2.25 America: a.d. 1101 to 1200  (Page 2/2)

Mexico and central america

Tula, the capital city of the Toltecs, was violently destroyed in the middle of this century. Although it has not been completely excavated the indications are that it was a large city with all the principal features of Toltec art and architecture.

A new Indian civilization appears to have been in an active growth phase at this time in Aztlan

South america

The greatest activity of the 12th century in South America continued to be in the region of northern Peru and what is now Ecuador. By mid-century the Chimus, in their great kingdom of Chimor, had revived the old Moche Kingdom, in a political and geographic sense. They were great builders and extended the old Moche irrigation and road systems. Their black pottery, however, was in contrast to the vigorous polychromatic Mochica pieces. Gold was apparently plentiful and was used chiefly in the pure state, although sometimes alloyed with silver or copper. Fantastic, intricate and delicate golden objects of the Chimu were found in 1937 in the area of Lambayeque, Peru, near the Ecuador border. The population of the nation may have been 250,000 and Chan Chan, the capital, covered 3 1/2 square miles. Ca jamarquilla and Pachacamac were additional large cities, each larger than Rome or Alexandria.

Five or six hundred miles south of the Chimu the Chincha Basin was also being rejuvenated on a large scale, with cultivated land extending over about 12 miles on the formerly sterile sea coast terraces. Some 37,000 acres of land of the Canete Basin were now utilized and this was accomplished by construction of lateral canals 24 to 36 miles long. The Ica and Nazca basins remained quiet. (Ref. 62 )

According to Inca myth it was in this century that Manco Capac and his sister-wife, Mana Ocllo, left the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca and went forth as son and daughter of the Sun God, Inti, to found the Inca Empire, "The Kingdom of Gold". (Ref. 10 )

The Diaguites remained in the Argentine Andes and, although dating in inconclusive, sometime in this approximate time-frame they practiced an advanced metallurgy, using copper ore pulverized on stone mortars and mixed with zinc, gold and silver. This was then melted in hearths, using the wind as bellows, and finally poured into molds. Gold was beaten into very thin sheets and used to decorate masks and jewelry by the reverse hammering technique. (Ref. 62 )

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