Hopewell in Ohio River valley aka the Mound Builders (Cahokia city)

The shift to farming (700AD), led to a prosperous culture in the Mississippi River valley.

Corn, squash & beans

Iroquois villages in longhouses surrounded by fences for protection in extended families. Men hunted animals & women gathered.

Wars were common, but some formed a peaceful Iroquois League.

Clans- groups of related families. Clan mothers held status with the Grand Council (elderly men)

Anasazi irrigated for farming in the desert

Skilled basket & pottery making

Persistent drought led Anasazi to abandon their homes

Built homes in cliff dwellings

Supreme God- Itzamna Lizard House & Quetzalcoatl / human sacrifice

Calendars, Pyramids

Slash & burn, terrace farming

hieroglyphics

Solar & ritual calendars

Tenochtitlan capital (Mexico)

polytheistic & human sacrifices

pyramids, calendars, astronomy

written language

Slaves were conquered peoples from other tribes

bureaucracy had king, warriors, priests, merchants, farmers, peasants 

200 miles of territory & prospered until 600AD

No great temples but have mysterious Nazca lines that appear to be an airport

Many theories have been presented, (ancient aliens :-)

the significance remains unknown.

major urban center farmers grew maize (corn), peanuts & cotton

no written language but told stories through pottery

collapsed in 8th century, replaced by the Inca

Pachacuti controlled the empire through war divided provinces

Llamas carried supplies

Forced labor

Terrace farming- potatoes corn

textiles pottery

No writing but had quipu record system of knotted strings

Theater

2 calendars one based on the sun, the other based on 365 days

-The capital of the empire was Tula which is present day Mexico City

-Crops (beans, maize, and pepper) were irrigated with water from the Tula river

-Toltec were warlike people who conquered much of Northern and Central Mexico

-Toltec were builders and metal workers (first to do so)

-Began to decline in 1125 due to fighting of many tribes in Tula...1170 the city was mostly burned and destroyed.

-Aztec Empire emerged 200 years later carrying on many Toltec traditions.