What is the Popol Vuh?

Who were the Mayans who produced the Popol Vuh?

Which gods like a good ball game?

Who's Who of Mayan Gods What sets Mesoamerican myth apart?

Did the Aztecs really think the Spanish were gods?

What is the "Day of the Dead"?

Who's Who of Aztec Gods Was the "lost city" of Machu Picchu really a "sacred place"?

Did the Incas have a foundation myth?

Who's Who of Incan Gods Is there a "North American" mythology?

Who's Who of North American Native Gods Which goddess gets her own "planet"?

What famous poem contributed to the "myth" of the Native Americans?

Do Native American myths still matter?

Which mythic character created the Pacific Islands?

What is Dreamtime?

MYTHICAL MILESTONES.

The Americas c. 12,500 years ago Monte Verde sites in Chile include dwellings and stone tools; earliest evidence so far for people in the New World.

c. 11,500 years ago "Clovis culture": the earliest evidence of human habitation in North America, based on spear points found in Clovis, New Mexico, first discovered in 1932. Earlier dates have been suggested for the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and other sites in Virginia and the Carolinas, but they remain controversial.

C. 9,200 years ago "Kennewick man": the evidence of oldest known skeletal remains in North America.

Before the Common Era (BCE) c. 5000 Corn cultivation begins in Central America.

c. 4750 First evidence of animal domestication in Central America.

c. 4500 Corn cultivated in eastern North America.

c. 3500 Cotton cultivation in Central America; used to make fishing nets and textiles.

c. 2600 Large temple complexes built along the Andean coast of South America.

c. 2500 Large permanent villages appear in South America.

c. 2200 Earliest known pottery in South America.

c. 1750 Large ceremonial centers built in Peru.

c. 1500 Earliest evidence of metalworking in Peru.

c. 1200 Olmec, the first major pre-Columbian civilization, emerges in Yucatan lowlands. Olmec civilization is destroyed around 400 BCE.

c. 1000 Adena culture develops in middle Ohio River valley. The people in this village culture are famous for their large burial mounds, which begin to appear around 700 BCE.

c. 850 Chavin culture, based in Peru, with worship of part-human, part-animal beings, reaches its height. Grave goods include copper jewelry, decorated human skulls, and pipes for early tobacco use.

c. 800 Mayans begin to move from Central America into southern Mexico.

c. 400 Beginnings of Moche civilization in northern Peru.

c. 200 Nazca culture emerges in Peru; famed for "Nazca lines"-geometric and figurative designs etched into the surface of the Peruvian desert and attributed to aliens in pseudoscientific circles. Most likely, the lines were offerings made to the gods of sky and mountains.

c. 150 Great Serpent Mound in Ohio: 1,312 foot (405 meters) snakelike earthen effigy.

c. 150 Mayan "Golden Age" begins in Mesoamerica.

50 Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico is largest city in America.

Common Era 100 Emergence of Anasazi in southwestern North America.

Pyramids of the Sun and Moon constructed in Teotihuacan, Mexico, by unnamed civilization.

c. 420 Moche culture (Peru). Temple of the Sun constructed with 50 million bricks.

600 City of Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico) is constructed.

c. 700 City of Teotihuacan burns and is abandoned.

790 Decline of Maya civilization begins as many sites are abandoned.

c. 800 First use of bows and arrows in the Mississippi Valley.

900 Rise of Toltecs, warrior people from central Mexico, as Mayan empire collapses; they dominate central Mexico for the next 300 years.

987 Toltec priests are expelled from city of Tula (modern Hidalgo, Mexico) by a rival cult that favors human sacrifice.

990 Exiled Toltecs take over Maya city of Chichen Itza on Yucatan peninsula.

c. 1000 Viking voyages to Newfoundland in North America; despite brief settlement, they leave no lasting impact on Native American culture or history.

Incas found Cuzco (Peru).

c. 1100 Fortified cliff dwellings of the Anasazi people are first built in southwestern North America.

c. 1175 Toltec empire destroyed by famine, fire, and invasion.

1200 Entry of people called Mexica (generally known as Aztecs) into Valley of Mexico. Originally a farming people from western Mexico who became mercenary warriors, they migrate to Valley of Mexico and settle on two marshy islands in Lake Texcoco. Begin to construct city of Tenochtitlan (site of present-day Mexico City) on one of the islands.

Toltec-Mayan city of Chichen Itza is abandoned.

c. 1300 Anasazi pueblo villages in American Southwest are deserted, possibly due to climate changes.

1410 Inca empire of Peru expands.

1428 Aztec Empire expands.

1440 Moctezuma I is ruler of Aztecs. (Moctezuma's name is also spelled Montezuma or Motecuhzoma) 1487 Inauguration of great pyramid temple at Tenochtitlan; according to traditional acccounts, 20,000 people are ritually sacrificed there to "celebrate" the temple's completion.

1492 Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage in search of westward route to Asia, lands in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola (Santo Domingo).

1496 Columbus establishes first Spanish settlement in Western Hemisphere.

1500 Portuguese reach Brazil and claim it for Portugal.

1502 Beginning of reign of Moctezuma II.

African slaves introduced to Caribbean.

1507 Waldseemuller's world map names newfound lands in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.

1508 Spanish settlers on Hispaniola enslave natives.

1509 Spanish settlement of Central America begins.

San Juan (Puerto Rico) is founded.

1513 Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain.

1514 Spanish force the conversion of natives to Christianity under the threat of death.

Spanish priest Bartolome de las Casas begins to record the depraved behavior of Spanish colonists toward the natives.

1519 Hernando Cortes lands at Veracruz with 500 men; marches to the Aztec capital. Moctezuma II surrenders without a fight, is held captive and dies, probably executed by the Spanish, in 1520. The Spanish are later driven out by Aztec leader Cuauhtemoc. In 1521, Cortes returns with Indian allies and retakes Tenochtitlan following a smallpox epidemic that devastates the Aztecs. The Spanish level the city and begin to build Mexico City on the ruins. In 1522, Cortes becomes governor of New Spain. Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec king, is hanged in 1524 on a charge of treason.

1526 Dominican monks arrive in Mexico.

1530 Portuguese begin to colonize Brazil.

1533 Francisco Pizarro captures Inca chief Atahualpa; orders his execution.

1541 Jacques Cartier founds a French colony at Quebec in Canada.

Pizarro is assassinated by rival Spaniards.

1545 Discovery of vast silver mine in Potosi (Peru); by the 1590s, Spain is exporting 10 million ounces of silver per year from the New World.

1550 First Jesuits reach Brazil.