Pre-Columbian era

In a history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North together with South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. normally the era covers the history of indigenous American cultures until significant influence by Europeans. This may pull in occurred decades or even centuries after Columbus forcultures.

Many pre-Columbian civilizations were marked by permanent settlements, cities, agriculture, civic in addition to monumental architecture, major earthworks, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the number one permanent European colonies c. behind 16th–early 17th centuries, and are required only through archaeological investigations and oral history. Other civilizations were contemporary with the colonial period and were allocated in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such(a) as the Maya civilization, had their own written records. Because numerous Christian Europeans of the time viewed such(a) texts as pagan, men like Diego de Landa burned them, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few hidden documents keep on to survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving contemporary historians glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.

Many indigenous peoples in the Americas advance traditional practices while evolving and adapting to the modern world.

The selection terms precontact, precolonial, or prehistoric Americas are also used; in Hispanic America, the usual term is pre-Hispanic; in Brazil, the term used is pre-Cabraline.

Genetics

The haplogroup most ordinarily associated with Indigenous Amerindian genetics is Haplogroup Q1a3a Y-DNA. Y-DNA, like mtDNA, differs from other nuclear chromosomes in that the majority of the Y chromosome is unique and does not recombine during meiosis. This has the case that the historical sample of mutations can easily be studied. The sample indicates Indigenous Amerindians excellent two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial-peopling of the Americas, and secondly with European colonization of the Americas. The former is the determinant part for the number of gene lineages and founding haplotypes introduced in today's Indigenous Amerindian populations.

Human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from the Bering sea coast line, with an initial 20,000-year layover on Beringia for the founding population. The micro-satellite diversity and distributions of the Y lineage particular to South America indicates thatAmerindian populations clear been isolated since the initial colonization of the region. The Na-Dené, Inuit and Indigenous Alaskan populations exhibit haplogroup Q-M242 Y-DNA mutations, however are distinct from other indigenous Amerindians with various mtDNA mutations. This suggests that the earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America and Greenland derived from later populations.