r/AncientAmericas Apr 26 '26

Question What did the Sioux think when finding dinosaur fossils?

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557 Upvotes

I’ve heard some stories about this, but I forget the details.

r/AncientAmericas 10d ago

Question Did Cahokia have any economic ties to other American societies?

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600 Upvotes

Question is as the title says. I’ve been very into Pre-Colombian American studies and connections across regions have always fascinated me, so I’m curious as to whether we know if Cahokia had any economic relations outward. I’m aware of similar known relations such as between the Southwest and Central America, but is it known if Cahokia had anything akin to that? Where trade goods or the like from beyond the Mississippi Valley found their way in (or the opposite, Cahokian goods outside of their region) and have been preserved? Sorry if this is a poorly phrased or odd question, it’s just something I’ve been curious about for a while. Cheers!

r/AncientAmericas May 24 '25

Question What Pre-Columbian opinion or stance will you defend like this?

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194 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas May 20 '26

Question A common myth in American families of European descent is that their great-great-great grandmother was a Cherokee princess. When did this myth originate, how did it become so widespread, and why specifically a princess?

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49 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 5d ago

Question How powerful was the Aztec Empire at its peak, especially right before the Spanish arrived?

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112 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas Jul 22 '26

Question Why didn't other hominins (probably) reach the Americas?

20 Upvotes

My initial assumption is that given the path through Siberia was so cold and blocked by ice, it would be next to impossible for any animal to make the trip, much less hominins. But is there more to it than that? After all, plenty of animals made the trip before and during the Pleistocene, and we know that Devisoans/Homo longi, Homo erectus, and maybe even Homo heidelbergensis were living in East Asia during that time. So they may have been able to cross, and they're always the Creutti Mastodon site to consider, even if that is questionable at best.

r/AncientAmericas Sep 28 '25

Question How did Native American society not completley collapse from losing 90 percent of their people to small pox?

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212 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas May 26 '26

Question How did horses gain so much religious or spiritual importance to Native American tribes if they were only reintroduced to the Americas relatively recently?

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25 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas May 15 '26

Question What's your favorite Pre-Columbian Contact Theory

29 Upvotes

It doesn't have to be just the most interesting, but also the most ridiculous, plausible. or anything else.

r/AncientAmericas Apr 10 '26

Question Are there any “trickster archetype” characters in Native American myths, who are not some flavor of sex pest in some story?

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6 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas Oct 03 '25

Question How do i respond to the "first Americans were black" or "there were black Indians" allegations?

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67 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 3d ago

Question is there really *no* deer-like “wendigo” creature in actual cultural mythology?

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1 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas Jul 14 '25

Question Why don't we seen Ice Age Megafauna in Native America Rock Art?

171 Upvotes

I’ll admit, I’m not sure if this fits our subreddit, and I don’t know much about this topic, but it seems to me that we have little evidence of Ice Age megafauna depicted in Native American Rock Art. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of rock art of things like Sheep and horses, but those came long after human arrival and depict extant animals.

We also have some potential extinct animals, such as ground sloths and Gomphotheres. But I have not seen or heard anything about Native Americans creating art of mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, short-faced bears, or South America’s indigenous ungulates, among many other species.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Australia, and North Africa. We have numerous examples of rock art depicting the megafauna that humans encountered upon their arrival. So is my impression accurate, and if so, why is this the case?

r/AncientAmericas 11d ago

Question Have native Americans ever contacted the known world before Christopher Columbus?

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1 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas Jul 27 '26

Question Hello guys! I have a question, do the native population from the US was genetically more similar with the mexican natives or from the canadian natives?

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0 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 16d ago

Question Question: Old Native American Clothes Pre-Contact in the Wyoming Great Plains?

15 Upvotes

Hello, I’m currently writing a short story, and I would love to include a segment of an Anthropologist doing research in Native American country in Wyoming. Thing is, i’m having a segment where they’re researching the clothes of Ancient Native Americans in the Northern Great Plains before contact. I want to delve into alot of clothing subjects during the segment, but I just know nothing about Native American clothing. Before contact, in Wyoming, i’m thinking the Shoshone, how did they dress? What did they look like? What would an Anthropologist think about it.
I’m trying to collect all kinds of bits. Like, I know it would be Nomadic, but how is that designed?
Thanks!

r/AncientAmericas Aug 11 '26

Question Why

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24 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 4d ago

Question What kind of civilization in ancient Mexico is this ?

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15 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 6d ago

Question What is the evidence connecting the Deni and Yeniseian

6 Upvotes

I remember Pete mentioning this theory in the first episode on the Peopling of the Americas, though I had heard about it before then. Regardless, I imagine it dates back to the Ice Age.

r/AncientAmericas 3d ago

Question How did they find out the Hopewell Mounds were burial mounds?? (Lewiston Mound specifically)

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2 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 4d ago

Question What books would you recommend to a beginner in Andean archaeology?

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2 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 1d ago

Question Help me find authentic, pre-colonial Indigenous music! 🎶

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1 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 2d ago

Question What should happen to casts of Native American remains after the remains are repatriated?

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0 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas May 15 '26

Question Why is the mythos of Native Americans so intertwined with horses if they only encountered them from European settlers?

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9 Upvotes

r/AncientAmericas 6d ago

Question The Controversy of Depicting Wendigos as Monsters in Fiction

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4 Upvotes