Paleoindian Period

Migration Vocabulary Quiz!

Read the words on the vocabulary list. You will know some terms, but others may be unfamiliar to you. Try to come up with a definition for each word based on the context of the sentences you are reading. Choose an appropriate word to fill in the blank.

   Beringia      ecosystem      glaciers      megafauna     
migrations      Paleoindian Period      Rockshelter      theory  

1. The in North America begins around 16,000 years ago when humans entered the New World at the close of the last Ice Age and ends around 10,000 years ago.

2. During the glacial period, the northern hemisphere was covered with , which are made of ice, which is made of water. This water comes from the oceans.

3. When huge glaciers covered the continent, ocean levels dropped, allowing shallow sea floors to become land bridges. When the climate warmed up, the land bridge was covered with water again. Watch this animation of changes over thousands of years to a land bridge that archaeologists have named .

4. In the 20th century most archaeologists had a that Paleoindians migrated into the New World across Beringia, a land bridge that connected Siberia with Alaska, and traveled south through an ice free corridor that opened between glacial ice sheets.

5. But recent evidence from North and South America suggests multiple occurred at different times. Some people may have traveled from the Old World in watercraft taking a Pacific coastal route. Others may have crossed the land bridge before the ice free corridor opened.

6. Why did people cross Beringia? They were probably looking for food within the land bridge's .

7. The mammoth, mastodon, bison, horse, camel, caribou, musk ox and peccary are examples of that lived in North America during the Paleoindian Period.

8. There are not many Paleoindian sites in North America because it appears that the human population was very small. However, Pennsylvania does have the oldest continuously occupied site in North America, Meadowcroft which is thought to be at least 16,000 years old.