# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Archaeologist Tom Dillehay didn't want to return to Monte Verde. Decades ago, his discoveries at the famous site in southern Chile showed that humans occupied South America by 14,500 years ago, thousands of years earlier than thought, stirring a long and exhausting controversy. Now, Dillehay, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has been lured back-and he is preparing for renewed debate. He reports in today that PLOS ONE people at Monte Verde built fires, cooked plants and meat, and used tools 18,500 years ago, which would push back the peopling of the Americas by another 4000 years.

If his team is correct, the discovery will "shake up both the archaeology and genomics of the peopling of the Americas," says archaeologist Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon in Eugene. Genetic studies suggest that the ancestors of Paleoindians first left Siberia no earlier than 23,000 years ago ( Science, 21 August, p. 841), so Dillehay's new dates suggest they wasted little time in reaching the southern tip of the Americas. And the find raises questions about the North American record, where no one has found widely accepted evidence of occupation before 14,300 years ago. "Where the hell were the people in North America at that hour?" wonders archaeologist David Meltzer of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

When Dillehay began his work at Monte Verde in the 1970s, most researchers thought the Clovis people, who hunted big game in North America starting about 13,000 years ago (using calibrated radiocarbon dates), were the first Americans. When Dillehay reported traces of huts, hearths, human footprints, and artifacts that were thousands of years older, he was forced to defend every detail of his dig to skeptical colleagues. By now, though, most archaeologists accept the older occupation at Monte Verde and a few other sites.

When the Chilean government invited Dillehay to survey the full extent of Monte Verde, he at first refused. "I was tired of it," he says. But in 2013, fearing another team's survey might damage the site, he returned, hoping to spend a few weeks collecting new evidence of ancient plants and climate by digging 50 small test trenches across a 20,000-square-meter area. But the dig turned up 39 stone artifacts, including flakes, a "chopper," and cores, embedded near plants or animal bones that had been burned in small fires at 12 areas. This suggests a "spotty, ephemeral presence," he says.

His team radiocarbon dated the plants and animal bone to between 14,500 and 18,500 years ago, and perhaps as early as 19,000 years ago. The last ice age was only just starting to wane at that time, leaving a cool temperate rain forest at Monte Verde, about 60 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. Dillehay speculates that early Paleoindians moved along deglaciated corridors between the coast and the Andes, hunting paleo llamas and elephantlike gomphotheres.

Not everyone is convinced. Archaeologist Michael Waters of Texas A&M University in College Station questions whether the stone artifacts were actually humanmade, and says that the team hasn't eliminated the possibility that the fires were natural.

Dillehay concedes that his team found few unequivocal stone tools, which are the strongest evidence of a human presence. But he notes that about one-third of the tools were made from exotic materials such as limestone and white quartz from outside the area, suggesting that people transported the stone. Meltzer finds this compelling. "The specimens don't scream out 'made by human hands,'" he agrees, "but Dillehay's group has made a careful assessment of their form and raw material ... It's evidence we cannot ignore."

Much is at stake, which suggests that the onus is on Dillehay once again to prove his case. "I guess that part of my destiny is that this damn site simply will not let go of us," he says.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oldest stone tools in the Americas claimed in Chile

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Archaeologist Tom Dillehay didn't want to return to Monte Verde. Decades ago, his discoveries at the famous site in southern Chile showed that humans occupied South America by 14,500 years ago, thousands of years earlier than thought, stirring a long and exhausting controversy.

# data[].attributes.body
for readings #1/#2

# data[].attributes.body
Overview of MesoAmerica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mesoamerica was yet another world location for the emergence of an early civilization, but Mesoamerican societies were not necessarily connected to a single famous river (like the Nile) as the other early civilizations were, though there were plenty of rivers in the New World.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Notes

1. In 1979, the Committee decided to inscribe the Ohrid Lake on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (iii). In 1980, this property was extended to include the cultural and historical area, and cultural criteria (i)(iii)(iv) were added.

2. Extension of the "Australian East Coast Temperate and Subtropical Rainforest Park".

name changed 2007 from 'Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia)'

3. Renomination of "Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park" under cultural criteria.

4. The "Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia" which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the transnational property "The Belfries of Belgium and France".

5. Extension of "Jaú National Park".

6. Extension of the "Glacier Bay/Wrangell/St Elias/Kluane" property.

7. The "Burgess Shale" property, which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks".

8. Extension of "The Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple Monastery, Lhasa" to include the Norbulingka area.

9. The "Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia" which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the transnational property "The Belfries of Belgium and France".

10. The "Chateau and Estate of Chambord", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes".

11. The "Hadrian's Wall" which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

12. At the time the property was extended, cultural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

13. The "Brihadisvara Temple, Tanjavur", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Great Living Chola Temples".

14. At the time the property was extended, cultural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

15. At the time the property was extended, criteria (iii) and (v) were also found applicable.

16. The Committee decided to extend the existing cultural property, the "Temple of Ggantija", to include the five prehistoric temples situated on the islands of Malta and Gozo and to rename the property as "The Megalithic Temples of Malta".

17. The Westland and Mount Cook National Park and the Fiordland National Park, which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the "Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand".

18. In 1979, the Committee decided to inscribe the Ohrid Lake on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (iii). In 1980, this property was extended to include the cultural and historical area, and cultural criteria (i)(iii)(iv) were added.

19. The "Convent Ensemble of San Francisco de Lima", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Historic Centre of Lima".

20. Extension de " Sites d'art rupestre préhistorique de la vallée de Côa ", Portugal

21. Extension of "Biertan and its Fortified Church".

22. At the time the property was extended, natural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

23. Extension of the "Alhambra and the Generalife, Granada", to include the Albayzin quarter.

24. Extension of the "Mosque of Cordoba".

25. The property "Parque Güell, Palacio Güell and Casa Mila in Barcelona", previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Works of Antoni Gaudí".

26. Extension of the "Churches of the Kingdom of the Asturias", to include monuments in the city of Oviedo.

27. Extension of the "Mudejar Architecture of Teruel".

28. Extension de " Sites d'art rupestre préhistorique de la vallée de Côa ", Portugal

29. Following a survey of ownership carried out in the late 1960s, ownership of the totality of the walls was vested in 1973 in the Spanish State, through the Ministry of Education and Science. It was transferred to the Xunta de Galicia by Royal Decree in 1994.

The Spanish Constitution reserves certain rights in relation to the heritage to the central government. However, these are delegated to the competent agencies in the Autonomous Communities, in this case the Xunta de Galicia. For the Lugo walls the Xunta is in the position of both owner and competent agency. Under the Galician Heritage Law the Xunta is required to cooperate with the municipal authorities in ensuring the protection and conservation of listed monuments, and certain functions are delegated down to them. The Xunta operates through its General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural), based in Santiago de Compostela.

The Master Plan for the Conservation and Restoration of the Roman Walls of Lugo (1992) covered proposals for actions to be taken in respect of research and techniques of restoration. This was followed in 1997 by the Special Plan for the Protection and Internal Reform of the Fortified Enceinte of the Town of Lugo, which is concerned principally with the urban environment of the historic town. However, it has a direct impact on the protection afforded to the walls, in terms of traffic planning, the creation of open spaces, and regulation of building heights. Another planning instrument which affects the walls is the Special Plan for the Protection of the Miño [river], approved by the municipality at the beginning of 1998.

There is at the present time no management plan sensu stricto for the walls in operation in Lugo: work is continuing on the basis of the 1992 plan. Nor is there a technical unit specifically responsible for the conservation and restoration of the walls. It is against this background that serious consideration is being given to the creation of an independent foundation, under royal patronage and with representatives from government, academic, voluntary, and business institutions, to work with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Galicia. The work plan of this body would include the development and implementation of integrated conservation, restoration, and maintenance programmes.

30. The WH area is managed directly by the Divisional Forest Officer from the Forest Dept. A national steering Committee co-ordinates institutions for Sinharaja as a National Wilderness Area, Biosphere Reserve (1988), and WH site. There are two management plans, prepared in 1985/86 and 1992/94, which emphasise conservation, scientific research, buffer zone management, benefit-sharing, and community participation.

31. The "Hadrian's Wall" which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

32. Extension of "Gough Island Wildlife Reserve".

33. (renomination under cultural criteria)

34. Extension of the "Glacier Bay/Wrangell/St Elias/Kluane" property.

*: transboundary property

#: As for 19 Natural and Mixed Properties inscribed for geological values before 1994, criteria numbering of this property has changed. See Decision 30.COM 8D.1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UNESCO World Heritage Centre - World Heritage List

# data[].attributes.body
Pre-Columbian Civilizations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
pre-Columbian civilizations, the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Mesoamerica (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. The pre-Columbian civilizations were extraordinary developments in human society and culture, ranking with the early civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Like the ancient civilizations of the Old World, those in the New World were characterized by kingdoms and empires, great monuments and cities, and refinements in the arts, metallurgy, and writing; the ancient civilizations of the Americas also display in their histories similar cyclical patterns of growth and decline, unity and disunity.

In the New World the roots of civilization lay in a native agricultural way of life. These agricultural beginnings go back several millennia, to perhaps about 7000 bce and the first experimentations by the early Americans with plant cultivation. The domestication of successful food plants proved to be a long, slow process, and it was not until much later that a condition of permanent village farming life was achieved in the tropical latitudes of the two continents.

Sedentary village farming in Mesoamerica came into being by about 1500 bce. Corn (maize), beans, squashes, chili peppers, and cotton were the most important crops. These early villagers wove cloth, made pottery, and practiced other typical Neolithic skills. It appears that such villages were economically self-contained and politically autonomous, with an egalitarian social order. But rather quickly after this-between about 1200 and 900 bce-the building of large earthen pyramids and platforms and the carving of monumental stone sculptures signaled significant changes in this heretofore simple social and political order. These changes first appeared in the southern Gulf coast region of what is now Mexico; and the sculptures, rendered in a style now called Olmec, are presumed to depict chiefs or rulers. From these and other archaeological indications it has been inferred that a class-structured and politically centralized society developed. There appeared subsequently other large capital towns and cities in neighbouring regions that also displayed a similar Olmec art style. This Olmec horizon (i.e., a cultural diffusion that is contemporaneous at widely scattered sites) represents the first climax, or era of "unification," in the history of Mesoamerican civilization.

After about 500 bce the Olmec "unification" gave way to an era (consisting of the Late Formative and Classic periods) of separate regional styles and kingdoms. These lasted until c. 700-900 ce. Among these are the well-known Maya, Zapotec, Totonac, and Teotihuacán civilizations. While sharing a common Olmec heritage, they also displayed many differences. For example, the Maya excelled in the intellectual pursuits of hieroglyphic writing, calendar making, and mathematics, while the Teotihuacán civilization placed its emphasis on political and commercial power. Teotihuacán, in the Valley of Mexico, was an urban centre of some 150,000 people, and the influence of its civilization eventually radiated over much of Mesoamerica. As such, Teotihuacán constituted a second grand civilizational climax or "unification" (400-600 ce). Teotihuacán power waned after about 600, and a "time of troubles" ensued, during which a number of states and nascent empires competed for supremacy. Among these competitors were the Toltecs of Tula, in central Mexico, who held sway from perhaps 900 to 1200 (the Early Postclassic Period). After their decline (in the Late Postclassic Period), another interregnum of warring states lasted until 1428, when the Aztec defeated the rival city of Azcapotzalco and emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico. This last native Mesoamerican empire was conquered by Hernán Cortés (or Cortéz) and the Spaniards in 1521.

In the Andean area, the threshold of a successful village agricultural economy can be placed at c. 2500 bce, or somewhat earlier than was the case in Mesoamerica. The oldest primary food crops there were the lima bean and the potato, which had long histories of domestication in the area, although corn appeared soon after the beginnings of settled village life. Indications of a more complex sociopolitical order-huge platform mounds and densely populated centres-occurred very soon after this (c. 1800 bce); however, these early Andean civilizations continued for almost a millennium before they participated in a shared stylistic "unification." This has become known as the Chavín horizon, and Chavín sculptural art has been found throughout the northern part of the area.

The Chavín horizon disappeared after about 500 bce, and it was replaced by regional styles and cultures that lasted until about 600 ce. This period of regionalization (called the Early Intermediate Period) saw the florescence of a number of large kingdoms both on the Pacific coast and in the Andean highlands; among them were the Moche, Early Lima, Nazca, Recuay, and Early Tiwanaku. The period was brought to an end by the Tiwanaku- Huari horizon (Middle Horizon; 600-1000), which was generated from the highland cities of Tiwanaku (in modern northern Bolivia) and Huari (in central highland Peru). There is evidence-such as the construction of new centres and cities-that this Tiwanaku-Huari phenomenon, at least in many regions, was a tightly controlled political empire. The horizon and its influences, as registered in ceramics and textiles, died away rather gradually in the ensuing centuries, and it was replaced by the several regional styles and kingdoms of what has become known as the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1438).

The terminal date of the Late Intermediate Period marked the beginning of the Inca horizon and of the Inca conquests, which spread from the Inca capital, Cuzco, in the southern highlands of what is now Peru. By 1533, when Francisco Pizarro and his cohorts took over the empire, it extended from what is now the Ecuador- Colombia border to central Chile.

The synchroneity of horizon unifications and alternating regionalizations in Mesoamerica and the Andean region is striking and prompts the question of communication between these two areas of pre-Columbian high civilization. Although it is known that there were contacts-with the result that knowledge of food plants, ceramics, and metallurgy was shared between the two areas-it is also highly unlikely that political or religious ideologies were so spread. Rather, the peoples of each of these major cultural areas appear to have responded to their own internally generated stimuli and to have followed essentially separate courses of development. There are fundamental differences between the two cultural traditions. Thus, in Mesoamerica there was, from early on, a profound interest in hieroglyphic writing and calendar making. Religious ideology, judged from art and iconography, was more highly developed in Mesoamerica than in the Andean region. In Mesoamerica the market was a basic institution; it does not appear to have been so in the Andes, where the redistributive economy of the Inca empire-with such features as its government warehouses and a system of highways-must have had deep roots in the past. On the other hand, in the early development and deployment of metallurgy and in governmental institutions and empire-building, the ancient Peruvians were much more efficient than their Mesoamerican contemporaries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pre-Columbian civilizations | Definition, Map, Empires, Art, & Architecture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pre-Columbian civilizations, the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Mesoamerica (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. Learn more about pre-Columbian civilizations in this article.

# data[].attributes.body
Catawba College

# data[].attributes.body
Maps

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Finding an address on a map can be taken for granted in the age of GPS and smartphones. But centuries of forced relocation, disease and genocide have made it difficult to find where many Native American tribes once lived.

Aaron Carapella, a self-taught mapmaker in Warner, Okla., has pinpointed the locations and original names of hundreds of American Indian nations before their first contact with Europeans.

As a teenager, Carapella says he could never get his hands on a continental U.S. map like this, depicting more than 600 tribes - many now forgotten and lost to history. Now, the 34-year-old designs and sells maps as large as 3 by 4 feet with the names of tribes hovering over land they once occupied.

"I think a lot of people get blown away by, 'Wow, there were a lot of tribes, and they covered the whole country!' You know, this is Indian land," says Carapella, who calls himself a "mixed-blood Cherokee" and lives in a ranch house within the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation.

For more than a decade, he consulted history books and library archives, called up tribal members and visited reservations as part of research for his map project, which began as pencil-marked poster boards on his bedroom wall. So far, he has designed maps of the continental U.S., Canada and Mexico. A map of Alaska is currently in the works.

What makes Carapella's maps distinctive is their display of both the original and commonly known names of Native American tribes, according to Doug Herman, senior geographer at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

"You can look at [Carapella's] map, and you can sort of get it immediately," Herman says. "This is Indian Country, and it's not the Indian Country that I thought it was because all these names are different."

He adds that some Native American groups got stuck with names chosen arbitrarily by European settlers. They were often derogatory names other tribes used to describe their rivals. For example, "Comanche" is derived from a word in Ute meaning "anyone who wants to fight me all the time," according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"It's like having a map of North America where the United States is labeled 'gringos' and Mexico is labeled 'wetbacks,' " Herman says. "Naming is an exercise in power. Whether you're naming places or naming peoples, you are therefore asserting a power of sort of establishing what is reality and what is not."

Look at a map of Native American territory today, and you'll see tiny islands of reservation and trust land engulfed by acres upon acres ceded by treaty or taken by force. Carapella's maps serve as a reminder that the population of the American countryside stretches back long before 1776 and 1492.

Carapella describes himself as a former "radical youngster" who used to lead protests against Columbus Day observances and supported other Native American causes. He says he now sees his mapmaking as another way to change perceptions in the U.S.

"This isn't really a protest," he explains. "But it's a way to convey the truth in a different way."
Take a closer look at Aaron Carapella's map of the continental U.S. and Canada and his map of Mexico. He sells prints on his website.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Map Of Native American Tribes You've Never Seen Before

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Finding an address on a map can be taken for granted in the age of GPS and smartphones. But centuries of forced relocation, disease and genocide have made it difficult to find where many Native American tribes once lived.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Vault is Slate's history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here.
This "Histomap," created by John B. Sparks, was first printed by Rand McNally in 1931. (The David Rumsey Map Collection hosts a fully zoomable version here.) (Update: Click on the image below to arrive at a bigger version.)

This giant, ambitious chart fit neatly with a trend in nonfiction book publishing of the 1920s and 1930s: the "outline," in which large subjects (the history of the world! every school of philosophy! all of modern physics!) were distilled into a form comprehensible to the most uneducated layman.

The 5-foot-long Histomap was sold for $1 and folded into a green cover, which featured endorsements from historians and reviewers. The chart was advertised as "clear, vivid, and shorn of elaboration," while at the same time capable of "holding you enthralled" by presenting:

the actual picture of the march of civilization, from the mud huts of the ancients thru the monarchistic glamour of the middle ages to the living panorama of life in present day America.

The chart emphasizes domination, using color to show how the power of various "peoples" (a quasi-racial understanding of the nature of human groups, quite popular at the time) evolved throughout history.

It's unclear what the width of the colored streams is meant to indicate. In other words, if the Y axis of the chart clearly represents time, what does the X axis (marked as "relative power of contemporary states, nations, and empires") represent? What's the meaning of "power" to the mapmaker? And did Sparks see history as a zero-sum game, in which peoples and nations would vie for shares of finite resources? Given the timing of his enterprise-he made this chart between two world wars and at the beginning of a major depression-this might well have been his thinking.

Sparks followed up on the success of this Histomap by publishing at least two more: the Histomap of religion (which I've been unable to find online) and the Histomap of evolution.
Update, April 29, 2015: This post has been updated for clarity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Entire History of the World-Really, All of It-Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Vault is Slate's history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here. This "Histomap," created by John B. Sparks, was first printed by Rand McNally in 1931.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My goal is to facilitate communication among Native peoples and between Indians and non-Indians by providing access to home pages of Native American Nations and organizations, and to other sites that provide solid information about American Indians. My page is organized by the following categories: