In the sequence of North American pre-Columbian cultural stages first proposed by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in 1958[1], the Archaic stage or "Meso-Indian period"[2] was the second period of human occupation in the Americas, from around 8000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. although as its ending is defined by the adoption of sedentary farming, this date can vary "significantly across the Americas".
The Archaic stage is characterized by subsistence economies supported through the exploitation of nuts, seeds and shellfish. Numerous local variations have been identified. The period has been subdivided by region and then time. For-instance, the Archaic Southwest tradition is subdivided into the Dieguito-Pinto, Oshara, Cochise and Chihuahua cultures.[3]
The Archaic period followed the Lithic stage and was superseded by the Formative
stage.[4]
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| Pre-Columbian Civilizations and Cultures | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Americas | Paleo-Indians · Archaeology of the Americas · Indigenous American Genetics · Indigenous peoples of the Americas | |||
| North America | North American pre-Columbian cultures | |||
| Mesoamerica | Mesoamerican pre-Columbian chronology – Capacha – Chichimeca – Cholula – Coclé – Epi-Olmec – Huastec – Izapa – Mixtec – Olmec – Pipil – Shaft tomb tradition&Teuchitlan – Tarascan – Teotihuacan – Tlatilco – Toltec – Totonac – Veracruz – Xochipala – Zapotec | |||
| South America | South American Indigenous people – pre-Columbian chronology – Cañaris – Chachapoya – Chancay – Chavín – Chimu – El Abra – Hydraulic culture of mounds (Bolivia) – Las Vegas – Lima – La Tolita (Tumaco) – Manteño-Guancavilca – Mapuche – Moche – Mollo – Muisca (Chibchas) – Nariño – Nazca – Norte Chico – Quimbaya – San Agustin – Shuar – Sican – Taino – Tairona – Tiwanaku – Tierradentro – Valdivia – Wari | |||
| The Aztec Empire | The Maya civilization | The Inca Empire (Inca civilisation) |
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| Language | Nahuatl language | Mayan languages | Quechua | |
| Writing | Aztec writing | Mayan writing | Quipu | |
| Religion | Aztec religion | Maya religion | Inca religion | |
| Mythology | Aztec mythology | Maya mythology | Inca mythology | |
| Calendar | Aztec calendar | Maya calendar | ||
| Society | Aztec society | Maya society | Inca society | |
| Infrastructure | Chinampas | Maya architecture | Inca architecture (road
system) Incan agriculture |
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| History | Aztec history | Inca history | ||
| People | Moctezuma
I Moctezuma II Cuitlahuac Cuauhtémoc |
Pacal the Great Tecun Uman |
Manco Capac Pachacutec Atahualpa Manco Inca |
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| Conquest | Spanish conquest of
the Aztec Empire (Hernán Cortés) |
Spanish conquest of
Yucatán (Francisco de Montejo) Spanish conquest of Guatemala (Pedro de Alvarado) |
Spanish conquest of the
Inca Empire (Francisco Pizarro) |
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| See also | ||||
| Portal:Indigenous peoples of North America – Columbian exchange – Mesoamerican writing systems – Native American cuisine – Native American pottery – Population history of American indigenous peoples – Pre-Columbian art – Painting in the Americas before Colonization | ||||
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