Historic Spanish Point Archaeological Site Essay

The Saga of the Tigua Indians is an amazing one. By all reasoning they should have been wiped out long ago. There quiet defiance to change, however, has carried them through. From the height of civilization to near extinction the Tigua have remained. They endure imprisonment by the Spanish, oppression and manipulation by everyone that followed. This is the story of a people thought to extinct, that are once again learning to survive.

     The Aztecs were an American Indian people who ruled a mighty empire in Mexico from the 1400's to the 1500's. The Aztecs had one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas and built cities as large as any in Europe at that time. They also practiced a remarkable religion that affected every part of their lives and featured human sacrifice. The Aztecs built towering temples, created huge sculptures, and held impressive ceremonies all for the purpose of worshipping their gods. The Spaniards destroyed their magnificent empire in the year 1521, but the Aztecs left a lasting mark on Mexican life and culture .

Spanish and English had similar motivations for exploration of the New World, such as gaining land, goods from the natives, and gold. However, their motivations also differ greatly. The Spanish conquistadors also gained slaves from the native people, as well as spreading the word of Christianity. The English settlers came to the New World to get away from the religious oppression in England and to practice religion freely, and to grow tobacco to send back to England. The Spanish gained much more land quickly because, upon landing in places like the Caribbean and Brazil, because of their conquering and enslaving of the natives. The English came to the New World much less prepared,

Scotland has an abundance of archaeology all throughout the country and all within different parts of prehistory. Scottish archaeology has a big impact on both the rest of the UK and on the rest of Europe. Although during the beginning of the 20th century, archaeology was seen as nothing more than labour, with the help of the two great men which held ‘the Abercromby chair’ – both with their own contributions to Scottish archaeology as a whole – it soon rocketed into the discipline what we see today.

The great Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlán was overpowered and taken by Hernán Cortés. When the empire fell, many Aztecs were infected with a disease from Europe, smallpox. It was their first exposure to the disease and they had no immunity. Over a course of months, the culture and civilization of the fallen empire have changed.Numerous people wonder about the Aztecs who have survived and still remain in Tenochtitlán. On a trip to the city, we stopped an Aztec resident on the street to answer a few questions. The resident requested to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

This essay will aim to cover several archaeology techniques and methodologies that would have been used during excavation of archeological sites, in particular the New Kinord site. These methods will provide an insight into a wide range of information that I am interested in discovering. These include what the inhabitants of the site did for a living, their diet and how the term of occupation can be determined.

One of the most well known figures of the twentieth century pottery world is Maria Martinez. Maria Martinez is a Pueblo Indian part of the San Ildefondo tribe. Pueblo pottery from the American Southwest holds a unique place in ceramic art forms of American art. It is full of age-old tradition and culture handed down form family members and potters of the past. The old Pueblo ways of creating it still hold true today and have not been changed or influenced like so many other styles in modern times.

Crisis and Transformation in Northern New Spain: Defensive Expansion into Texas: Spain establishes a mission in Texas, that was not adequate and a disappointment. Women and the Law in New Spain and British North America: The Spanish women had more rights to her, her husband, and family earnings and inheritance than the English women. Eighteenth –Century New France: Slavery and Colonial Society in French Louisiana: In 1729 the French enlisted slaves to fight with them, which will earn them their freedom (Black Militiamen). Imperial Rivalries: Queen Anne War was about competing for trade. British had little chance in expanding west of the Appalachian Mountains. Forces of Division in British North America: Moving into the Backcountry: With so many people entering North America colonies people move to the back country.

In the book The Prehistory of Home Jerry Moore discusses the importance that home structures have had for humans over time in different places of the world. He says that “In addition to their basic and fundamental function of providing shelter from natural elements, dwellings are powerful and complex concentrates of human existence… our dwellings reflect and shape our lives” (Moore, 3). He believes that homes are representations of the existence of individual humans as well as their surroundings. Jerry Moore is successful in explaining the importance of home in archaeology throughout history with colorful examples as well as a comparison of the importance of the home in the past to the importance of the home in the future.

The Archaic was a time of mostly small societies that engaged in intensive foraging, with the adoption of farming coming in the late Archaic. By the Middle Archaic we see more cemeteries with burials in mounds, a move towards sedentism, and groups claiming the rights to resources. During the Late Archaic there was a move towards population growth, the beginning of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, trade, pottery, storage, and sedentism. Two Archaic mound building societies were Watson Brake and Poverty Point. Watson Brake in Louisiana is one of the oldest mound sites in North America with dates of 3500 – 3000 B.C., with 11 mounds that are up to 25 feet, connected by ridges, interior ritual spaces, and was occupied year round. Poverty Point is located in northeastern Louisiana and was a pre-agricultural ceremonial center. Poverty Point covers 494 acres and took more than 1,236,007 cu ft of soil to construct (Fagan 2005: 418). Objects discovered at Poverty Point show that they took part in long distance trade and made use of a variety of exotic materials. These materials included: slate, copper, jasper, quartz, and as stated in our lecture there were materials coming from as far as 1,400 miles

Important health decisions are made by the entire family. It is not uncommon for three generations to live under one roof and the oldest father is in charge. The people of Vietnamese culture tend to hide their true feelings or fears as it is considered rude to speak up or offer frank honesty (Kemp,

Archaeologists in Boston are now excavating the base and ground below where the outhouse used by Revolutionary people,

Over centuries, the Mimbres people built, abandoned, filled in, or dismantled their pithouses and built newer structures on top.

In this period Pueblo Indians populated the areas of the Mesa Verde region, but Archeologists Identify they existed in the mountain ranges, mesa tops, and canyons, from the rock shelters and rock art they built, and left facts. By the late Ancient more people were living in permanent rock shelters that preserved goods such as sandals, mats and baskets. They made wide range of twig figurines that commonly was similar to deer or sheep. The late Ancient is marked by elevated trade in unique products such as obsidian and turquoise. Rock art excelled, and people lived in basic houses made of mud and wood. Their early efforts at plant domestication gradually expanded into the farming at end of the Ancient

A hearth was located on the Northwest corner of the cabin by finding a functional relationship between artifacts and the hearth. In the Southwest area of the cabin, a combination of artifacts is found which reveals, that this area was used for storage. On the interior of the cabin a working area is found which is located in the south area of the cabin where a collection of several different tools was found. In this area that was excavated, a total of 30,306 artifacts was found from the abandonment deposit. About 58.09% were related to building materials, 1.15% were classified as ceramics, 30.78% were classified as ecological, 0.29% were farmware, 3.02% were classified as glass, 0.56% was classified as munitions, 1.6% as personal, 0.17% as general tools, and 4.34% as utensils. According to http://www.webarchaeology.com/html/jorgesha.htm,, “A chain and some utensils were found around the hearth” and “A total of five separate chains has been found in front of the hearth and at the base and may have been related to the operation of the hearth.” Smoking meats and cooking is probably the reason these chains were here. Near the possible doorway, there was a cooking pot in situ (situ- in position) on the southeast corner of the hearth. Therefore, this area once had an emotional value and an area of safety to the individuals that occupied it at one