This list of pre-Columbian cultures includes those

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). C ...

s and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...

s of

the Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

which flourished prior to the

European colonization of the Americas During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short ...

Cultural characteristics

Watson Brake Aerial Illustration HRoe 2014

Many

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

civilizations established permanent or urban settlements,

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

, and complex societal hierarchies. In North America, indigenous cultures in the

Lower Mississippi Valley The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is an alluvial plain created by the Mississippi River on which lie parts of seven U.S. states, from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois (Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Lo ...

during the Middle Archaic period built complexes of multiple mounds, with several in Louisiana dated to 5600–5000 BP (3700 BC–3100 BC). Watson Brake is considered the oldest, multiple mound complex in the Americas, as it has been dated to 3500 BC. It and other Middle Archaic sites were built by pre-ceramic, hunter-gatherer societies. They preceded the better known Poverty Point culture and its elaborate complex by nearly 2,000 years.Robert W. Preucel, Stephen A. Mrozowski, ''Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: The New Pragmatism''
John Wiley and Sons, 2010, p. 177 The Mississippi Valley mound-building tradition extended into the Late Archaic period, longer than what later southeastern mound building dependent on sedentary, agricultural societies.(Russo, 1996:285) Some of these civilizations had long ceased to function by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th – early 16th centuries), and are known only through

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...

investigations or

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. These interviews are conducted with people w ...

from nations today. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the

Olmec The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a popu ...

Mixtec The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Cultur ...

, and Nahua had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical and

burned Burned or burnt may refer to: * Anything which has undergone combustion * Burned (image), quality of an image transformed with loss of detail in all portions lighter than some limit, and/or those darker than some limit * ''Burnt'' (film), a 2015 ...

most of them. Only a few documents were hidden and thus remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge. From both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations at the time of European encounter possessed many impressive attributes, having populous cities, and having developed theories of astronomy and mathematics. Where they persist, the societies and cultures which gave rise to these civilizations continue to adapt and evolve; they also uphold various traditions and practices which relate back to these earlier times, even if combined with those more recently adopted.

Human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherei ...

was a religious practice principally characteristic of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, although other Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and the Zapotec practiced it as well. The extent of the practice is debated by modern scholars.

Northern America

* Paleo-Indians, c. 18,000–8000 BC **

Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...

Folsom tradition The Folsom Complex is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 8500 BCE to c. 4000 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History ...

Plano cultures The Plano cultures is a name given by archaeologists to a group of disparate hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America during the Paleo-Indian or Archaic period. Distinguishing characteristics The Plan ...

** Cody complex * Archaic Period, 8000–1000 BC ** Paleo-Arctic tradition, 8000–5000 BC, Alaska and Yukon ** Watson Brake and Lower Mississippi Valley

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

s sites, 3500 BC–2800 BC, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida ** Poverty Point culture, 2200 BC–700 BC, Lower Mississippi Valley and surrounding Gulf coast *Post-archaic period, 1000 BC–onward ** Southwest: *** Ancestral Pueblo culture, 1200 BC–1300 AD, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico—one of these cultural groups referred to as Anasazi ***

Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and ...

, 1 AD–1300 AD, Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado ***

Hohokam Hohokam () was a culture in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. It existed between 300 and 1500 AD, with cultural precursors possibly as early as 300 BC. Archaeologists disagree about ...

, 1 AD–1450 AD, Arizona **Eastern Woodlands ***

Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeo ...

, 1000 BC–1000 AD **** Adena, 1000–200 BC, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Pennsylvania and New York. **** Hopewell culture, 200 BC–500 AD, Southeastern Canada and eastern United States **** Troyville culture, 400–700 AD, Louisiana and Mississippi ****

Coles Creek culture Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Populatio ...

, 700–1200 AD, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi **** Plum Bayou culture, 700–1200 AD, Arkansas ***

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, ear ...

, 800 AD–1730 AD, Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States ****

Caborn-Welborn culture Caborn-Welborn was a precontact and proto-historic North American culture defined by archaeologists as a Late Mississippian cultural manifestation that grew out of – or built upon the demise of – the Angel chiefdom located in present-day sout ...

, 1400–1700 AD, Indiana and Kentucky. ****

Caddoan Mississippian culture The Caddoan Mississippian culture was a prehistoric Native American culture considered by archaeologists as a variant of the Mississippian culture. The Caddoan Mississippians covered a large territory, including what is now Eastern Oklahoma, We ...

, 1000 AD–1650 AD, Eastern Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, Northeast Texas, and Northwest Louisiana. **** Fort Walton Culture, 1100–1550 AD, Florida. **** Leon-Jefferson Culture, 1100–1550 AD, Florida. **** Plaquemine culture, 1200–1730 AD, Louisiana and Mississippi. **** Upper Mississippian culture, *****

Fort Ancient Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...

, 1000 AD–1650 AD, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia ***** Oneota, 900–1650 AD, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri.

Caribbean

* Ortoiroid people, c. 5500—200 BC"Prehistory of the Caribbean Culture Area."
''Southeast Archaeological Center.'' (retrieved 9 July 2011) ** Krum Bay culture, Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, 1500—200 BC ** Coroso culture, Puerto Rico, 1000 BC–200 AD * Ciboney people, Greater Antilles, c. 1000—301 BC ** Guanahatabey, Cuba, 1000 BC * Saladoid culture, 500 BC—545 AD * Ostionoid culture, 600—1500 AD *

Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater ...

people, c. 500–1500 AD **

Taíno The Taíno were a historic indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the pri ...

, Lesser Antilles and Guadeloupe ** Lucayans, Greater Antilles and Bahamas 700 AD–1500 AD – group encountered by Columbus ** Nepoya and Suppoya, Trinidad John Albert Bullbrook, ''The Ierian Race'', Historical Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1940 ** Igneri, Dominica 500 AD, St. Croix 650 AD, Puerto Rico 1000 AD

Mesoamerica

In alphabetical order: *

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

, 1325–1521 AD, central Mexico * Formative Period, 2500 BC–200 AD, La Blanca, Ujuxte, Monte Alto Culture, Mokaya Culture * Huastec, 1000 BC–1500 AD, Hidalgo, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas *

, 2600 BC–1697 AD, Mexican Southern states: Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatán Peninsula; Central America: Belize; Guatemala; El Salvador; Honduras * Mixe, 400–present *

, unknown–1600 AD, western Oaxaca *

, 1500–400 BC, Veracruz and Tabasco *

Purépecha Empire The Purépecha Empire, also known by the term Iréchikwa, was a polity in pre-Columbian Mexico. Its territory roughly covered the geographic area of the present-day Mexican state of Michoacán, as well as parts of Guanajuato, Guerrero, and Jalis ...

Tarascan state Tarascan or Tarasca is an exonym and the popular name for the Purépecha culture. It may refer to: * the Tarascan State, a Mesoamerican empire until the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, located in (present-day) west-central Mexico * the Purépecha ...

, 1300–1530 AD, Michoacán *

Teotihuacán Teotihuacan ( Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as ...

, 200 BC–800 AD, near Mexico City * Teuchitlan tradition, 300 BC – 500 AD, north-central Jalisco *

Toltec The Toltec culture () was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 CE. Th ...

, 900–1100 AD – may be mythical *

Totonac The Totonac are an indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a cit ...

, unknown–1500 AD, eastern Mexico *

Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition The Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and, to a lesser extent, Colima to its south, roughly dating to the period between 300 BCE and 400 ...

, 1500–300 BC, Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit *

, 300 BC–400 AD, Jalisco, Nayarit, and, to a lesser extent, Colima * Zapotec, 500 BC–1500 AD, Oaxaca

Isthmo-Colombian area

Cueva people The Cueva were an indigenous tribe which was one of the first in Panama, along with the Kamëntsá. When the Spanish invaded Panama throughout the 16th century, the Cueva began dying out, and were extinct by 1535. See also * Cueva language * K ...

, ?–1530 AD, Panama *

Diquis culture The Diquis culture (sometimes spelled Diquís) was a pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous culture of Costa Rica that flourished from AD 700 to 1530. The word "diquís" means "great waters" or "Térraba River, great river" ...

, 700–1530 AD, Costa Rica

South America

References

6. Pieroni, Agustín (2015). El Virreino y los Virreyes (in Spanish). Dunken. p. 126.

ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition an ...

9789870281641.

External links

National Museum of the American Indian
collections search * , Four Directions Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Pre-Columbian Cultures, List Of * Americas-related lists Archaeology-related lists * History-related lists * History of the Americas Indigenous peoples of the Americas Cultural history-related lists Native American-related lists it:Civiltà precolombiane zh:前哥倫布時代