Pre-columbian

Encyclopedia : P : PR : PRE : Pre-columbian

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History by time period
Prehistory	200000 BCE - 3500 BCE and later
*Three-age system	Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age
Ancient history	3500 BCE - 476 CE
*Pre-Columbian	14,000 B.P. - 1492 CE and later
*Classical Antiquity	7th century BCE - 476 CE
Middle Ages	476 CE - 1517CE
Modern history	15th century - present

The term pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the Americas in the era before significant European influence. While technically referring to the era before Christopher Columbus, in practice the term usually includes indigenous cultures as they continued to develop until they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or even centuries after Columbus first landed in 1492 CE.

The term pre-Columbian is used especially often in discussions of the great indigenous civilizations of the Americas, such as those of Mesoamerica (e.g., the Aztec and Maya) and the Andes (Inca, Moche, Chibcha, etc).

Some pre-Columbian civilizations appear to have established characteristics such as permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, and complex societal hierarchies. Many of these civilizations had long ceased to function by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th - early 16th centuries), and are known only through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few (such as the Maya) had their own written records which can shed light on their development and history.

Where they persist, the societies and cultures which are descended from these civilizations may now be substantively different in form from that of the original. However, many of these peoples and their descendants still uphold various traditions and practices which relate back to these earlier times, even if combined with those more recently-adopted.

Origins

Asiatic migration

Main article: Models of migration to the New World

The Americas are thought to have been first inhabited by Asian nomads who crossed the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering strait. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continent. Exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is subject to much debate. The perhaps slightly more standard view is that the earliest people were of the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,500 years ago. However, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been suggested if not widely accepted, and genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 to 13,000 years ago. Also, multiple waves of imigration have been suggested. [link] [link]

In any case, artifacts have been found in both North and South America which have been dated to about 10,000 BC, and humans are thought to have reached Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America by this time. All theories agree that the Inuit and related peoples arrived separately and at a much later date, probably around the 6th century, moving across the ice from Siberia into Canada.

Prehistory

After the migration or migrations, it was several thousand years before the first complex civilizations arose, at the earliest emerging 5000 BC. The inhabitants of the Americas were hunter-gatherers and even after the emergence of advanced civilizations, such societies inhabited most of the continents' area until the 18th century. Numerous archaeological cultures can be identified with some of the classifications including Early Paleo-Indian Period, Late Paleo-Indian Period, Archaic Period, Early Woodland Period, Middle Woodland Period and Late Woodland Period.

Agricultural development

Early inhabitants of the Americans developed agriculture, breeding maize (corn) from ears 2-5 cm in length to perhaps 10-15 cm in length. Potatoes, tomatos, pumpkins and avocados were among other plants grown by Natives. They did not develop extensive livestock as there were few suitable species; however the guinea pig was raised for meat in the Andes. By the 15th century AD, maize had been transmitted from Mexico and was being farmed in the Mississippi River Valley, but further developments were cut short by the arrival of Europeans. Potatoes were utilized by the Inca and chocolate by the Aztec.

North America

When the Europeans arrived, many natives of North America were semi-nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers; others were sedentary and agricultural civilizations. Many formed new tribes or confederations in response to European colonization. Well-known groups included the Huron, Mohawk, Apache, Cherokee, Sioux, Mohegan, Iroquois, and Inuit. Although not as technologically advanced or politically complex as the Mesoamerican civilizations further south, there were extensive Pre-Columbian sedentary societies in what is now the United States of America.

Mississippian Culture

Main article: Mississippian Culture

The Mississippian culture dominated much of the area along the Mississippi River in Pre-Columbian history. One of the distiguishing features of this culture was the construction of large earthen mounds, leading to the nickname the Moundbuilders. They grew maize and other crops intensively, participated in an extensive trade network, and had a complex stratified society. The Mississippians first appeared around 1000 AD, following and developing out of the less agriculturally intensive and less centralized Woodland period. The culture reached its peak in c. 1200-1400 AD, but in most places seems to have been in decline even before the arrival of the Europeans.

The largest site of this people, Cahokia - located near modern East St. Louis, Illinois may have reached a population of over 20,000. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries Cahokia was the most populous city in North America, although far larger cities were constructed in Mesoamerica and South America. Monk's Mound, the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of the prehistoric New World.

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the European discovery of the New World by Columbus. Mesoamerican is the adjective generally used to refer to that group of pre-Columbian cultures. This refers to an environmental area occupied by an assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology in the Americas for more than three thousand years.

Between 1800 and 300 BC, complex cultures began to form in Mesoamerica. Some matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huaxtec, Purepecha,Toltec and Mexica (a.k.a. "Aztecs"), which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before first contact with Europeans.

These indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions in: building pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, highly-accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculation, a complex theology, and the wheel. Without any draft animals the wheel was used only as a toy. They used native copper and gold for metalworking.

Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of Nuevo León) demonstrate an early propensity for counting in Mexico. The counting system was one of the most complex in the world, with a base 20 number system. These very early and ancient count-markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore the influence that astronomical activities had upon Mexican natives before the arrival of Europeans. In fact, many of the later Mexican based civilizations carefully built their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events.

The biggest Mesoamerican cities such as Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, and Cholula were among the largest in the world. These cities, blossomed as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, and theology and radiated influence outwards onto nearby neighboring cultures in central Mexico.

While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mesoamerica can be said to have had five major civilizations: The Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Toltec, the Mexica and the Maya. These civilizations (with the exception of the politically-fragmented Maya) extended their reach across Mexico — and beyond — like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these four civilizations over the span of 4,000 years. Many made war with them. But almost all found themselves within these five spheres of influence.

Olmec civilization

Main article: Olmec

The earliest known civilization is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint by which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico. Olmec civilization began with the production of pottery in abundance, around 2300 B.C. Between 1800 B.C. and 1500 B.C., the Olmec consolidated power into chiefdoms which established their capital at a site today known as San Lorenzo, near the coast in south-east Veracruz. The Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into Central America, and along the Gulf of Mexico. They transformed many peoples' thinking toward a new way of government, pyramid-temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, economics, and religion. Their achievements would pave the way for the later greatness of the Maya civilization in the east, and the civilizations to the west in central Mexico.

Teotihuacan civilization

Main article: Teotihuacan

The decline of the Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 B.C. Teotihuacan, by 150 A.D., had risen to become the first true metropolis of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Maya cities of Tikal, Copan, and Kaminaljuyú. Teotihuacan's influence over the Maya civilization cannot be understated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as Zapotecs from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to the city's economic and cultural prowess. By 500 A.D., Teotihuacan had become the largest city in the world. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a monumental new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 B.C. -- but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millennium, to around 950 A.D.

Maya civilization

Main article: Maya civilization

Contemporary with Teotihuacan's greatness was the greatness of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 A.D. and 650 A.D. saw an intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted a tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent, and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and writing that became the pinnacle of Mexico's scientific achievements.

Toltec civilization

Main article: Toltec

Just as Teotihuacan had emerged from a power vacuum, so too did the Toltec civilization, which took the reigns of cultural and political power in Mexico from about 700 A.D. Many of the Toltec peoples were comprised of northern desert peoples, often called Chichimeca in Mexico's Nahuatl language. They fused their proud desert heritage with the mighty civilized culture of Teotihuacan. This new heritage would give rise to a new empire in Mexico. The Toltec empire would reach as far south as Central America, and as far north as the Anasazi corn culture in the Southwestern United States. The Toltec established a prosperous turquoise trade route with the northern civilization of Pueblo Bonito, in modern-day New Mexico. Toltec traders would trade prized bird feathers with Pueblo Bonito, while circulating all the finest wares that Mexico had to offer with their immediate neighbors. In the Maya area of Chichen Itza, the Toltec civilization spread and the Maya were once again powerfully influenced by central Mexicans. The Toltec political system was so influential, that any serious Maya dynasty would later claim to be of Toltec descent. In fact, it was this prized Toltec lineage that would set the stage for Mexico's last great indigenous civilization.

Aztec/Mexica civilization

Main article: Aztec

With the decline of the Toltec civilization, came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico. Into this new political game of contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Mexica. They were also a proud desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves "Azteca," but changed their name after years of migrating. Since they were not from the Valley of Mexico, they were initially seen as crude and unrefined in the ways of Nahua civilization. Through cunning political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills, they managed to pull off a true "rags to riches" story: they became the rulers of Mexico as the head of the 'Triple Alliance' (which included two other "Aztec" cities, Texcoco and Tlacopan).

Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Mexica, or Aztec, as they were sometimes called in memory of Aztlán, the starting point of their tribes wanderings, never thought of themselves as anything but heirs of the civilizations that had preceded them. For them, highly-civilized arts, sculpture, architecture, engraving, feather-mosiac work, and the invention of the calendar were due to the former inhabitants of Tula, the Toltecs, who reached the height of their civilization in the tenth and eleventh centuries AD.

The Mexica-Aztecs were the rulers of much of central Mexico by about 1400 (while Yaquis, Coras and Apaches commanded sizable regions of northern desert), having subjugated most of the other regional states by the 1470s. At their peak, 300,000 Mexica presided over a wealthy tribute-empire comprising about 10 million people (almost half of Mexico's 24 million people). The modern name "Mexico" comes from the name of the ruling group of the "Aztec Triple Alliance", the "Mexica."

Their capital, Tenochtitlan, is the site of modern-day Mexico City. At its height, it was one of the largest cities in the world with population estimates of 300,000. The market established there was the largest ever seen by the conquistadors when they arrived.

South America

By the first millennium CE, South America’s vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed permanent settlements. Among those groups were the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas of Peru and the Aymaras of Bolivia were the 3 most important sedentary Indian groups in South America. In the last two thousand years there may have been contact with Polynesians across the South Pacific Ocean, as shown by the spread of the sweet potato through some areas of the Pacific, but there is no genetic legacy of human contact.

Chibchas

Main article: Chibcha

The Chibcha linguistic communities were the most numerous, the most territorially extended and the most socio-economically developed of the Pre-Hispanic Colombians. By the 3rd century, the Chibchas had established their civilization in the northern Andes. At one point, the Chibchas occupied part of what is now Panama, and the high plains of the Eastern Sierra of Colombia. The areas that they occupied were the Departments of Santander (North and South), Boyacá and Cundinamarca, which were also the areas where the first farms and first industries were developed, and where the independence movement originated. They are currently the richest areas in Colombia. They represented the most populous zone between the Mexican and Inca empires. Next to the Quechua of Peru and the Aymara in Bolivia, the Chibchas of the eastern and north-eastern Highlands of Colombia were the most striking of the sedentary indigenous peoples in South America. In the Oriental Andes, the Chibchas were composed of several tribes, who spoke the same language (Chibchan). Among them: Muiscas, Guanes, Laches and Chitareros.

Norte Chico

Main article: Norte Chico

On the northern coast of present-day Peru, Norte Chico was a cluster of large-scale urban settlements emerged around 3000 BCE, contemporary with urbanism's rise in Mesopotamia.

Chavín

Main article: Chavín culture

The Chavín, a South American preliterate civilization, established a trade network and developed agriculture by 900 BCE, according to some estimates and archeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters. Chavín civilization spanned 900 BC to 300 BCE.

Moche

Main article: Moche

The Moche thrived on the north coast of Peru 2000-1500 years ago. The heritage of the Moche comes down to us through their elaborate burials, recently excavated by UCLA's Christopher Donnan in association with the National Geographic Society. Skilled artisans, the Moche were a technologically advanced people who traded with faraway peoples, like the Maya. Almost everything we know about the Moche comes from their ceramic pottery with carvings of their daily lives. We know from these records that they practiced human sacrifice, had blood-drinking rituals, and that their religion incorporated non-procreative sexual practices (such as fellatio).

Inca

Main article: Inca civilization

Holding their capital at the great puma-shaped city of Cusco, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as Tawantin suyu, or "the land of the four regions," in Quechua, the Inca civilization was highly distinct and developed. Inca rule extended to nearly a hundred linguistic or ethnic communities, some 9 to 14 million people connected by a 25,000 kilometer road system. Cities were built with precise, unmatched stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. There is evidence of excellent metalwork and even successful brain surgery in Inca civilization.

See also

• List of pre-Columbian civilizations
• Pre-Inca cultures in Peru
• Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
• Pre-Columbian population
• Columbian Exchange

Pre-Columbian Cultures
North America	Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) – Fremont – Mississippian
Mesomerica	Aztec – Huastec – Maya – Mixtec – Olmec – Pipil – Tarascan – Teotihuacán – Toltec – Totonac – Zapotec
South America	Chavín – Chibcha – Chimor – Chachapoya – Huari – Inca – Moche – Nazca – Tairona – Tiwanaku
Main civilizations
	The Aztecs	The Maya	The Incas
Language	Nahuatl language	Mayan languages	Quechua
Religion	Aztec religion	Maya religion	Inca religion
Mythology	Aztec mythology	Maya mythology	Inca mythology
Calendar	Aztec calendar	Maya calendar
Society	Aztec society	Maya society	Inca society
Infrastructure		Maya architecture	Inca architecture Inca road system
History	Aztec history
Conquest	Spanish conquest of Mexico Hernán Cortés	Spanish conquest of Yucatán Francisco de Montejo	Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire Francisco Pizarro
People	Moctezuma I Moctezuma II Cuitláhuac Cuauhtémoc		Atahualpa Manco Capac
See also
Indigenous peoples of the Americas – Population history of American indigenous peoples – Pre-Columbian art

 

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