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Ancient Middle America

Spring 2019 Calendar

Wikipedia
 map: topographic
  map: Mesoamerica and Its Cultural Areas
  Mesoamerica
 Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica

Tuesday, 23-Apr-2024 08:38:38 GMT

Terms / Concepts:

• atlatl (spear thrower)
  
  
  • 15 times the velocity, but 200 times the force (energy)
    
    
  • technically they hurl darts not spears
    
    
• ice age (15,000 ybp)
  
  
• "Lost Tribes of Israel"
  
  
• Three bases of cultural change:
  
  
  1. invention -- the creation of something new
     
     
  2. migration -- the spread of people from one place to another
     
     
  3. diffusion -- spread of cultural traits from one culture to another
     
     
     • stimulus diffusion -- spread of ideas from one culture to another
       
       
• underwater archaeology
  
  
• Clovis points
  
  
  • could these points be ritual objects?
    
    
• stelae

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Notes:

• NB: importance of woven items
  
  
• mammoth hunters
  
  
• pilgrimage to a central and sacred place is important
  
  
  • in this case Chaco Canyon seems to be the hub
    
    
• ritual autosacrifice
  
  
• archaeological indications of rank
  
  
  • inlaid teeth
    
    
  • head deformation
    
    
• before the Preclassic there was no Mesoamerica as such
  
  
  • Mesoamerica, The Area and the People
  • Paul Kirchhoff, "Meso-America"
  • stages handout
    • Mesoamerican Time Line and Stages (Periods)
      
    
    
• ancient Americans, at 11,000 ybp, entered a world far different from today
  
  
• tools may be ritual objects rather than items like functional spear points
  
  
• 10,200 ybp = one of the oldest intentional human burials in North America
  
  
• Zuni Archaeological Program
  
  

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Cultures:

• Anasazi
  
  
  • Chaco Cañon
  • Pueblo Bonito
    
    
• Navajo
  
  
• Clovis Culture
  
  
  • the Clovis people were the first to leave a distinct type of tool where ever they went
  • 11,000 - 11,500 tools / artifacts
    
    
• Netsilik ("Eskimo;" inuit)
  
  
• Maya
  
  
  • known to "The West" since 1841
  • Copán
    
    

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• Warm Mineral Springs, FL
  
  
  • 11,000+ ybp big cat
    
    
• East Wenatchee, WA
  
  
  • 11,000 ybp Clovis point
    
    
• Windover Bog Florida
  
  
  • 7,000 ybp
    
  • oldest fabric found in America
    
    
• Chaco Cañon
  
  
  • discovered in 1849
  • Anasazi, "The Ancient Ones"
  • 150+ houses
  • system of lineal roads seems to link the site to the San Juan Valley
  • NASA remote sensing
  • is it the "spiritual hub" of the area?
  • did people pilgrimage to a central and sacred place?
    
    
• Pueblo Bonito
  
  
  • 660+ rooms
    
    
• Copán
  
  
  • Honduras
• "cultural climax" = A.D. ca. 7th century
  
  

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Individuals:

• Frederick Catherwood (1841 drawings)
• Tatiana Proskouriakoff (at Copán and stelea interpretation)
• Bill Fash
• Rebecca Storey
• "Sonny" Cockrel
• Tom Siver
  • NASA archaeologist
• Rhonda Adams
• James Analazio (SP?)
• Glen Doren
• John Romey
• Mike Marshall
• Greg McDowell
• Lance Haynes

Web Sites:

• Sinkhole Holds 12,000-year-old Clues to Early Americans -- National Geographic (18 February 2009)