Beringia: the
“Land Bridge”
between Asia
and America
The Big Question…
• QUESTION:
– Where did the “Native Americans”
come from?
• ANSWER:
– Asia.
The Big BoBo…
• QUESTION:
– Why are Native Americans called
“Indians?”
• ANSWER:
– Christopher Columbus made a big
mistake...but that’s another story for
another day…
a definition: Migration
• MIGRATION: when people or animals move
from one place to live in another place…
• Notice:
– Migrate is the root word of immigrate
– Migration is the root word of immigration
5 Migration Theories
• Two migration theories suggest humans
crossed the Pacific Ocean to get to America.
• Two migration theories suggest humans
crossed the Atlantic Ocean to get to America.
• One migration theory suggests humans
crossed dry land or ice-covered land to get to
America.
BERINGIA
• Based on the work of ANTHROPOLOGISTS
and by examining the artifacts found by
ARCHAEOLOGISTS…the most widely
accepted migration theory is the BERINGIA
land crossing theory.
three definitions:
• ANTHROPOLOGIST: someone who studies
people and their culture (the way they live
their lives)
• ARCHAEOLOGIST: someone who searches
for the ARTIFACTS of the people of the past
• ARTIFACT: anything that was made by a
human (tools, weapons, clothes, etc.)
BERINGIA
• BERINGIA is the term used to describe the
area between Siberia (in Asia) and Alaska
(in North America).
• The Bering Strait (water) lies between
Siberia and Alaska today.
• Anything named “Bering” is named in
honor of the Russian explorer, Vitus Bering.
The Last Ice Age
• c. 35,000 years ago – the last ICE AGE
began
– Earth’s temperatures fell
– glacier ice grew larger and thicker
– sea levels fell because water was sucked
up and frozen into the glaciers
Migration
• c. 30,000 years ago – people began to travel
back and forth between Asia and America
– probably following animal herds for food
– large numbers of people moving to new
places is called MIGRATION
– people who move from place to place are
called NOMADS
Animals of North
America at the time of
the arrival of humans.
Migration, con’t
• c. 15,000 years ago – people began shifting
further to the south and east
– moved into what is the present-day USA
– moved through present-day Mexico
– settled as far south as present-day Chile
End of the Last Ice Age
• c. 10,000 years ago – the last Ice Age began
to end
– Earth’s temperature began to rise
– climates warmed, vegetation and animals
began to change
– glaciers melted and sea levels rose;
BERINGIA was covered with water
A big discovery…
• c. 9,000 years ago – people living in Central
America discovered how to cultivate MAIZE
• MAIZE – corn…
The effects of MAIZE
• people who cultivated MAIZE provided an
abundant food supply for their family group
– encouraged permanent communities
– encouraged the growth in population
Native American Cultures
• people changed…
– from hunting and gathering to farming
and herding
– from Asian style
culture to
“Native American”
culture
Native American Cultures
• “empires” grew…Maya, Aztec, Inca, etc.
Beringia:
the“Bridge”
between Asia
and America