direct contact (White, 227). Not unlike this history of difficult questions with little concrete answers, the evidence at Spiro history is just as winding. Spiro is a compromised site. Much of its integrity is breached by artifact hunters, yet the lone obsidian scraper has a providence to add to the integrity of the find. Obtained in 1935 by J.G. Braecklein at Craig Mound, the artifact is donated to the Smithsonian. Here it sat in the collection. In 2002, Alex W. Barker et al, reports on the results of an energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence on the scraper. The results trace the source of the obsidian in Hidalgo, Mexico where the Pachuca obtained their obsidian, (Barker, 103).
While the archaeological record of material culture does not
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Unique goods such as use of macaw feathers (Minnis,271), copper bells (2Noble, 29), and many other examples not used in this work such as cacao, (Washburn, 1635) and the appearance of the Hero Twins on Mimbre pottery, (2.Thompson,1) establishes this in the archaeological record of the American Southwest. As well as the uses of such items show the importance and value given to them. The contact, and influence of this contact, shapes a region, and the contribution of maize cultivation shapes a continent.
While this contact is definite in the American Southwest, there is still questions in the Southeast. The assumption of contact and influence is in the commonalities that imply contact with the two spheres in the Southeastern cultures. With comes many differencing resources and theories of what this influence is, educated, and sometimes uneducated. Unlike Hohokam ballcourts, finding commonality in the artifacts does not prove Mesoamerican influence in the Mississippian culture. Hohokam ballcourts are found in relationship with artifacts that have been sourced from Mesoamerican directly. This sets a reasonable precedent for their influence. In the lines of, “In the archaeology”, (Dr. Sellet), archaeologist need to set a neutral presentation of the artifacts, and look to local and regional traditions in the archaeological record
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The Watson Brake Mound Complex, located in Louisiana, has been dated to 5400 years ago. This mound building tradition in the reaches far back into the Archaic. At Watson Brake, there is no evidence of cultivation, no evidence of long distance trade, yet here sits the oldest mound structure of a more hunter-gather type of society with no influence of the Mesoamerican sphere, (Pringle,1). Another site lies in Poverty Point, Louisiana, about 3500 years old, a record of 800 years of mound building occurring in the Late Archaic. There is little artefactual evidence of material goods such as pottery, and cultivation tools that lead to an agricultural society with the exception of unique clay balls thought to be used for cooking are found here, which show no impact made by Mesoamerica, (Ortmann, 675).
In discussions of mound building in the region, the Adena and Hopewell cultures of the Woodland period, starting around 1000 BCE, cannot be forgotten. Preceding the Mississippian culture, these groups have set a foundation that the Mississippian culture could have easily followed. Their earthen works stretch all the way to Crystal River, Florida, (Kemp,vii) , are seen in the Appalachian Mountains, and most notably along the Ohio Valley, (Bernardini,331). All these sites hold the possibility of influence on the Mississippian mound
Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi, by Timothy R. Pauketat, is on the history, society, and religious customs of the Cahokian people. Consisting of twelve chapters, each chapter deals with a different aspect of Cahokian society. Chapter one opens up by telling the reader how the stars in the sky played an important role in the Native American belief system. The Planet Venus was the key figure in all of this, in fact the ancient Maya believed Venus to be a god. According to the Cahokians , Venus had a dual nature, in the daytime Venus was viewed a masculine, and in the evening it was seen as feminine. In the same chapter, Pauketat lets us know about the discovery of, two hundred packed-earth mounds constructed in a
Read excerpt # 3 The Anasazi: Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde and excerpt # 4 The Mississippians: Cahokia and Moundville (pp.29-33) by following the link Pre-Columbian America (Learner.org). Type responses to the following questions on Google Doc and save.
The technology that Mesoamerica was famous for came when humans fist discovered and entered the Americas. They had their tools with them which quickly spread across the land and were often found in the ancient people’s graves. After the tools spread, they began to improve. For example, they were used for agriculture in document 7, the Indians were using tools to plant and harvest corn. Soon, Mesoamerica began to improve even more
One of the biggest differences between Captain Ahab and Chillingworth is the time periods of their lifetime.
Ceramic making is still a popular tradition today in the Americas, especially on Native Indian Reservations, like in Western, North Carolina. The use of ceramics, however, is quite different than the way it was used by the natives during the Middle Woodland Period. Today, pottery is mainly made for decoration or art purposes by modern day Americans, but according to Wallis (2011), about 3,000 years ago the use of pottery became a very common use and practiced tradition among the native people who lived during that time period. The Swift Creek culture and the Cherokee Indians had very similar methods in formulating ceramics. The archaeological findings of these artifacts states that one group had been more advanced designs on their vessels. This reason is most likely because of the materials that one group was able to access in their area that the other group did not have available. One group was also more traditional and spiritual in making their vessels, which caused them to create more complex designs and methods while designing their ceramics (Block 2005). By looking at the similarities of both groups pottery styles, archaeologists were able to determine the minor but very distinctive differences, that one group processed in their art, than the other. By comparing each group’s ceramics by looking at
The Paiutes are a Native American Indian tribe “made up of several bands throughout the western part of the United States, also known as the Great Basin region” (Ruby 222). The Northern Paiutes populated areas of Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho; and inquiries as to how the environment might have affected their interactions, migration, and social behavior is a topic of great interest in Oregon archeology. The Northern Paiutes “who practiced the ancestral lifeway well into the 19th century, were heirs to an extremely ancient cultural tradition” (Aikens 13). Historical archeological studies found that these groups often “made tools, gathered plants, and hunted animals of similar if not identical kinds” (Aikens 13). Through these similar identities,
Texcoco was an important archeological site during the late Aztec period. It was located east of Lake Texcoco, home to the Acholhua people and surrounding city-states, Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan. These three city-states founded what is known as the Triple Alliance by 1428, creating the Aztec capital and a strong political entity (book). As the second strongest of the alliance, one of the most famous rulers in Mesoamerica, Netzahualcoyotl was the king of Texcoco. Signs of settlement in this city-state didn’t arise until the 13th century, showing a center of culture and learning, also being rich in agriculture, trading, and hunting (ancient.eu).
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles offers a surface level depiction of Mesoamerican civilization and culture. It excludes essential information and instead gives a shallow representation that offers implications of a barbaric civilization.
American archaeologist and anthropologist, Stephen Plog, wrote an account of the pre-Columbian natives of the Americans titled Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Plog’s purpose is to communicate the cultural and ritualistic lifestyles of the prehistoric natives of the southwest, which spans across the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada with some mention of trade with Mexico. The author has demonstrated an effective approach of an objective viewpoint on the lives of the prehistoric south westerners using sources from excursions from previous archaeologists such as, Paul S Martin and David R Wilcox among many others who excavated the vacant villages of the southwest.
The ancient world of Mesoamerica entered a long period of change that soon led to the development a mammoth city that would serve as a regional center for more than 600 years. Beginning in about 1000 B.C. the majority of the people in the Valley of Mexico relocated to one of two primary sites, that of Cuicuilco in the southwest corner and Teotihuacan in the northeast. By about 300 B.C., Cuicuilco dominated the region, but its heyday would soon diminish. (Sabloff 2000, p 60)
Mesoamerica have been connected the North and South America culturally and geographically throughout the history. Mesoamerican culture and aspects heavily influenced southwestern United States, being the frontier borderline between North America and Mesoamerica. It is very important to study the relationship between the Mesoamerica and American Southwest because American Southwest contains various elements of Mesoamerican culture and this provides fundamental information about human behaviors, history, interactions, and tradition in America. Our group has selected Agriculture, Architecture, Religion, and Trade as our categories to analyze the relationship between American southwest and Mesoamerica. Fair trade, we will focus on scarlet macaws and how it got traded from Mesoamerica in the American southwest and its significance. For architecture, we will compare the ball courts of Hohokam and that of Mesoamerica. Significance of ball courts and how it got introduced into the American southwest from Mesoamerica will be discussed as well. Religion will be analyzed by focusing on the cosmological beliefs of both groups and the similarities and differences between Mesoamerican cosmology and American southwest cosmology.
The Pentium floating-point unit flaw only occurred on some models of the original Pentium microprocessor chip. Any of the Pentium family processors with a clock speed of at least 120 MHz is new enough not to have the bug. On the affected microprocessor models, the Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility checks for the floating-point unit flaw.
As Charles Darwin once said. “It is not the strongest of species that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. Darwin’s quote strongly relates to “The Call of the Wild” in many circumstances where the stronger species was not able to thrive, but the one that was most able to adapt to change. In Jack London’s novel, “The Call of the Wild” it is conveyed that in order to survive in any environment one must be able to become accustomed to their surroundings. To survive by adaption one must drop old habits, be able to thrive in poor treatment environments, and love when given the chance. The main character in “The Call of the Wild” Buck, proves this idea on a multitude of occasions throughout his journey in the hostile Canadian Yukon Territory. The first adaptation that is made in “The Call of the Wild” is conveyed when one must drop their old habits to survive.
Human sacrifice tends to evoke images of bloody and barbaric ritual that is both fascinating and repulsive to modern society. Many cultures in the past around the world participated in this practice. Some of the most famous civilizations that executed these sacrifices were Mesoamerican groups such as the Aztecs and Mayans. Mesoamerican civilizations have developed an infamous reputation for committing sacrifices on a massive scale that have likely been exaggerated. Given their notoriety, it is easy to assume that many burials found are the results of a sacrifice. However, this is not conducive to understanding Aztec culture and just perpetuates stereotypes. Instead, it is necessary to be critical and assess the remains and the context of the burial. One site that was thoroughly investigated was the Moon Pyramid of Teotihuacan in Mexico. The burials discovered at this site were methodically reviewed to understand who were the individuals buried there and why they were buried there.