of events
- 500 BCE–700 CE: Old Bering Sea culture thrives in the western ArcticArcticThe Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
- 50 BCE–800 CE: Ipiutak culture thrives in the western ArcticArcticThe Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
.
- 1 CE: Some central and eastern prairie peoples learned to raise crops and shape potteryPotteryPottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
from the mound builders to their east.
- 100–1000 CE: Weeden Island cultureWeeden Island cultureThe Weeden Island Culture is one of the many archaeological cultures that existed during the Late Woodland period of the North American Southeast...
flourishes in coastal FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. They are known for their extraordinarily well-preserved wood carvings.
- 200: The Adena cultureAdena cultureThe Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 1000 to 200 BC, in a time known as the early Woodland Period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system...
of the Ohio RiverOhio RiverThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
valley evolves into the Hopewellian exchange.
- 200–800: Late Eastern WoodlandsWoodland periodThe Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
cultures flourish in the Eastern North America.
- 200–1450: Hohokam cultures flourish in ArizonaArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and north MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
- 400: Cultivation of maizeMaizeMaize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
(corn) begins in the American South and soon reaches the Northeast. Originally domesticated in MesoamericaMesoamericaMesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
, maize transforms the Eastern Agricultural ComplexEastern Agricultural ComplexThe Eastern Agricultural Complex describes the agricultural practices of the pre-historic Eastern Woodland Native Americans in the eastern United States and Canada. Native Americans domesticated and cultivated many indigenous crops as far west as the Great Plains.-Term:The term Eastern Agricultural...
.
- 400: Ancestral Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest weave extraordinarily long nets for trapping small animals and make yuccaYuccaYucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry parts of North...
fibers into large sacks and bags.
- 500: Late Basketmaker II EraLate Basketmaker II EraThe Late Basketmaker II Era was a cultural period of Ancient Pueblo People when people began living in pit-houses, raised maize and squash, and were proficient basket makers and weavers...
phase of Ancestral Pueblo culture diminishes in the American Southwest.
- 700: Basketmaker III EraBasketmaker III EraThe Basketmaker III Era, AD 500 to 750, also called the "Modified Basketmaker" period, was the third period in which Ancient Pueblo People were cultivating food, began making pottery and living in more sophisticated clusters of pit-house dwellings...
of the American Southwest evolve into the early PuebloPuebloPueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
culture.
- 755±65—890±65: likely dates of the Blythe Geoglyphs being sculpted by ancestral QuechanQuechanThe Quechan are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the border with Mexico...
and Mojave peoples in the Colorado DesertColorado DesertCalifornia's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert, which extends across southwest North America. The Colorado Desert region encompasses approximately , reaching from the Mexican border in the south to the higher-elevation Mojave Desert in the north and from the Colorado River in...
, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
- 700s and 800s: Ancestral Pueblo people of the American Southwest or OasisamericaOasisamericaOasisamerica was a broad cultural area in pre-Columbian southwestern North America. It extended from modern-day Utah down to southern Chihuahua, and from the coast on the Gulf of California eastward to the Río Bravo river valley...
transition from pit houses to multi-story adobeAdobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
and stone apartments called puebloPuebloPueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
s.
- 800-1500: Mississippian cultureMississippian cultureThe Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
spawns powerful chiefdoms of great agricultural Moundbuilders throughout the Eastern woodlands.
- 875: PatayanPatayanPatayan is a term used by archaeologists to describe prehistoric and historic Native American cultures who inhabited parts of modern day Arizona, west to Lake Cahuilla in California, and in Baja California, between 700–1550 CE...
people learn to farm along the Colorado RiverColorado RiverThe Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
valley in western Arizona.
- 900: Earliest event recorded in the Battiste Good (1821–22, Sicangu LakotaBruléThe Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands of the Teton Lakota Sioux American Indian nation. They are known as Sičháŋǧu Oyáte , or "Burnt Thighs Nation," and so, were called Brulé by the French...
) Winter countWinter countWinter counts are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Plains tribes used winter counts extensively...
- 900: PuebloPuebloPueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
culture dominates much of the American Southwest.
- 900: American Southwestern tribes trade with Mexican natives to obtain copper bells cast through the lost-wax technique.
- 1000 (exact date): Vikings from Europe land in VinlandVinlandVinland was the name given to an area of North America by the Norsemen, about the year 1000 CE.There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings reached North America approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus...
on the coast of Newfoundland..