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The Historian Channel: The Maya, Aztec, Olmec, History Documentry, Ancient Americans The Mayas, Aztecs, Olmecs.
Olmec jadeite mask 1000–600 BCE
The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Mexico
following a progressive development in Soconusco. They lived in the tropical
lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and
Tabasco. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from neighboring
Mokaya and/or Mixe–Zoque.
The population of the Olmecs flourished during Mesoamerica's
formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE.
Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by
1600–1500 BCE, early Olmec culture had emerged, centered on the San Lorenzo
Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz. They were the first
Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the
civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", the Olmec
appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame,
hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.
The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork,
particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The Olmec
civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on
the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Olmec artworks are considered among ancient America's most striking.
Olmec alternative origin speculations are
explanations that have been suggested for the formation of Olmec civilization
which contradict generally accepted scholarly consensus. These origin theories
typically involve contact with Old World societies. Although these speculations
have become somewhat well-known within popular culture, particularly the idea
of an African connection to the Olmec, they are not considered credible by the
majority of researchers of Mesoamerica.
The great majority of scholars who specialize
in Mesoamerican history, archaeology and linguistics remain unconvinced by
alternative origin speculations. Many are more critical and regard the
promotion of such unfounded theories as a form of ethnocentric racism at the
expense of indigenous Americans. The consensus view maintained across
publications in peer-reviewed academic journals that are concerned with
Mesoamerican and other pre-Columbian research is that the Olmec and their
achievements arose from influences and traditions that were wholly indigenous
to the region, or at least the New World, and there is no reliable material evidence
to suggest otherwise. They, and their neighbouring cultures with whom they had
contact, developed their own characters which were founded entirely on a
remarkably interlinked and ancient cultural and agricultural heritage that was
locally shared, but arose quite independently of any extra-hemispheric
influences.
African origins:
Some writers claim that the Olmecs were
related to peoples of Africa based primarily on their interpretation of facial
features of Olmec statues. They additionally contend that epigraphical,
genetic, and osteological evidence supports their claims.[citation needed] The
idea was first suggested by José Melgar, who discovered the first colossal head
at Hueyapan (now Tres Zapotes) in 1862 and subsequently published two papers
that attributed this head to a "Negro race." The view was espoused
in the early 20th century by Leo Wiener and others.[6] Some modern proponents
such as Ivan van Sertima and Clyde Ahmad Winters have identified the Olmecs
with the Mandé people of West Africa.
Epigraphic evidence:
Some researchers claim that the Mesoamerican
writing systems are related to African scripts. In the early 19th century,
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque proposed that the Mayan inscriptions were
probably related to the Libyco-Berber writing of Africa. Leo Wiener and
others claim that various Olmec and Epi-Olmec symbols are similar to those
found in the Vai script (a relatively modern script in Liberia which may have
Cherokee influence), in particular, the symbols on the Tuxtla Statuette, Teo
Mask,[citation needed] Cascajal Block,[citation needed] and the celts in
Offering 4 at La Venta.
These assertions have found no support among
Mesoamerican researchers. While mainstream scholars have made significant
progress translating the Maya script, researchers have yet to translate Olmec
glyphs.
Genetic evidence:
Genetic and immunological studies over the
past two decades have failed to yield evidence of precolumbian African
contributions to the indigenous populations of the Americas.
Las Limas Monument, considered an important
realization of Olmec mythology. The youth holds a were-jaguar infant, while
four iconic supernaturals are incised on the youth's shoulders and knees.
The Olmec were the first major civilization in
Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco. They lived in the
tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of
Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from
neighboring Mokaya and/or Mixe–Zoque.
The Olmec flourished during Mesoamerica's
formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE.
Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by
1600–1500 BCE, Early Olmec culture had emerged, centered on the San Lorenzo
Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz. They were the first
Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the
civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", the Olmec
appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame,
hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.
The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is
their artwork, particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The
Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors
purchased on the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early
20th century. Olmec artworks are considered among ancient America's most
striking.
Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site, Peru
Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century
Inca site in Peru, in South America.
The Incas built the city on a mountain ridge,
2430m above sea level. They lived there between 1200 and 1450 AD. Other people
lived there before about 650 AD.
The Incas built houses, fields and temples by
cutting the rock on the mountain so it was flat. They built an observatory to
look at the stars.
When the Spanish invaded Peru, the Incas left
Machu Picchu.The city was left unfinished, most
likely due to the Spanish invasion, or due to civil war between the ruling rival
Inca brothers named Huascar and Atahualpa. The Spanish never found Machu Picchu
or the lost city during their occupation.
Credits: Wikipedia
"Deep in the Andean mountains lays a mysterious ruin named Machu Picchu. For 400 years it sat abandoned on its misty cliff, the quintessential lost city in the jungle. Rediscovered in 1911, it contained no written records or carvings, nothing that could shed light on its history. For a century since, it has defied the endless scores of visitors and scientists who attempted to understand its purpose. Who were the mysterious people who built it and why did they build it here? Today an international team of archeologists, engineers and scientists are finally piecing together the clues. Together they are discovering astonishing new burials, revealing the intricacies of its ingenious engineering and finally decoding the secrets of Machu Picchu."
500 Nations The Story of Indian Americans Part 1. Hosted by Kevin Kostner.
Ancient Pueblo peoples or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. They lived in a range of structures, including pit houses, pueblos, and cliff dwellings designed so that they could lift entry ladders during enemy attacks, which provided security. Archaeologists sometimes refer to the unique set of material culture remains as "Anasazi".
Monks Mound, built c. 950-1100 CE and located at the Cahokia Mounds UNESCO World Heritage Site near Collinsville, Illinois, is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in America north of Mesoamerica.
The varying cultures collectively called Mound
Builders were inhabitants of North America who, during a 5,000-year period,
constructed various styles of earthen mounds for religious and ceremonial,
burial, and elite residential purposes. These included the Pre-Columbian
cultures of the Archaic period; Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell cultures);
and Mississippian period; dating from roughly 3400 BCE to the 16th century CE,
and living in regions of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River valley, and the
Mississippi River valley and its tributary waters. Beginning with the
construction of Watson Brake about 3400 BCE in present-day Louisiana, nomadic
indigenous peoples started building earthwork mounds in North America nearly
1,000 years before the pyramids were constructed in Egypt.
Since the 19th century, the prevailing
scholarly consensus has been that the mounds were constructed by indigenous
peoples of the Americas. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers made contact with
natives living in a number of later Mississippian cities, described their
cultures, and left artifacts.[2] By the time of United States westward
expansion two hundred years later, Native Americans were generally not
knowledgeable about the civilizations that produced the mounds. Research and
study of these cultures and peoples has been based mostly on archaeology and
anthropology.
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