15.8 America: 0 to 100 a.d.  (Page 2/2)

Sometime during the Woodland Period maize had made its way from South America and/or Mexico to the southern United States and had spread from there even into New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. Varieties of lint corn or popcorn appeared in the South. (Ref. 267 ).

In southern New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico the Mogollon people continued to live in their semi-subterranean pit-houses and appeared to have self governing villages under the leadership of civil and religious elders democratically selected. An important feature was a large ceremonial house known as the great kiva, three or four times the size of the usual dwellings. In southern Arizona and the neighboring Mexican state of Sonora the Hohokam people began extensive irrigation systems with dams on rivers and some canals 30 feet wide and 25 miles long. This society developed for over 1,000 years, but the exact date of its origin has long been debated, estimates varying from 300 B.C. to A.D. 500. (Please see the 5th century C.E. ). At any rate, they made exquisite jewelry and pottery pyramids and used astronomy. This is another American culture which Barry Fell (Ref. 66 ) believes to be of Libyan origin carrying the tradition and navigational and astronomical knowledge of the Old World and which had arrived via Pacific travelers as manifested by the original maps made by the famous Maui. (See The Pacific: 300 to 201 B.C. ). The frontispiece on Fell’s latest book (Ref. 66 ) is a map supposedly drawn by Maui showing North America and the eastern Pacific, using the primary meridian as a line through Alexandria, Egypt (as used by Eratosthenes) with an international date line at 180 degrees, passing about 10 degrees east of Hawaii. It shows Hudson Bay and the isthmus of Panama and survives on rock drawings in Nevada. Fell says that additions to the original Libyan lettering have been made later in Kufic Arabic, showing that the map was still in use, probably for educational purposes as late as A.D. 750. It is his contention that petroglyphs and writings from Nevada and California, carefully recorded and filed at the University of California and other places, could not be previously interpreted because the nature of the writing (Arabic) was not recognized. The difficulty in all this is that current authorities including southwest museum directors and southwest anthropology professors in recent publications make no mention of these concepts whatsoever. (Ref. 66 , 210 , 269 ).

Mexico, central america and the caribbean

People in the far north of Mexico participated in the Southwest American societies are related in the paragraphs immediately above. Much farther south there was rapid growth in the Teotihuacan area and continued evidence of human sacrifice, common to all MesoAmerican societies. Skeletons wrapped in nets, ritually burned children’s remains and buried heads all testify to this. (Ref. 273 ).

The Mayan civilization continued in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The Mayas counted in 20s and had a much more manipulative representation than the clumsy Roman numerals of the same time. The Maya zero, represented by a shell-shaped sign ____, was a concept which did not reach Europe from India for almost another 1,000 years. The numbers 1,2,3 and 4 were represented simply by the corresponding number of dots, while 5 was a single bar. Thus 5 was ______, 7 was ____-, etc., while 10 was two bars. Eighteen in this system was ______ and 20, of course, was four bars, one under the other. For numbers higher than 20 a new row was started above the first, to mark the number of 20s in total. Thus the number 234 would be expressed by only two Mayan symbols 0 on top sign for 11 (meaning 11 sets of 20 or 220) and underneath the sign for 14, thus: _________

In the last chapter we noted the May trading center of Cerros near the base of Yucatan. In this first century of the Christian era this city went into a steep decline. It is probable that with increasingly strong and well-managed overland trading routes the riversea networks decreased in importance. (Ref. 264 ). Additional Notes

Pre-civilization societies continued to build up in Costa Rica and Panama. Dozens of settlements each almost half a kilometer in length in Cerro Punta. Panama, suggest considerable population build-up in the valleys south of the Continental Divide in this era. The ceramics of this stage are similar in both Panama and Costa Rica. (Ref. 266 , 265 )

South america

The early Intermediat Period of Peruvian history continued with a developed Vicus Culture dominating the north. There is some evidence that the trephining of skulls, using knives of hard obsidian, was a common practice in Peru at this time, for whatever reason. On the aird plain between southern Peru and the Andean foothills the Nazca Indians lived, making featherd turbans and fine cotton cloaks embroidered in multi-colored wools. Many of these have been recovered in Nazca cemeteries. Engel (Ref. 62 ) says that at this period there was no evidence of maritime activity among these people and fishermen were still depicted on ceramics swimming in the water catching fish in nets. Recent examination of skeletons of this era show a number of ear-canal osteomas, probably secondary to this work in the water. Gradually there was a rejuvenation of the so-called classical Nazca art, after an initial period of decline. The Tiahuanaco society continued in the high Andes. (Ref. 176 , 62 , 3 )

Forward to America: A.D. 101 to 200

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