Olmecs: Where the Sidewalk Begins by Jeffrey Benson Western Oregon University
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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. -
“Fertile Crescent” Will Disappear in This Century
Hydrological Research Letters 2,1‒4 (2008) Published online in J-STAGE (www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/HRL). DOI: 10.3178/HRL.2.1 First super-high-resolution model projection that the ancient “Fertile Crescent” will disappear in this century Akio Kitoh1, Akiyo Yatagai2 and Pinhas Alpert3 1Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan 2Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan 3Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel demand (Vorosmarty et al., 2000). Water in the environ- Abstract: ment is an international problem because it is strongly related with the import and export of agricultural and The first full projections of rainfall and streamflow industrial products and the economic and social well- in the “Fertile Crescent” of Middle East are presented being. Multi-model climate change simulations for the in this paper. Up until now, this has not been possible 21st century showed a decrease in runoff in the Middle due to the lack of observed data and the lack of atmos- East of up to 30% by 2050 (Milly et al., 2005). A 40% pheric models with sufficient resolution. An innovative decrease in the annual streamflow of the Euphrates super-high-resolution (20-km) global climate model is River has also been projected (Nohara et al., 2006). employed, which accurately reproduces the precipita- However, the horizontal resolution of the climate tion and the streamflow of the present-day Fertile models used for these projections (between 400 km and Crescent. It is projected that, by the end of this century, 125 km) is not sufficient to resolve the topography in the Fertile Crescent will lose its current shape and may the Fertile Crescent. -
Religious Advisement Resources Part Ii
RELIGIOUS ADVISEMENT RESOURCES 2020 PART II Notice Regarding External Resources: The listed resources are provided in this document are operated by other government organizations, commercial firms, educational institutions, and private parties. We have no control over the information of these resources which may contain information that could be objectionable or which may not otherwise conform to Department of Defense policies. These listings are offered as a convenience and for informational purposes only. Their inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement or an approval by the Department of Defense of any of the products, services, or opinions of the external providers. The Department of Defense bears no responsibility for the accuracy or the content of these resources. 1 FAITH AND BELIEF SYSTEMS U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Religious Beliefs and Practices http://www.acfsa.org/documents/dietsReligious/FederalGuidelinesInmateReligiousBeliefsandPractices032702.pdf Buddhism Native American Eastern Rite Catholicism Odinism/Asatru Hinduism Protestant Christianity Islam Rastfari Judaism Roman Catholic Christianity Moorish Science Temple of America Sikh Dharma Nation of Islam Wicca U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Religious Literacy Primer https://crcc.usc.edu/files/2015/02/Primer-HighRes.pdf Baha’i Earth-Based Spirituality Buddhism Hinduism Christianity: Anabaptist Humanism Anglican/Episcopal Islam Christian Science Jainism Evangelical Judaism Jehovah’s Witnesses -
List of Articles
THE LIZZADRO MUSEUM PUBLICATION INDEX OF ARTICLES Subject Description Issue Number of Pages AGATE. .. Beggar beads of India F-W 74-75 pg 10 2 . Lake Superior Spring 70 Q pg 8 4 ALEXANDRITE . & Synthetic alexandrite F-W 70-71 pg 13 2 . Gem with color change F-W 77-78 pg 19 1 AMBER . Description of carving F-W 71-72 pg 2 2 . Superstitions W-S 80 pg 18 5 . in depth treatise W-S 82 pg 5 7 AMETHYST . Stone & geode acquisitions S-F 86 pg 19 2 AUSTRALIA . & New Zealand F-W 71-72 pg 3 4 BAMBOO . Symbolism Winter 68 Q pg 8 1 BIRTHSTONES . Folklore of W-S 93 pg 2 13 . History of S-S 71 pg 27 4 . Garnet for January F-W 78-79 pg 20 3 . Amethyst for February F-W 78-79 pg 22 3 . Bloodstone & aquamarine for March S-S 77 pg 16 3 . Diamond for April S-S 77 pg 18 3 . Emerald for May S-S 77 pg 20 3 . Ruby for July F-W 77-78 pg 20 2 . Sapphire for September S-S 78 pg 15 3 . Opal & tourmaline for October S-S 78 pg 18 5 . Topaz for November S-S 78 pg 22 2 . Turquoise & zircon for December F-W 78-79 pg 16 5 CAMEOS . In-depth article Summer 68 Q pg 1 6 . More about cameos W-S 80 pg 5 10 . Italian cameos S-S 77 pg 3 3 . Of stone & shell W-S 89 pg 14 6 . Description of “Neptune” W-S 90 pg 20 1 CARNELIAN . -
Robert M. Rosenswig
FAMSI © 2004: Robert M. Rosenswig El Proyecto Formativo Soconusco Traducido del Inglés por Alex Lomónaco Año de Investigación: 2002 Cultura: Olmeca Cronología: Pre-Clásico Ubicación: Soconusco, Chiapas, México Sitio: Cuauhtémoc Tabla de Contenidos Introducción El Proyecto Formativo Soconusco 2002 Análisis en curso Conclusion Lista de Figuras Referencias Citadas Entregado el 6 de septiembre del 2002 por: Robert M. Rosenswig Department of Anthropology Yale University [email protected] Introducción El sitio de Cuauhtémoc está ubicado dentro de una zona del Soconusco que no ha sido documentada con anterioridad y que se encuentra entre las organizaciones estatales del Formativo Temprano de Mazatlán (Clark y Blake 1994), el centro del Formativo Medio de La Blanca (Love 1993) y el centro del Formativo Tardío de Izapa (Lowe et al. 1982) (Figura 1). Aprovechando la refinada cronología del Soconusco (Cuadro 1), el trabajo de campo que se describe a continuación aporta datos que permiten rastrear el desarrollo de Cuauhtémoc durante los primeros 900 años de vida de asentamiento en Mesoamérica. Este período de tiempo está dividido en siete fases cerámicas, y de esta forma, permite que se rastreen, prácticamente siglo por siglo, los cambios ocurridos en todas las clases de cultura material. Estos datos están siendo utilizados para documentar el surgimiento y el desarrollo de las complejidades sociopolíticas en el área. Además de los procesos locales, el objetivo de esta investigación es determinar la naturaleza de las relaciones cambiantes entre las élites de la Costa del Golfo de México y el Soconusco. El trabajo también apunta a ser significativo en lo que respecta a cruzamientos culturales, dado que Mesoamérica es sólo una entre un puñado de áreas del mundo donde la complejidad sociopolítica surgió independientemente, y el Soconusco contiene algunas de las sociedades más tempranas en las que esto ocurrió (Clark y Blake 1994; Rosenswig 2000). -
Domestication and Early Agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, Diffusion, and Impact
PERSPECTIVE Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact Melinda A. Zeder* Archaeobiology Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013 Edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, and approved May 27, 2008 (received for review March 20, 2008) The past decade has witnessed a quantum leap in our understanding of the origins, diffusion, and impact of early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin. In large measure these advances are attributable to new methods for documenting domestication in plants and animals. The initial steps toward plant and animal domestication in the Eastern Mediterranean can now be pushed back to the 12th millennium cal B.P. Evidence for herd management and crop cultivation appears at least 1,000 years earlier than the morphological changes traditionally used to document domestication. Different species seem to have been domesticated in different parts of the Fertile Crescent, with genetic analyses detecting multiple domestic lineages for each species. Recent evidence suggests that the ex- pansion of domesticates and agricultural economies across the Mediterranean was accomplished by several waves of seafaring colonists who established coastal farming enclaves around the Mediterranean Basin. This process also involved the adoption of do- mesticates and domestic technologies by indigenous populations and the local domestication of some endemic species. Human envi- ronmental impacts are seen in the complete replacement of endemic island faunas by imported mainland fauna and in today’s anthropogenic, but threatened, Mediterranean landscapes where sustainable agricultural practices have helped maintain high bio- diversity since the Neolithic. -
Cacao Use and the San Lorenzo Olmec
Cacao use and the San Lorenzo Olmec Terry G. Powisa,1, Ann Cyphersb, Nilesh W. Gaikwadc,d, Louis Grivettic, and Kong Cheonge aDepartment of Geography and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144; bInstituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico 04510; cDepartment of Nutrition and dDepartment of Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616; and eDepartment of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada K9J 7B8 Edited by Michael D. Coe, Yale University, New Haven, CT, and approved April 8, 2011 (received for review January 12, 2011) Mesoamerican peoples had a long history of cacao use—spanning Selection of San Lorenzo and Loma del Zapote Pottery Samples. The more than 34 centuries—as confirmed by previous identification present study included analysis of 156 pottery sherds and vessels of cacao residues on archaeological pottery from Paso de la Amada obtained from stratified deposits excavated under the aegis of on the Pacific Coast and the Olmec site of El Manatí on the Gulf the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán Archaeological Project (SLTAP). Coast. Until now, comparable evidence from San Lorenzo, the pre- Items selected represented Early Preclassic occupation contexts mier Olmec capital, was lacking. The present study of theobromine at two major Olmec sites, San Lorenzo (n = 154) and Loma del residues confirms the continuous presence and use of cacao prod- Zapote (n = 2), located in the lower Coatzacoalcos drainage ucts at San Lorenzo between 1800 and 1000 BCE, and documents basin of southern Veracruz State, Mexico (Fig. 1). Sample se- assorted vessels forms used in its preparation and consumption. -
Chalcatzingo:Abrief Introduction Special DAVID C
ThePARIJournal A quarterly publication of the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute Volume IX, No. 1, Summer 2008 Chalcatzingo:ABrief Introduction Special DAVID C. GROVE Chalcatzingo Issue University of Florida containing: In 1934 archaeologist Eulalia Guzmán trav- bas-relief carvings. The largest of them Chalcatzingo: A eled to the remote hamlet of Chalcatzingo (Monument 1), nicknamed “El Rey” by Brief Introduction near Jonacatepec in the Amatzinac valley the villagers, depicts a personage seated of eastern Morelos state to investigate re- in a cave-like niche above which are rain by ports of “stones with reliefs.” The village clouds and falling raindrops (Guzmán David Grove sits near two conjoined granodiorite hills 1934:Fig. 3) (Figure 2). In addition, in a PAGES 1-7 or cerros—the Cerro Delgado and the larg- small barranca that cuts through the site er Cerro Chalcatzingo (also known as the Guzmán was shown a unique three di- • Cerro de la Cantera)—that jut out starkly mensional sculpture—a “mutilated stat- against the relatively flat landscape of the ue” of a seated personage, minus its head. Chalcatzingo valley (Figure 1). The archaeological site Guzmán also found pot sherds dating to Monument 34: A that Guzmán viewed is situated just at both the “Archaic” (Preclassic or Forma- Formative Period the base of those cerros where they meet tive) and “Teotihuacan” (Classic) periods, “Southern Style” to form a V-shaped cleft. The ancient oc- leaving her uncertain as to the date of the Stela in the Central cupation extended across a series of ter- carvings (Grove 1987c:1). Mexican Highlands races below the twin cerros. -
Program on the Middle East
PROGRAM ON THE MIDDLE EAST FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 1 PROGRAM ON THE MIDDLE EAST Despite the clamor for America’s foreign policy to pivot away from the Middle East, events in the region over the past two decades have demanded sustained American attention. The challenges at hand are many, including Iran’s regional destabilizing ambitions, the rise and fall of ISIS’s Caliphate and enduring threat of jihadi terrorism, the ostensible collapse of the old state order in the Greater Middle East, and numerous ever-entrenched conflicts between, inter alia, Sunnis and Shi‘is, Kurds and Arab, Israelis and Palestinians, and even among Syrians themselves. The Program on the Middle East at the Foreign Policy Research Institute is uniquely positioned to provide the kind of strategic thinking and thoughtful analysis required to address the perennial foreign policy challenges that this fraught region poses for American policymakers. The program brings together both established and emerging scholars from the academic, military, and policy worlds in an effort to develop a new cadre of strategic policy thinkers, versed in the languages, geography, history, culture, and politics of the region. The Middle East Program offers context, content, and policy recommendations based on this holistic view of American strategic interests in the region. Its analysis transcends headlines and catch phrases. Through its research, publications, and educational outreach, the program focuses on key themes such as authoritarianism and reform; the aftermath of the Arab -
A Mat of Serpents: Aztec Strategies of Control from an Empire in Decline
A Mat of Serpents: Aztec Strategies of Control from an Empire in Decline Jerónimo Reyes On my honor, Professors Andrea Lepage and Elliot King mark the only aid to this thesis. “… the ruler sits on the serpent mat, and the crown and the skull in front of him indicate… that if he maintained his place on the mat, the reward was rulership, and if he lost control, the result was death.” - Aztec rulership metaphor1 1 Emily Umberger, " The Metaphorical Underpinnings of Aztec History: The Case of the 1473 Civil War," Ancient Mesoamerica 18, 1 (2007): 18. I dedicate this thesis to my mom, my sister, and my brother for teaching me what family is, to Professor Andrea Lepage for helping me learn about my people, to Professors George Bent, and Melissa Kerin for giving me the words necessary to find my voice, and to everyone and anyone finding their identity within the self and the other. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ………………………………………………………………… page 5 Introduction: Threads Become Tapestry ………………………………………… page 6 Chapter I: The Sum of its Parts ………………………………………………… page 15 Chapter II: Commodification ………………………………………………… page 25 Commodification of History ………………………………………… page 28 Commodification of Religion ………………………………………… page 34 Commodification of the People ………………………………………… page 44 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………... page 53 Illustrations ……………………………………………………………………... page 54 Appendices ……………………………………………………………………... page 58 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………... page 60 …. List of Illustrations Figure 1: Statue of Coatlicue, Late Period, 1439 (disputed) Figure 2: Peasant Ritual Figurines, Date Unknown Figure 3: Tula Warrior Figure Figure 4: Mexica copy of Tula Warrior Figure, Late Aztec Period Figure 5: Coyolxauhqui Stone, Late Aztec Period, 1473 Figure 6: Male Coyolxauhqui, carving on greenstone pendant, found in cache beneath the Coyolxauhqui Stone, Date Unknown Figure 7: Vessel with Tezcatlipoca Relief, Late Aztec Period, ca. -
Isthmian Script: Internal Variation in Two Dated Texts
Glyph Dwellers Report 55 July 2017 Isthmian Script: Internal Variation in Two Dated Texts Martha J. Macri Professor Emerita, Department of Native American Studies University of California, Davis The origins of the ancient Mesoamerican scripts and their interrelationships remain topics of conjecture. Our knowledge of the relative time spans of these scripts and their geographic ranges is based on our knowledge of only a fraction of the texts that once existed. In spite of this limitation, it is possible, in at least one case, to find information within the texts themselves that provides some insight into the date of origin. This note looks at differences between the Isthmian texts of La Mojarra Stela 1 and the Tuxtla Statuette, two objects with clear long count dates, in order to suggest that the origin of the script must be significantly earlier than either of these texts (for images of these texts see George Stuart's drawings in Winfield Capitaine 1988). It is generally accepted that the dates on La Mojarra Stela 1 and the Tuxtla Statuette fell close to the time of their carving. The two texts contain long count dates that are only six years apart. The long count 8.5.16.9.7 (156 CE), is the later of two long count dates on La Mojarra Stela 1, and 8.6.2.4.17 (162 CE) is on the front of the Tuxtla Statuette. Differences between them provide evidence of the existence of two script varieties, showing that the script's origin predates these two examples by decades, if not centuries.