10,000–8000 BC: Early North American lifestyles
Ancestors of American Indians hunt large mammals, catch fish, and gather fruits and nuts. Archaeological evidence found in middens (garbage dumps) from the Paleo-Indian period includes mammoth bones and tools made from bone and stone.
At Marmes, an archaeological site in eastern Washington state, a single cremation burial, dated to 9500 BC, contained the remains of five persons and grave goods including bone tools, cobbles and chipped stone tools, and olivella (sea snail) shells from hundreds of miles away on the Pacific coast.
- Theme
- Land and Water
- Region
- California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest