Ancient American Cultures South America

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Ancient American CulturesSouth America
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Evidence of Early Inhabitants

• Cave Art in Brazil Carbon dating suggests cave
  art from NE Brazil is 32,000 years old -- much
  older than Lascaux and Altamira
• LUZIA The oldest dated skeleton(11,500 years
  old) from the Americas, this young woman with
  African features may be part of the first wave of
  immigrants to South America.
• Monte Verde Radiocarbon dating has put people at
  this campsite in south-central Chile around
  12,500 years ago

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Evidence of Early Inhabitants

• Aucilla River, Florida, ca. 10,200 bce Aucilla
  River Project website
• Clovis Culture, ca. 9000 bce
• North American skeltal remains
• Spirit Caveman, ca. 7500 bce
• Kennewick Man ca. 7300 bce
• See websites
• Nova Mystery of the First Americans
• Center for the Study of the First Americans

The earliest artwork in North America is a
geometric design on an ivory shaft recovered in
the Aucilla River
Clovis tools, including spear points with a
fluted projectile point, were long considered the
Americas' oldest technology until such recent
discoveries as Aucilla River.
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Major South American Cultures

• CHAVÍN ca. 1000-200 bce
• PARACAS-NAZCA ca. 500 bce-500 ce
• TIAHUANCO ca. 200 bce-1200 ce
• MOCHE ca. 100 bce-750 ce
• INCA 1438-1532 ce

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Moche
Chavin de Huantar
Paracas Nazca Tiahuanaco
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Chavin Cultureca. 1000-200 bce
"Of all of the ancient cultures I admire, that of
Chavin amazes me the most. Actually, it has been
the inspiration behind most of my art" Pablo
Picasso

• Elaborate ceramics, textiles, and sculpted stone
  found in larger sites throughout much of the
  Central Andes (modern day Peru) demonstrate a
  certain level of stylistic unity.
• Little evidence has been found for the unified,
  bureaucratic, and military organization typical
  of evolved states

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Chavín de Huantar

• The major ceremonial center of the Chavín
• 10,000 feet above sea level in the Andes
• Chavín cult was an all-encompassing,
  cross-cultural success that spread throughout
  Peru
• Animal deities
• Hallucinogenic rituals
• Search for religious ecstasy
• Purification and penance rituals using hot
  pepper

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Chavín Feline gods puma, jaguar

• Clenched teeth and overlapping fangs
• Ccao catlike spirit, roaming the Andes peaks,
  bringing hail and lightning and destroying crops

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Chavin Metallurgy and Textiles

• Advances in metallurgy also occurred during the
  Chavin's reign in Peru
• Joining pieces of preshaped metal sheets to form
  both objects of art and of practicability
• Soldering and temperature control.
• Cloth production was revolutionized during the
  time of Chavin by new techniques and materials
  through the use of camel hair, textile painting,
  the dying of camel hair and the "resist" painting
  style similar to tie-dye

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Chavin Heads

• Large sculptured heads (some weighing half a ton)
  and the were-jaguar motif suggest similarities
  with the contemporary Central American Olmec
  culture

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Paracas-Nazca Cultureca. 500 bce-500 ce

• Nazca were the cultural descendants of Paracas
  culture headhunting fishermen who wove
  incredibly fine textiles for burial shrouds
• Nazca burial sites revealed beautiful shrouds,
  gold ornaments, and feather fans
• Excellent potters who brilliantly painted their
  ceramics
• Practiced trepanning -- head surgery
• Nazca created massive lines in the desert

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Nazca Pottery
Spider
NazcaLines
Terracotta musician
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Tiahuancoca. 200 bce-1200 ce

• The capital of one of the greatest and most
  enduring of ancient empires.
• During the height of its power, the Tiahuanaco
  empire covered large portions of Bolivia, NW
  Argentina, N Chile, and S Peru.
• Remarkable agricultural system the raised-field
  system
• raised planting surfaces separated by small
  irrigation canals
• canals retained the heat of the intense sunlight
  during frosty nights on the Altiplano and kept
  the crops from freezing
• Algae and aquatic plants that accumulated in the
  canals were used as organic fertilizer

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VIRACOCHA

• The religion centred around the cult of a sky and
  thunder god Viracocha.
• His attendants were ranking deities in the shapes
  of cougar, condor, falcon and snake.
• The deity was generally depicted as having staves
  in both of his hands and an aureole around his
  head.
• Aureole sun god qualities
• Staves suggest ancestry from the nearly
  thousand years older Chavín sky god in North
  Peru.

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Mocheca. 100 bce-750 ce

• Pyramid builders -- Pyramids of the Sun and
  Moon
• Brilliant ceramic sculptures and pottery
• Extensive trade networks
• Authoritarian state with two distinct social
  classes
• Ruling nobility
• Commoners farmers, fishermen and craftsmen

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Incan Civilization1438-1532

• Heavily indebted to Chimu civilization and the
  Lords of Chan Chan
• Master assimilationists
• Reciprocity Mutual commitment between state and
  citizen
• Mita labor tax
• Master road builders
• Gold artifacts

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TawantinsuyuLand of the Four Quarters

• Four roads, which went to the ends of each
  quarter, no matter how distant, came out of
  Cuzco each road bore the name of the suyu to
  which it ran.
• 1) Anti-suyu included all the land east of Cuzco
• 2) Cunti-suyu embraced all the lands west of
  Cuzco, including the conquered coastal empires,
  from Chan-Chan through the Rimac
• 3) Colla-suyu was the largest in extent located
  south of Cuzco, it took in Lake Titicaca and
  regions in Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
• 4) Chincha-suyu contained all the land and
  tribes which lay to the north, up to Rumichaca.
• Each quarter was ruled by an apo, or governor,
  related by blood ties to the Inca

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Inca 1438-1532
Incan Roads
Quipusdatabanks in colored knotted cords
Macchu Picchu