Ancient North American Civilizations

I'm back with more about Ancient Civilizations, but this time, I'll be writing about several civilizations in North America. Continue reading to learn about the Hopewells, the Anasazi People, the Teotihucans, and the Olmecs. These civilizations were located all over North America, although most of them tended to be located closer to the south.

The Hopewells developed in Eastern North America, around the eastern coast of modern day USA. They were an agricultural group, and grew products similar to beans and corn. Unfortunately, the Hopewells left very few written records, so the last thing that we know about them is that they built very impressive burial mounds for their passed, sometimes in cool geometric shapes. That brings me to the next civilization, which was directly across from the Hopewells. These people called themselves Anasazi, and they developed on the western coast of North America, at roughly the bottom of modern day Canada. The Anasazi people were widely spread out and lived in some mountain and some desert regions, forcing them to deal with a lot of wind and sometimes erosions. Because of this, they built their homes under cliff overhangs or underground. The Anasazi people were also agricultural, but they did hunt for game as well as farming.

Moving onto Teotihucan and Olmec; these are neighboring cities on the gulf of Mexico. Teotihucan ( pronounced,

tee - ho - tee - wa - con), was one of the largest early American civilizations. They built pyramids similar to those of Egyptians, and in fact, the largest building during this period was in their city and called, The Pyramid of the Sun. Teotihucan was more developed than most civilizations, and made tools, weapons, and pottery to trade with the Olmecs. The Olmecs were similar to the Teotihucans, and some people believe both the cities held people of Egyptian descent, for they wrote in hieroglyphs and worshipped animal gods. The Olmecs were an agricultural society as well, and they made large head statues on their land, no one knows why.

There is much more to learn about Ancient North American civilizations, but today I just shared some of my favorite peoples that I learned about.