They have lived in small and large communities, each with its own ways of doing things. We know this by the things these communities leave behind, sometimes hundreds of years after the people who lived there are gone. These things are often called artifacts . Artifacts come in all sizes. Some are as small as a weaving tool and can fit easily into your hand.
Some artifacts weigh many tons.
Some communities have left enormous artifacts, like the Native American Anasazi people who created a great city now in ruins. As people have investigated these artifacts, we now understand how advanced these people were. A community s artifacts can show us their art, their tools for daily life, their homes, and their belief systems. All of these things make up what we call a culture. A culture represents a group of people who live in a particular period, who form a community, who share and practice traditional activities, who share a belief system, and who may share the same ancestors.