13th century in North American history

Centuries:

12th century - 13th century - 14th century

The 13th century in North American history provides a timeline of events occurring within the North American continent from 1201 CE to 1300 CE in the Gregorian calendar. This time period (from 1000 BCE–present) is known as the Post-archaic period (Post-archaic stage). 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 may also yield a general bias in the dating in this timeline.

List of events

• 1150–1350: Ancestral Pueblo people are in their Pueblo III Era
• 1200: Construction begins on the Grand Village of the Natchez near Natchez, Mississippi. This ceremonial center for the Natchez people is occupied and built upon until the early 17th century.
• 1200–1400: Middle Mississippian culture flourishes in the Eastern Woodlands
• 1250: Pensacola culture emerges in Florida
• 1250: Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, and other Ancestral Pueblo architectural complexes reach their apex
• The Inuit Thule people have completely displaced the old Dorset culture in Arctic Alaska.
• Pueblo people in the American Southwest evacuate most above-ground pueblos to build spectacular cliff dwellings housing hundreds of people.
• The dominant Ancestral Pueblo begin gradually absorbing the Mongollon culture in the American Southwest.
• Athapaskan-speaking people begin migrating from the prairies of Alberta and Montana toward the American Southwest.
• The Four Corners area of the American Southwest suffered severe droughts late in the century, causing many Pueblos to abandon their cliff dwellings for irrigable settlements along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico.
• 1300: Cliff Palace is abandoned.

See also

• Mississippian culture
• List of archaeological periods (North America)

References

• Berlo, Janet C. and Ruth B. Phillips. Native North American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998: 97-8. ISBN 978-0-19-284218-3.