Human antiquity in Mesoamerica - Human antiquity in Mesoamerica Scientific opinion regarding human antiquity in Mesoamerica has reflected larger trends in conceptualizing human antiquity in the western hemisphere in general. Within that foundational topic, the establishment of sites demonstrating human antiquity in Mesoamerica has centered on the association of remains and artifacts with geologic strata (context) and on the reliability of the dating of the remains and strata (methodologies). At the beginning of the twentieth century, humans were believed to be very recent post-glacial immigrants to the western hemisphere. Although there was believed to have been anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 years of post-glacial time in which such immigration could have occurred over the Bering land bridge, the antiquity of human presence in the western hemisphere was popularly fixed at about 5,000 B.P..
Ancient Mesoamerican agriculture - Ancient Mesoamerican Agriculture The origins of agriculture in Mesoamerica date to the Archaic period of Mesoamerican chronology, 8000-2000 BC. During this period many of the hunter gatherer micro-bands in the region began to cultivate wild plants. The cultivation of these plants probably started out as creating known areas of fall back, or starvation foods, near seasonal camps that the band could rely on when hunting was bad, or when there was a drought. The plants could have been brought purposely or by accident. The former could have been done by bringing a wild plant food closer to a camp site or to a frequented area so it was easier to get to or collect. The latter could have happened as certain plant seeds were eaten and not fully digested, causing these.
The jaguar in Mesoamerican culture - jaguar played an important role in the culture and religion of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Quick, agile, and powerful enough to take down the largest prey of the jungle, the jaguar is the largest of the big cats in the Americas, and one of the most efficient and ferocious predators. Endowed with a magnificent spotted coat and well adapted for the jungle, hunting either in the trees or water, making it one of the only felines tolerant of water, the jaguar was and still is revered among the indigenous Americans who reside closely with the jaguar. For the Olmec and the Maya, this regal feline became a symbol of authority and one’s prowess in hunting and battle, as well as an integral part of mythology and a powerful spirit companion for shamans. The.
Trephinning in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica - Trephinning in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica Trephinning or Trepanation, which is also known as trephining, and trepanning, refers to the surgical practice of removing a small of bone from the skull, generally to relieve pressure on the brain. The multiple techniques of trephinning in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica were identical to the art as practiced in the eastern hemisphere. Trephinning involves drilling a hole into a human skull using any of several techniques. If the operation is successful, the bone begins to grow back, beginning at the rims of the hole and growing toward the center of the hole. The new bone growth is shallower than the bone at the rim, enabling scientists to determine whether a person lived following the operation. Evidence of trephinning has been found for populations around the world.
Obsidian use in Mesoamerica - Obsidian use in Mesoamerica Obsidian was an important part of the material culture of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Its uses, value, production, trade, sources, and analysis are all important aspects of the study of cultures in this region. Practical and Ritual Obsidian Use Almost no site in Mesoamerica is without obsidian, called "Itztli" in the Nahuatl language. It was an item that had both frequent, common uses and ritual use. Obsidian was available to all households and was found in hunting, agriculture, and many other everyday situations. Examples of possible obsidian tools are knives, lance and dart points, prismatic blades sometimes used for woodworking or shaving, bone working tools, bifaces, retouched flakes, and spearheads for ritual warfare. Blades have been found in situ with rabbit, rodent, and mollusk remains, indicating.
Mesoamerica - Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico through Central America which produced a set of culturally related civilizations before the discovery of the New World by Columbus. Mesoamerican is a general adjective to refer to that group of Pre-Columbian cultures. Some common shared Mesoamerican traits include intensive agriculture based heavily on maize corn; worship of a set of deities including a rain god, a sun god, a feathered-serpent god (Quetzalcoatl); a Vigesimal numbering system; the use of a 260 day ritual calendar in addition to the solar year calendar; the construction of temples elevated atop stepped pyramids; a ritual ball-game; and various other artistic and cultural conventions. Mesoamerican civilizations included the Olmec, Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, Huastec, Tarascan, Teotihuacan, Totonac, Toltec, and the Aztec. In.
Mesoamerican ballgame - sport with ritual associations played for over 3000 years by the peoples of Mesoamerica in Pre-Columbian times, and in a few places continues to be played by descendants of the area Amerind inhabitants. The Great Ball Court at Chichén Itzá The Ball Court. A Ball Court Goal. As might be expected with a game played over so long a timespan in several different nations, details of the games varied over time and place, so the Mesoamerican ballgame might be more accurately seen as a family of related games. Some versions were played between two individuals, others between 2 teams of players. The games shared the characteristics of being played with a hard rubber ball in a court shaped like a capital letter "I". The game was called tlachtli by the Aztec.
Mesoamerican chronology - Mesoamerican chronology The chronology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is usually divided into the following eras: Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Paleo-Indian Period 2 Archaic Era 3 Pre-Classic Era 4 Classic Era 5 Post-Classic Era Paleo-Indian Period c. 20,000 BC - 8,000 BC A period of hunterss and gatherers. Archaic Era c. 8,000 BC - 20th century BC The development of agriculture in the region. Permanent villages established. Late in this era, use of pottery and loom weaving becomes common. Pre-Classic Era c. 20th century BC - 2nd century AD The start of nation-states. The first large scale ceremonial architecture, development of cities. The development and flourishing of the Olmec civilization. Early Zapotec and Maya civilization. Classic Era c. mid 2nd century - early 10th century Teotihuacan grows to a metropolis and its.
Kaminaljuyu - City, requested archaeologists Alfred Kidder, Jesse Jennings and Edwin Shook to investigate. Lic. Villacorta gave the site its name Kaminaljuyu from a Quiché word meaning “hills of the dead.” Kaminaljuyu surrounded by civilization The Middle Cultures, sometimes called Miraflores, were the underlying base that made a foundation for later cultures of the Classic Maya to flourish. Cultures of this phase had a stable agricultural community. The remains from this time period are very abundant at Kaminaljuyu. One period of the Middle Culture is the Middle Formative period, which lasted from approximately 800 B.C.E. to 300 B.C.E. Excavations at Kaminaljuyu indicate the communities of the Middle Formative were sedentary and large enough to produce heavy refuse deposits. They grew cotton and practiced loom-weaving and were expert potters. Religious practices that would later.
Jean-Frédéric Waldeck - and studied art as a student of Jacques Louis David. He said he had traveled to Egypt with Napoleon's expedition. None of this has been independently verified; indeed most of Waldeck's autobiography before about 1820 (including his given birthdate) is undocumented and his name is absent from records of various early expeditions he claimed to have been on. Waldeck's first contact with the art of ancient Mesoamerica seems to have been when he was hired by Lord Kingsborough to make engravings based on drawings of the city of Palenque. Waldeck's engravings were much more beautiful and artistic than the original drawings he worked from, and gave the monuments a decidedly Egyptian look, in line with his patron's views that the ancient Mesoamerican Native Americans were the Lost Tribes of Israel. In.
John Lloyd Stephens - Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land (1837) Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia and Poland (1838) Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, Vols. 1 & 2 (1841) Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vols. 1 & 2 (1843) Stephens read with interest early accounts of ruined cities of Mesoamerica by such writers and explorers as Alexander von Humboldt and Juan Galindo. In 1839, President Martin Van Buren commissioned Stephens as Special Ambassador to Central America. While there, the government of the United States of Central America fell apart in civil war. "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan" gives a vivid description of some of those events which Stephens witnessed. Of even greater importance, it provided descriptions of several ancient Maya sites, along with illustrations.
History of Costa Rica - the Native Americans in what is now Costa Rica were part of the Mesoamerica cultural area. Pre-Columbian Ceramics from Nicoya, Costa Rica The native peoples were conquered by Spain in the 16th century. Costa Rica was then the southern-most province in the Spanish territory of New Spain. The provincial capital was in Cartago. After a brief time in the Mexican Empire of Augustin de Iturbide (see: History of Mexico) Costa Rica became a state in the United States of Central America (see: History of Central America) from 1823 to 1839. In 1824 the capital was moved to San José. From the 1840s on Costa Rica was an independent nation. Costa Rica is a Central American success story: since the late 19th century, only two brief periods of violence have marred its.
History of Spain - as against the Muslims. El Cid, the 11th-century hero of Spain's epic poem was banished by king Alfonso VI and found refuge with the Muslim king of Zaragoza. With the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba Al-Andalus broke apart into a number of small, warring domains, which contributed to the success of the southward expansionist drive of the Christian kingdoms. In the 11th century the Muslim realms asked for help from the North African Almoravides, who then took control of all of Al-Andalus and some Christian land. The Almohades were defeated in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. By the mid-13th century Granada was the only independent Muslim realm in Spain, and the 13th and the 15th centuries were spent in internal strife among the Christian kingdoms. The.
History of astronomy - believed then. Ancient astronomers were able to differentiate between stars and planets; as stars remain relatively fixed over the centuries, while planets will move an appreciable amount during a comparatively short time. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Ancient History 2 India 3 Mesopotamia 3.1 Sumer 3.2 Chaldea, Babylonia 4 Mesoamerica 4.3 Maya 5 East Asia 5.4 China 6 Ancient Greece 7 Middle Ages 8 The Copernican Revolution 9 Physics marries Astronomy (a longlasting and happy union) 10 Modern Astronomy 11 Cosmology and the Expansion of the Universe 12 New windows into the Cosmos open 13 History of Astronomy Ancient History Early cultures identifed celestial objects with godss and spirits. They related these objects (and their movements) to phenomena such as rain, drought, seasons, and tides. It is generally believed that the.
History of Central America - Most of modern Central America was part of the Mesoamerican cultural area in Pre-Columbian times. The Native American civilizations of Mesoamerica extended from central Mexico down to Costa Rica. The Precolumbian cultures of Panama traded both with Mesoamerica and the cultures of South America, and can be considered transitional between the two cultural areas. Spanish Colonial Era After the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century, most of the region now known as Central America shared a common history. The exceptions were the two nations at the north and south ends of Central America. Panama was part of Spanish New Granada, and then of the nation of Colombia, until 1903. Belize was the British colony of British Honduras until 1973. From the 16th century to the early 19th century Central America was.
Human sacrifice - etc were seen as a sign of anger or displeasure by deities, and sacrifices were supposed to lessen the divine ire. Such sacrifices occured in the Bronze age religions in Europe, and in rituals related to Ásatrú. Some of the best known ancient human sacrifice was that practiced by various Pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Aztec were particularly noted for practicing this on an unusually large scale; a human sacrifice would be made every day to aid the Sun in rising, the dedication of the great temple at Tenochtitlan was reportedly marked with the sacrificing of thousands, and there are multiple accounts of captured Conquistadores being sacrificed during the wars of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Human sacrifice still happens today as an underground practice in some traditional religions, for example.
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - very high quality museum in West Philadelphia. The Museum has archeology and anthropology collections of great breadth and depth - from Mesoamerica to the Ancient Near East to China. The Museum's most important collection is arguably the treasures of Ur, which Penn coexcavated with the British Museum. One of the two statuettes "Ram in a Thicket" is here. External Site http://www.museum.upenn.edu/.
December 2002 - government forces. December 18, 2002 Insurance and finance company Conseco Inc, deep in debt and facing a federal investigation of its accounting practices, filed for Chapter 11 protection in the third-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. An Indian court sentenced three men to death for treason, for their assistance in helping five gunmen prepare for the December 13, 2001 attack on the national Parliament which killed nine people and nearly triggered a war with nuclear rival Pakistan. Death sentencess, which are carried out by hanging, are rare in India. Matsushita and Sony have announced that they are collaborating on the development of a "Linux platform for digital home electronic devicess" December 17, 2002 Congo's government, rebels and opposition parties signed a peace accord to end four years of civil war and set.
12th century BC - America. April 24, 1184 BC- Traditional date for the fall of Troy, Asia Minor to the Mycenaeans and their allies. This marks the end of the Trojan War of Greek mythology. c. 1150 BC - Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica. Significant persons: Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions:.
16th century - Ottoman Empire lay siege upon Vienna, but fail to conquer the city (1529) European explorers explore the New World. Spain conquers the Aztec Empire in Central America (1521) and the Incan Empire in South America (1533), resulting in the destruction of the native civilizations of Mesoamerica and the Andes. Vast increase in amount of gold in circulation in Europe. The horse introduced to the Americas. First circumnavigation of the globe by a ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition. Only one ship survived the journey, under the command of the Basque captain Sebastian Elkano (1522). Protestant reform of the Christian church in several countries in Northern Europe. In the Diet of Speyer, a group of princes and imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire sign a protestation against the Edict of Worms. This.
