Description
Ancient South America, 2nd edition features the full panorama of the South American past from the first inhabitants to the European invasions Isolated for all of prehistory and much of history, the continent witnessed the rise of cultures and advanced civilizations rivalling those of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Independently of developments elsewhere, South American peoples invented agriculture, domesticated animals, and created pottery, elaborate architecture, and the arts of working metals. Tribes, chiefdoms, and immense conquest states rose, flourished, and disappeared, leaving only their ruined monuments and broken artifacts as testimonials to past greatness. This new edition is completely revised and updated to reflect archaeological discoveries and insights made in the past three decades. Incorporating new findings on northern and eastern lowlands, and discussions of the first civilizations, it also examines the first inhabitants of Brazil and Patagonia as well as the Andes. Accessibly written and abundantly illustration, the volume also includes chronological charts and new examples.
Table of Contents
1. Still a new world; 2. A matter of time; 3. The physical setting; 4. The first peoples: 12,000–6000BC; 5. Settling down: 6000–3500BC; 6. The problems of maize; 7. Cultural intensifications in the Andes: 3500–2000BC; 8. Ceramics: their origins and spread; 9. Further developments in the beginnings of civilization: 2000–200BC; 10. Textiles: the highest art of South America; 11. Metallurgy in Ancient South America; 12. Regional diversification in the Andes 200BC–AD800; 13. Iconographic studies; 14. Militaristic and religious movements in the Andes AD600–900; 15. Transport and trade; 16. Kingdoms, chiefdoms and empires AD900–1438; 17. The Amazon: mistaken ideas and new investigations; 18. The 16th century; 19. Intercontinental movements before Columbus; 20. The future of a continent.
