Mayas

Pre-Columbian era


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Simple map of subsistence methods in the Americas at 1000 BCE.
hunter-gatherers(Mesolithic)

simple farming societies (Neolithic)

complex farming societies (tribal chiefdoms or civilizations)

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history andprehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to Europeancolonization during the Early Modern period.

While the phrase "pre-Columbian era" literally refers only to the time preceding Christopher Columbus's voyages of 1492, in practice the phraseusually is used to denote the entire history of American indigenous cultures until those cultures were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries afterColumbus's first landing. For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Hispanic America the term usually usedis Pre-Hispanic.

Many pre-Columbian civilizations established hallmarks which included permanent settlements, cities, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, major earthworks, and complexsocietal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European and African arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only througharchaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with the colonial period, and were described in historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya, had their own written records. Because manyChristian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few hidden documents...