Editing 5th millennium BC (section)

===North America===
* '''4130 BC:''' [[Toggling harpoon]]s are invented somewhere in eastern Siberia, spreading south via trade into Japan and east into North America, where they are ancestral to the sophisticated designs of the [[Inuit]] and later European [[whaling|whalers]].<ref>Yamaura, Kiyoshi. "The sea mammal hunting cultures of the Okhotsk Sea with special reference to Hokkaido prehistory." ''Arctic Anthropology'' (1998): 321-334.</ref>
*'''4000 BC - 2000 BC:''' The [[Dene-Yeniseian]] languages split into [[Na-Dene]] in North America and [[Yeniseian language|Yeniseian]] languages in Siberia. The connection is commonly thought to have been the result of a back-migration of early [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]] in [[Beringia]] back into Siberia, forming the [[Yeniseian people]]s that were once widespread throughout Eurasia.<ref>Ives, John W. "Dene-Yeniseian, migration and prehistory." ''The Dene-Yeniseian Connection'' 5 (2010): 324-334.</ref>
*Across the Southeastern Woodlands, starting around 4000 BC, people exploited wetland resources, creating large shell middens.
*[[Old Copper Complex|Old Copper culture]] thrives in [[Copper Culture State Park|Oronto northeastern]] [[Wisconsin]].
*Native Americans in the northern Great Lakes produce copper tools, ornaments, and utensils traded throughout the Great Plains and Ohio Valley representing a high level of [[social stratification]].
*Emergence of the [[Archaic period (North America)|Shield Archaic tradition]] circa 4500 BC.
*Around 5000 BC, [[Holocene]] glacial runoff affects the [[Archaic Southwest|Southwest and notably the Colorado Plateau]] with stronger storm patterns result in significant rates of soil erosion. Precursors to the migrations of the [[Ancestral Puebloans]] lived through this climatic shift in tribes and chiefdoms in the [[Archaic-Early Basketmaker Era]], with cultural and trade connections to the early [[Cochise tradition|Cochise cultures]]. Despite nomadic lifestyles in hunting seasons continuing early on from the [[6th millennium BC]] these cultures also had settlements with store houses. The [[Cochise tradition|Cochise culture]] begins circa 5000 BC alongside the [[San Dieguito complex|San Dieguito cultures]].
*Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll in [[Kentucky]] evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia across North America.
*During this millennium astronomical and theological work continues to develop. Such examples synonymous with the yearly cycle and gift of maize production is the origins of the [[Green Corn Ceremony]].
*The Tehuacán culture (5000 BC-2300 BC) were likely Proto-Otomanguean speakers that inhabited the area of the Tehuacán valley during the 5th millennium BC.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Campbell |first1=Eric W. |title=Otomanguean historical linguistics: Exploring the subgroups |url=https://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.ling.d7/files/sitefiles/people/campbell/Otomanguean_historical_lx-2-Ms_format-DISTR.pdf |website=linguistics.ucsb.edu/ |publisher=University of California Santa Barbara Department of Linguistics |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref>
*Some estimates using the controversial method of glottochronology suggest an approximate splitting date of the Proto-Otomanguean languages at c. 4400 BC.[14] This makes the Oto-Manguean family the language family of the Americas with the deepest time depth, as well as the oldest language family with evidence of tonal contrast in the proto-language.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sicoli |first1=Mark |title=Oto-Manguean Languages |url=https://www.academia.edu/3741915 |journal=Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Edited by Philipp Strazny. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn |date=January 2005 |publisher=Academia |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref>
*Cultures of Mesoamerica advance their cultivation of maize further with an introduction of maize (corn) into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia in this millennia sometimes via highways. Meanwhile, Peruvian cultures continue to advance cultivation of beans and squash circa 4000 BC. Forest clearing is present especially on the Gulf Coast, with the cultures of Mesoamerica, with social stratification present, workshops, stone settlements, paved roads and an extensive obsidian trade, see [[Archaic period in Mesoamerica]] and [[Gheo-shih]]. Despite sedentary cultures present within Mexico, typically coastal, nomadic cultures also remain with seasonal occupation, but agriculture yearly and store pits for meats i.e., El Gigante, [[Honduras]].