LEARN NC: Search results

The De Soto expedition: In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 3.3; Hernando De Soto’s expedition through the southeastern United States in 1539–43 was one of the earliest of the early contacts between Europeans and native peoples. While historical documents tell the story of do Soto's journey, advances in both history and archaeology have enabled researchers to reconstruct the de Soto route.; Format: article

The importance of one simple plant: In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.10; In Colonial North Carolina, page 6.1; The natives of America could trace the history of maize to the beginning of time. Maize was the food of the gods that had created the Earth. It played a central role in many native myths and legends. And it came to be one of their most important foods. Maize, in some form, made up roughly 65 percent of the native diet. When European settlers reached the New World, they learned to cultivate Indian corn from their native neighbors.; Format: article; By Terry L. Sargent.

Peoples of the Coastal Plain: In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.6; When Europeans arrived in the late 1500s, North Carolina’s northern Coastal Plain was home to two different cultures. Speakers of Algonkian languages lived closest to the Atlantic edge, in the Outer Coastal Plain or Tidewater. Iroquoian speakers lived more inland, on the Inner Coastal Plain. Based on the distinctive items each group left, archaeologists call the Algonkian speakers Colington and the Iroquoian speakers Cashie.; Format: article

Peoples of the mountains: In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.5; During the Mississippian period, corn agriculture became more important in the mountains of North Carolina. More productive agriculture supported larger populations and provided opportunities for accumulating wealth. This brought about increased social ranking and political centralization. The Mountain region was creating its own identity -- an identity that archaeologists tie to the modern-day Cherokee. Archaeologists have given the names Pisgah and Qualla to these Cherokee ancestors.; Format: article

Peoples of the Piedmont: In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.4; In the years between 1000 and 1200 CE, Native life in the north and central Piedmont hadn’t changed much from prior Woodland times. People still lived in small hamlets whose houses strung out along river and stream banks. At times, the hamlets sat empty when people left to hunt and gather wild foods. But times were about to change. Around 900 CE, corn agriculture began. As a result, population began to grow, people began gathering in larger villages, and conflicts erupted.; Format: article

Quick study: Mississippian Period: A “cheat sheet” covering basic information about the Mississippian Period and its key characteristics.

Shadows of a people: In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 2.3; Archaeologists divide North Carolina's prehistory -- the time before contact with Europeans -- into four periods: Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian.; Format: article

The village farmers: In Intrigue of the Past, page 3.5; North Carolina sat on a crossroads by AD 1000. Cultural ideas from other places breezed through it and around it: how to decorate pottery, how to orient political and social life, how to honor the dead, how to structure towns.

LEARN NC