The 12th century in North American history provides a timeline of events occurring within the North American continent from 1101 to 1200 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

• 900 1150: Pueblo II Era in the American Southwest
• 1000 1200: Early Mississippian culture in the Eastern Woodlands
• 1000 1200: Dresden Codex written and illuminated. This Yucatecan Mayan codex from Chich n Itz is the earliest known surviving book from the Americas
• 1000 1200: Acoma Pueblo and Old Oraibi are established, and become the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States^[1][2][3]
• 1142: League of the Iroquois is founded, and the Great Law of Peace is adopted by the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida people.^[4] Wampum invented by Ayenwatha, which the Haudenosaunee used to record information.^[5]
• 1150 1350: Pueblo III Era in the American Southwest
• The Inuit Thule people largely displaced the old Dorset culture in Arctic Alaska.
• The most important city of the Mississippian culture of mound builders, Cahokia on the Mississippi River opposite modern Saint Louis, Missouri, reached its zenith with a population near 20,000 or perhaps 40,000. No other city in the United States would boast of such a large population until the early days of the Republic.
• Natives of the American Southwest began building spectacular cliff dwellings housing hundreds of people in the later half of the century.

See also

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

Notes