5th millennium BC in North American history
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6th millennium BC - 5th millennium BC - 4th millennium BC |
The 5th millennium BC in North American history provides a time line of events occurring within the present political boundaries of United States (including territories) from 5000 BC through 4001 BC in the Gregorian calendar. Although this time line segment may include some European or other world events that profoundly influenced later American life, it focuses on developments within Native American (and Polynesian) communities. Because the indigenous peoples of these regions lacked a written language, we must glean events from the admittedly very incomplete archaeological record and place them in time through radiocarbon dating techniques.
Because of the inaccuracies inherent in radiocarbon dating and in interpreting other elements of the archaeological record, most dates in this time line represent approximations that may vary a century or more from source to source. The assumptions implicit in archaeological dating methods also may yield a general bias in the dating in this time line.
- 5000 BC: Early cultivation of food crops began in Mesoamerica.
- 5000 BC: Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to California develop a fishing economy, with salmon as a staple.
- 5000 BC: The Old Copper Culture of the Great Lakes area hammers the metal into various tools and ornaments--knives, axes, awls, bracelets, rings, and pendants.
- Native Americans in the northern Great Lakes produce copper tools, ornaments, and utensils traded throughout the Great Plains and Ohio Valley.
- Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll, Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
