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Saturday, June 11, 2016

Ancient N. America connected to Mexico

Our ancestors were amazing people who navigated the entire continent through great river waterways like the Mississippi. When we say things like "We as Mexican/Mexican American people didn't cross the border, but rather it crossed us," the archaeological evidence suggests as much.  

Even if we're not always taught this, know, or embrace it, today's United States is inescapably our ancestral homeland.  There's ultimately nowhere "to go back to"—as we are often callously told by those that construct us as "foreigners," at best, and "invaders," at worst.

To be sure, the presence of a militarized border that is itself an artifact of a modern construction called the "nation state" belies this fact of our prior occupancy of these ancestral homelands.  From this view, the truth is that as long as we emanate from this continent, we are always in our home—our ancestral homelands.  Our ancestors never left the continent.

Palabra!

Angela Valenzuela

c/s

Ancient N. America connected to Mexico

Chaco, Cahokia were outliers of great empire, archaeologist says


The ancient Mesoamerican city Cahokia, near St. Louis, was larger than most cities in Europe 1,000 years ago. Archaeologist Steve Leckson gave a presentation in Cortez last week that focused on Cahokia and Chaco’s connections to the ancient cities of Mexico and South America. Enlargephoto
The Associated Press
The ancient Mesoamerican city Cahokia, near St. Louis, was larger than most cities in Europe 1,000 years ago. Archaeologist Steve Leckson gave a presentation in Cortez last week that focused on Cahokia and Chaco’s connections to the ancient cities of Mexico and South America.
Modern borders have skewed how ancient civilizations are interpreted, says Steve Leckson, a University of Colorado archaeologist.
The people of ancient Chaco, in New Mexico, traded for chocolate and macaws from southern Mexico and Central America. Archaeologists are discovering more evidence that Chaco was linked to civilizations far to the south. Enlargephoto
File photo
The people of ancient Chaco, in New Mexico, traded for chocolate and macaws from southern Mexico and Central America. Archaeologists are discovering more evidence that Chaco was linked to civilizations far to the south.
Great North American civilizations from 1,000 years ago, including Chaco and Cahokia near St. Louis, were outliers of a vast Mesoamerican empire in southern Mexico.
“Forget the international border, it was all one world,” he said during a presentation at the Sunflower Theatre in Cortez. “After the U.S.-Mexican war in 1848, the attitude here was that these were our ruins with no connection to the south. That is absurd.”
North American and Mesoamericans shared culture and goods in the postclassical era, which began about 570 AD. The period had explosive population growth and is known for exploration and long-distance trade between city-states.
Cahokia is often overlooked.
Thriving about the same time as Chaco, in 1,000 A.D., Cahokia was the largest North American city, with 30,000 residents. All that’s left are giant mounds that were once temples and pyramids.
“Cahokia was larger than most cities of Europe; it was bigger than London,” Leckson said. “It had the biggest pyramid north of Teotihuacan,” the Aztec ruins north of Mexico City.
Chaco and Cahokia were on the edge of a larger civilization, and leaders traveled and brought back high-end goods to impress commoners, he said.
Chaco nobles wore blankets of macaw feathers and “knocked back chocolate” products originating 1,500 miles away.
“High-end goods like cotton and perishables is what we should be looking for,” he said. “It tells the tale more than things like pottery that archaeologists are more comfortable with.”
Chemical evidence in vessels of Chaco have revealed cocoa residue. It is also likely Chaco traded in the Mississippi Valley for Black Drink, a highly caffeinated energy drink made from holly.
“Everyone in this room who took Archaeology 101 was taught there were no city-states north of Mexico, and that is not true.”
When exploring Chaco or Cahokia, Bandelier or Mesa Verde, think about Mesoamerica, said Leckson. Forget the border with Mexico.
“I would say the way to know about Chaco is to know about postclassic Mesoamerica, because that is what it is, plus a lot of other things,” he said. “The people of Chaco were trying to live like Mesoamerican lords.”
Leckson’s talk was part of the Four Corners Lecture Series. On Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, Dan Simplicio will give a Zuni tribe perspective on the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.

1 comment:

  1. Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (Spanish pronunciation: 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. I liked your blog, Take the time to visit the me and say that the change in design and meniu?

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