The 5th millennium BCE in North American history provides a timeline of events occurring within the North American continent from 5000 BCE through 4001 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. This time period (from 5000 BCE-4001 BCE) is known as the Middle Archaic. Although this timeline segment may include some European or other world events that profoundly influenced later American life, it focuses on developments within Native American communities. The archaeological records supplements indigenous recorded and oral history.
Because of the inaccuracies inherent in radiocarbon dating and in interpreting other elements of the archaeological record, most dates in this timeline represent approximations that may vary a century or more from source to source. The assumptions implicit in archaeological dating methods also may yield a general bias in the dating in this timeline.
- 5000 BCE: Early cultivation of food crops began in Mesoamerica.
- 5000 BCE: Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to California develop a fishing economy, with salmon as a staple.
- 5000 BCE: The Old Copper Culture of the Great Lakes area hammers the metal into various tools and ornaments, such as knives, axes, awls, bracelets, rings, and pendants.
- 5000 BCE–200 CE: The Cochise Tradition arises in the American Southwest.
- Native Americans in the northern Great Lakes produce copper tools, ornaments, and utensils traded throughout the Great Plains and Ohio Valley.
- Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll in Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
- 4000 BCE: Inhabitants of Mesoamerica cultivate maize (corn) while Peruvian natives cultivate beans and squash.
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