The views expressed here aren't necessarily the views agreed upon by the listmember who has posted it, this is just information found in the encyclopedia. Americas, prehistory It is generally agreed that the first people to inhabit the Americas crossed the BERING STRAIT from NE Asia in migration waves perhaps beginning before 30,000 B.C. The earliest evidence of human occupation in North America has been dated at c.19,000 B.C. and in South America at c.30,000 B.C., but there have been questions about the dating of these f inds. The CLOVIS CULTURE of North America definitively dates from c.10,000 B.C., and by 8000 B.C. it is clear that peoples had spread throughout the Americas. Between 5000 B.C. and 1000 B.C., agriculture, pottery, and complex social systems throughout the Americas marked the end of the STONE AGE and the rise of the high civilizations. See MIDDLE AMERICA, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF; NORTH AMERICA, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF; SOUTH AMERICA, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF; and articles on individual peoples.