10,000+ Years Ago
Learn all about NYC’s distant past as “Mannahatta” or the “Island of Many Hills”
-250000000: Pangea
A detailed map of Pangea which illustrates modern borders and countries to highlight the unique geography that helped shape the City of New York.
-2000000: The Ice Age
2 million years ago marked the beginning of an ice age which covered much of North America in glaciers which would carve and shape the landscape over millennia.
-19000: Peak of the Ice Age in New York City
At the apex of the Ice Age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet would reach a maximum thickness of 2,000 feet - blanketing even our tallest buildings.
-12000: The Great Melt
As global temperatures began to rise, the ice retreated and in its wake were marshlands, streams and forests teeming with wildlife and fish.
-700: Rise of the Algonquians
One of the first tribes to settle in the Hudson Valley were the Algonquians - a group of nomadic tribes inhabiting much of North America
-15000: The Impact of Agriculture
The Algonquians would eventually discover how to plant crops, which transformed their nomadic culture into more established tribes and communities.
-10000: The Algonquian Diet
To compliment their primary diet of corn, squash and beans, Algonquians were avid hunters with a preference for deer, moose, and small game.
-10000: Lenni Lenape: The Original Native New Yorkers
The Algonquians who would settle in the Northeastern Woodlands would eventually come to be known as the Lenni Lenape.
-5000: Lenape Lifestyle, Trade and Commerce
The Lenape were extremely gifted hunters/trappers, farmers and weavers and would overcome countless obstacles to enjoy an age of prosperity.