THE BERING LAND BRIDGE AND MIGRATION

VOCABULARY – COPY & DRAW A PICTURE• Bering Strait: water that separates Alaska from Siberia

connecting the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea• Land Bridge: a piece of land that connected continents • Nomad: person who migrates or moves from place to

place following food sources• Irrigation: manmade water sources for harvesting

crops• Ice Age: time when much of the earth was covered with

glaciers• Surplus: having more items than necessary to live

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How do maps provide information about people, places, and physical and cultural environments?

• How does geography affect how and where people live?

THEORIES ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN HUMAN SETTLEMENT IN THE AMERICAS

• Anthropologists theorize that Asians migrated across a land bridge between Asia and the Americas

• Animation of land bridge melting

• Native Americans, like the Inuit, believe in indigenous development with migration patterns in both directions

• 35,000-40,000 years ago• Enriched article

WHY CROSS THE BERING LAND BRIDGE?FOOD!

• Nomads followed animals like mammoths, mastodons, giant bison and antelope for food.

• The Bering Strait had mild weather, fresh water sources and food from the sea and plants.

• Followed an ice free path down North America between two glaciers

Disappearance of the Land Bridgevideo

GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS AFFECTED THE SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE EARLIEST AMERICANS

• Ice age made the waters recede and land appear in the Bering Strait

• Nomads spread east and south adapting to forests, plains and mountains while hunting and gathering

• Began to farm and irrigate plants• Surpluses led to other skills like pottery and

basket weaving• Eventually some areas became civilizations with

religion and government

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How do maps provide information about people, places, and physical and cultural environments?

• How does geography affect how and where people live?