The Mysterious Olmecs
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The Olmec, Toltec, and Aztec
Mesoamerican Ancient Civilizations The Olmec, Toltec, and Aztec Olmecs of Teotihuacán -“The People of the Land of Rubber…” -Large stone heads -Art found throughout Mesoamerica Olmec Civilization Origin and Impact n The Olmec civilization was thought to have originated around 1500 BCE. Within the next three centuries of their arrival, the people built their capital at Teotihuacán n This ancient civilization was believed by some historians to be the Mother-culture and base of Mesoamerica. “The city may well be the basic civilization out of which developed such high art centers as those of Maya, Zapotecs, Toltecs, and Totonacs.” – Stirling Cultural Practices n The Olmec people would bind wooden planks to the heads of infants to create longer and flatter skulls. n A game was played with a rubber ball where any part of the body could be used except for hands. Religion and Art n The Olmecs believed that celestial phenomena such as the phases of the moon affected daily life. n They worshipped jaguars, were-jaguars, and sometimes snakes. n Artistic figurines and toys were found, consisting of a jaguar with a tube joining its front and back feet, with clay disks forming an early model of the wheel. n Large carved heads were found that were made from the Olmecs. Olmec Advancements n The Olmecs were the first of the Mesoamerican societies, and the first to cultivate corn. n They built pyramid type structures n The Olmecs were the first of the Mesoamerican civilizations to create a form of the wheel, though it was only used for toys. -
Olmec Mirrors: an Example of Archaeological American Mirrors
1 Olmec mirrors: an example of archaeological American mirrors José J. Lunazzi Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Instituto de Física 13083-970 - Campinas - SP - Brazil [email protected] ABSTRACT Archaeological mirrors from the Olmec civilization are described according to bibliographic references and to personal observations and photographs. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. APPEARANCE OF THE MIRRORS 3. HOW TO FIND THEM 4. THEIR SIGNIFICANCE IN THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE OLMECS 5. TYPES OF MIRRORS 6. ON THE QUALITY OF REFRACTIVE ELEMENTS 7. CONCLUSIONS 8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9. REFERENCES 2 1. INTRODUCTION This report was not intended to give all the available information on the subject, but just a simple description that may be valuable for improving the knowledge that the optical community may have on it. The author believes to have consulted most of the available scientific bibliography as it can be traced through cross-referencing from the most recent papers. Olmec mirrors are the most ancient archaeological mirrors from Mexico and constitute a very good example of ancient American mirrors. The oldest mirrors found in America are from the Incas, made about 800 years before the Olmecs, dated from findings in archaeological sites in Peru. How this technology would have been extended to the north, appearing within the Olmecs, later within the Teotihuacan civilization, a few centuries before the Spanish colonization, is an interesting matter. Mirrors are important also within the Aztec civilization, that appeared in the proximity of the Olmec and Teotihuacan domains at about the time of their extintion. The extension of the geographic area where these mirrors were employed seems to us not entirely well-known. -
First Civilizations Cities, States, and Unequal Societies 3500 B.C.E.–500 B.C.E
c h a p t e r t h r e e First Civilizations Cities, States, and Unequal Societies 3500 B.C.E.–500 B.C.E. “Over 100 miles of wilderness, deep exploration into pristine lands, the solitude of backcountry camping, 4-4 trails, and ancient American Indian rock art and ruins. You can’t find a better way to escape civilization!”1 So goes an advertisement for a vacation in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, one of thousands of similar attempts to lure apparently constrained, beleaguered, and “civilized” city-dwellers into the spacious freedom of the wild and the imagined simplicity of earlier times. This urge to “escape from civilization” has long been a central feature in modern life. It is a major theme in Mark Twain’s famous novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which the restless and rebellious Huck resists all efforts to “civilize” him by fleeing to the freedom of life on the river. It is a large part of the “cowboy” image in American culture, and it permeates environmentalist efforts to protect the remaining wilderness areas of the country. Nor has this impulse been limited to modern societies and the Western world. The ancient Chinese teachers of Daoism likewise urged their followers to abandon the structured and demanding world of urban and civilized life and to immerse themselves in the eternal patterns of the natural order. It is a strange paradox that we count the creation of civilization among the major achievements of humankind and yet people within these civilizations have often sought to escape the constraints, artificiality, hierarchies, and other discontents of city living. -
Oxnard Course Outline
Course ID: ANTH R113 Curriculum Committee Approval Date: 09/27/2017 Catalog Start Date: Fall 2018 COURSE OUTLINE OXNARD COLLEGE I. Course Identification and Justification: A. Proposed course id: ANTH R113 Banner title: Ancient Civ of the Americas Full title: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas Previous course id: ANTH R113 Banner title: Ancient Civ of the Americas Full title: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas B. Reason(s) course is offered: This course introduces students to the ancient civilizations of the Americas. It fulfills lower division anthropology requirements at the UC and CSU campuses, is part of the anthropology AA-T, and is on the local, IGETC and CSU GE lists. It also satisfies the ethnic studies requirements at most schools and is accepted as part of the core curriculum for anthropology majors at most colleges and universities. C. Reason(s) for current outline revision: 5 Year Update and course description D. C-ID: 1. C-ID Descriptor: 2. C-ID Status: Not Applicable E. Co-listed as: Current: None Previous: II. Catalog Information: A. Units: Current: 3.00 Previous: 3.00 B. Course Hours: 1. In-Class Contact Hours: Lecture: 52.5 Activity: 0 Lab: 0 2. Total In-Class Contact Hours: 52.5 3. Total Outside-of-Class Hours: 105 4. Total Student Learning Hours: 157.5 C. Prerequisites, Corequisites, Advisories, and Limitations on Enrollment: 1. Prerequisites Current: Previous: 2. Corequisites Current: Previous: 3. Advisories: Current: Previous: 4. Limitations on Enrollment: Current: Previous: D. Catalog description: Current: This course introduces students to the early civilizations of North America, South America, and Mesoamerica. -
Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins Jeffrey Benson Western Oregon University
Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) Department of History 2005 Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins Jeffrey Benson Western Oregon University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his Part of the Latin American History Commons Recommended Citation Benson, Jeffrey, "Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins" (2005). Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History). 126. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his/126 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins By Jeffrey Benson Western Oregon University An In Depth Look at the Olmec Controversy Mother Culture or Sister Culture 1 The discovery of the Olmecs has caused archeologists, scientists, historians and scholars from various fields to reevaluate the research of the Olmecs on account of the highly discussed and argued areas of debate that surround the people known as the Olmecs. Given that the Olmecs have only been studied in a more thorough manner for only about a half a century, today we have been able to study this group with more overall gathered information of Mesoamerica and we have been able to take a more technological approach to studying the Olmecs. The studies of the Olmecs reveals much information about who these people were, what kind of a civilization they had, but more importantly the studies reveal a linkage between the Olmecs as a mother culture to later established civilizations including the Mayas, Teotihuacan and other various city- states of Mesoamerica. -
The Cult of the Book. What Precolumbian Writing Contributes to Philology
10.3726/78000_29 The Cult of the Book. What Precolumbian Writing Contributes to Philology Markus Eberl Vanderbilt University, Nashville Abstract Precolumbian people developed writing independently from the Old World. In Mesoamerica, writing existed among the Olmecs, the Zapotecs, the Maya, the Mixtecs, the Aztecs, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and at Teotihuacan. In South America, the knotted strings or khipus were used. Since their decipherment is still ongoing, Precolumbian writing systems have often been studied only from an epigraphic perspective and in isolation. I argue that they hold considerable interest for philology because they complement the latter’s focus on Western writing. I outline the eight best-known Precolumbian writing systems and de- scribe their diversity in form, style, and content. These writing systems conceptualize writing and written communication in different ways and contribute new perspectives to the study of ancient texts and languages. Keywords Precolumbian writing, decipherment, defining writing, authoritative discourses, canon Introduction Written historical sources form the basis for philology. Traditionally these come from the Western world, especially ancient Greece and Rome. Few classically trained scholars are aware of the ancient writing systems in the Americas and the recent advances in deciphering them. In Mesoamerica – the area of south-central Mexico and western Central America – various societies had writing (Figure 1). This included the Olmecs, the Zapotecs, the people of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Maya, Teotihuacan, Mix- tecs, and the Aztecs. In South America, the Inka used knotted strings or khipus (Figure 2). At least eight writing systems are attested. They differ in language, formal structure, and content. -
State Building in the Americas C. 1200 – C. 1450
State Building in the Americas c. 1200 – c. 1450 Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, & Inca Empires Mound Building in N. America The Civilizations of America …advanced societies While classical civilizations were developing in were developing in the isolation in the Americas Mediterranean & Asia… During the Neolithic Title Revolution, these nomads settled into ■ Text farming villages; Some of which became advanced civilizations During the Ice Age, prehistoric nomads migrated across the land bridge between Asia & America The Olmecs The Olmecs are often called the “mother culture” because they influenced other Mesoamerican societies The first American civilization were people known as the Olmec in an area known as Mesoamerica The Olmecs developed a strong trade network in MesoamericaThe Olmecs that brought them great wealth The Olmecs used their Olmec trade allowed wealth to build large stone them to spread their monuments & pyramids to culture to other honor their leaders & gods Mesoamericans For unknown reasons, the Olmec civilization declined by 400 B.C. but their cities & symbols influenced later cultures, especially the Mayans Government: Mayans While theEconomy Olmecs: were in were divided intoThe MayansdeclineThe Mayan around economy 400 B.C., individual city-states thewas Mayans based were on trade evolving & & ruled by king-gods borrowedfarming many maize, Olmec beans ideas Society: (1) Kings (dynasties) The Mayans (2) Nobles, priests (3) warriors (4) Merchants, artisans (5) Peasants The Mayans Religion: Mayans were polytheistic & offered their blood, food, & sometimes human sacrifices to please the gods Technology: Mayans invented a writing based on pictures called glyphs, an accurate 365-day calendar, & advanced temples Tikal Chichen Itza The shadow of a serpent appears on one side of the pyramid stairs only on the equinox. -
Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs and Incas
Friday 2-28-20 Mesoamerican Cultures BELL WORK 1. What would happen if the entire city of Murfreesboro disappeared? 2. What proof would there be of our existence? 3. What do you think future generations would be able to infer about Murfreesboro? Learning Intention: Mesoamerican Cultures Success Criteria: I can explain the impact of geographic features and climate on the agricultural practices and settlement of the Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations. I can describe the social, economic, and political characteristics of the Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations. Monday March 2nd Mesoamerican Cultures BELL WORK 1. List 3 things that you found interesting about the Mayas 2. List 3 things that you found interesting about the Aztecs. Learning Intention: Mesoamerican Cultures Success Criteria: I can explain the impact of geographic features and climate on the agricultural practices and settlement of the Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations. I can describe the social, economic, and political characteristics of the Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations. Mayans, Aztecs and Incas 7.56 Explain the impact of geographic features and climate on the agricultural practices and settlement of the Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations. 7.57 Describe the social, economic, and political characteristics of the Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations, including: oral traditions, class structures, religious beliefs, slavery, and advancements (e.g., astronomy, mathematics, and calendar Olmec • stonemasons • built cities with stone buildings • built temples • farmers and traders • the first civilization to build pyramids • built colossal heads • Disappeared no one sure about what happened to the Olmec Who were the Olmec? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhQRDrJo wuM Mayans - Timeframe 300 A.D. -
Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins by Jeffrey Benson Western Oregon University
Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins By Jeffrey Benson Western Oregon University An In Depth Look at the Olmec Controversy Mother Culture or Sister Culture 1 The discovery of the Olmecs has caused archeologists, scientists, historians and scholars from various fields to reevaluate the research of the Olmecs on account of the highly discussed and argued areas of debate that surround the people known as the Olmecs. Given that the Olmecs have only been studied in a more thorough manner for only about a half a century, today we have been able to study this group with more overall gathered information of Mesoamerica and we have been able to take a more technological approach to studying the Olmecs. The studies of the Olmecs reveals much information about who these people were, what kind of a civilization they had, but more importantly the studies reveal a linkage between the Olmecs as a mother culture to later established civilizations including the Mayas, Teotihuacan and other various city- states of Mesoamerica. The data collected links the Olmecs to other cultures in several areas such as writing, pottery and art. With this new found data two main theories have evolved. The first is that the Olmecs were the mother culture. This theory states that writing, the calendar and types of art originated under Olmec rule and later were spread to future generational tribes of Mesoamerica. The second main theory proposes that the Olmecs were one of many contemporary cultures all which acted sister cultures. The thought is that it was not the Olmecs who were the first to introduce writing or the calendar to Mesoamerica but that various indigenous surrounding tribes influenced and helped establish forms of writing, a calendar system and common types of art. -
Spiritual; Native Land Occupancy and Use; Relations Between Natives and Whites; Physical Functioning; Psychological Functioning; and Methodology and Review Papers
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 319 554 RC 017 526 AUTHOR Annis, R. C., Ed. TITLE Abstracts of Native Studies, Volume 3. REPORT NO ISBN-0-9692506-2-2 PUB DATE 86 NOTE 148p. AVAILABLE FROMAbstracts of Native Studies Press, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada R7A 6A9 ($20.00). PUB T!PE Reference Materials - Bibliographies (131) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Alaska Natives; American Indian Studies; Canada Natives; *Indigenous Populations; Periodicals; Social Science Research IDENTIFIERS Aboriginal People; *Native American Studies; *Native Studies ABSTRACT This volume contains abstracts of articles on native studies published in learned journals, with an introduction that reviews Australian Aboriginal Studies. Approximately 250 journals have been screened for material pertaining to native studies. Many, but not all abstracts, contain annotations that state the thesis, method of development and major implicaticis of articles selected. English language abstracts are provided for all articles; however, non-English language articles also have abstracts in the language of the original text. Abstracts are contained in 13 general sections: economic activities; education; law, government, policy and claims; linguistics; native culture--expressive; native culture--material; native culturesocial; native culture--spiritual; native land occupancy and use; relations between natives and whites; physical functioning; psychological functioning; and methodology and review papers. Appendices contain (1) a list of journals screened, along with -
The History of El Salvador Advisory Board
THE HISTORY OF EL SALVADOR ADVISORY BOARD John T. Alexander Professor of History and Russian and European Studies, University of Kansas Robert A. Divine George W. Littlefield Professor in American History Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin John V. Lombardi Professor of History, University of Florida THE HISTORY OF EL SALVADOR Christopher M. White The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling, Series Editors Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data White, Christopher M., 1974– The history of El Salvador / Christopher M. White. p. cm. — (The Greenwood histories of the modern nations, ISSN 1096–2905) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–313–34928–7 (alk. paper) 1. El Salvador—History. I. Title. II. Series. F1486.W46 2009 972.84—dc22 2008030539 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2009 by Christopher M. White All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008030539 ISBN: 978 – 0 –313 –34928 –7 ISSN: 1096 –2905 First published in 2009 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 -
The Andes: Background and the Archaic Norte Chico
Emergence of Civilizations / Anthro 341: Notes 22 The Andes: Background and the Archaic Norte Chico Copyright Bruce Owen 2009 − People entered the New World as the last glacial period of the Pleistocene was ending − maybe 20,000 to 15,000 years ago − by way of the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska − probably walking or boating along the shore − by about 14,700 years ago (12,800 cal BC), they had reached southern Chile − since then, there may have been some contact around Alaska, but North and South America were basically isolated from all of the Old World − The rise of complex societies 10,000 years later in the New World was 100% independent from the Old World − Contact across the Atlantic? − the only generally accepted evidence of transatlantic contact before Columbus is a small Viking settlement on the East coast of Canada − far too late to have had any effect on the rise of New World civilizations − Contact across the Pacific? − Despite many attempts to show transpacific contacts outside of the Arctic − especially between Japan and the New World, and Polynesia and the New World − none has ever stood up to scrutiny − So why does it matter that the New World is so separate from the Old? − Because recognizable civilizations emerged in the New World, too − so similar that the Spanish conquistadores had no trouble recognizing kings, generals, cities, etc. and how to play the politics and factions against each other − This shows that humans did similar things in creating “civilization” entirely independently − There may be some