It’s simplification, but I dont see how the Mayans and Aztecs were any more advanced than Chalcolithic Middle Eastern Civilizations, such as the Sumerians. Both have agriculture, early forms of writing, government, etc.
Just to be clear, there was only one iron meteorite in the Arctic, at Cape York on north west Greenland, so all the sites alluded to above were in one relatively small part of Greenland. Likewise, iron found on those Dorset and Inuit sites all came from NW Greenland, though some of them were as far away as Hudson Bay.
Iron might also have been used in west Arctic and Alaska, but I think that probably came from China and Japan, perhaps as nails in abandoned ships that drifted across the ocean (this part I don’t have cites for).
Yep. Eventually stolen from the natives by Robert Perry and sold to the American Museum of Natural History to fund more polar exploration.
They weren’t by those measures. But other than the tool metal usage, they weren’t any less advanced than a bunch of Bronze Age civilizations, and arguably* lots more* advanced than some Iron Age ones.
Primary material of tool use (especially when under other constraints) is a less than useful measure of comparative progress between separated groupings (should you have a need to do such). It’s much better used to chart progress within a given study area. Hence the Three Ages system was of limited use within Europe but not MesoAmerica, although even in European archaeology, the Stone Age has been been replaced by the Paleo/Meso/Neo/Chalco-lithic scheme and the local variants of the Bronze and Iron Ages have been elaborated on e.g. the Nordics have the very distinct Pre-Roman, Roman and Germanic Iron Ages.
Jared Diamond mentions that Incas used wood/rock-weighted clubs. As a result, their “armour” was thick leather with wool padding inside. Thus, they were sitting ducks for not just firearms, but cavalry with decent steel swords.
In what were they *lots more *advanced? Science? No. Religion? Hardly, still into Human sacrifice. Agriculture? Good strides there, but hardly better. Literature? not even close. Art? The cave paintings in Europe were far earlier and far better.
A couple had primitive writing. They didnt have the wheel as a tool.
Huh? Google Aztec art. they were as advanced in art as many Mesopotamian/Mediterranean civilizations, both in quantity and quality. they did have wheels, wheeled toys were found in some graves. They just didn’t have the draft animals to make serious use of wheels (and one presumes, in a more soft-ground environment, wheels pulled by people made less sense).
I agree the three age system is a bit simplistic and generalizing and proponents of ancient American and African cultures bristle at the notion their ancestors were booger-eating, knuckle dragging cave men, but no one knowledgeable about it is saying that anyway.
Wasn’t it the Aztec who developed obsidian weapons so they could slaughter indiscriminately without bothering to develop iron? goodie for them.
I suppose it would be nice if our standard for civilization didn’t come down to how good you were at slaughter, genocide, domination and slavery, but there you go.
The Lascaux cave art, which predates the Aztec simplistic art by some 15,000 years is far better. Aztec art is interesting but it’s about where the Pyramid Egyptians were 4000 years prior. I mean it’s not really bad but Europe had entered The Renaissance by then, then there’s Ancient greek art from 1500 years prior.
Like i said: They didnt have the wheel as a tool.
The wheel as a tool isn’t nearly as useful without draft animals. Those species weren’t native to Americas. Well, except llama in some regions, but those regions were mountainous, and wheeled carts wouldn’t have been as useful.
Without pavement, it’s not nearly as useful as pack animals and human pack animals. So in dense urban settings (or once the Romans paved roads over long distances) it was useful. In the countryside, up until Roman times and even beyond, people who knew about the wheel still ran long-distance caravans with pack animals like horses and camels.
Where the wheel first came into its own is with the war chariots of Egypt and Mesopotamia. on wide flat plains, an extremely light chariot could hold two people, run as fast as two horses could put it, and still allow one person to hack and shoot arrows while the other drove. In the days before the stirrup, it made a more formidable enemy than a mounted man could be. (King Tut thoughtfully provided us with an example)
Yesbut- some of the cities were “dense urban settings”. I understand it wouldn’t have as useful cross country, but to never use it for anything but toys shows a certain intransigency .
Don’t forget the wheelbarrow. One of the world’s most useful inventions ever. And of course, there are all kinds of useful machines made possible, even in ancient times, by the wheel.
One issue is that the Aztecs were something of a cultural dead-end. They were a city state actively hated by everyone around them, but powerful enough for the time being to keep things under control. It would eventually have backfired with their destruction once they lost their military dominance.
Even after checking a few possibilities, I can’t find any area where the pre-Columbian civilizations had superior technology. They were well-adapted to their environment, though.
Right. Look the MesoAmerican civilizations were just that- Civilizations. Some amazing things. But far behind Eurasia/Africa.
Aztec blades were either knapped flint/related stone or obsidian. There is the problem brittleness for such blades, but they’re razor-sharp at least for awhile, and could be made sturdy enough to dig the living heart out of man’s chest without (usually) breaking.
An aztec sword was a long, flattish piece of wood with “bladlets” of flint/chert/obsidian set around the edges. Example
Exactly what science do you think people were practising in the Northern European Iron Age?
So were a lot of Iron Age cultures, including the Celts and Nordics
Their agriculture was unarguably way better than anything practised in Iron Age Scandinavia or Britain, or even Rome for that matter.They even practiced a form of hydroponics, FFS
Pre-Roman Iron Age Nordics weren’t even literate
Now you’re just being ridiculous. Or ignorant of MesoAmerican art.
So? Iron Age Europe (all of it, including Rome) didn’t have zero. How utterly fucking primitive must they have been…:rolleyes:
Both two-wheeled and four-wheeled wagons are well attested before 3000 BC in the Pit Grave culture. (And a wheeled clay toy from the Tripolye civillization is dated to 3800 BC.) There are several instances of graves decorated with wagon wheels as early as 3500 BC in both Funnel Beaker and Pit Grave cultures. The four large wheels typically occupy the four corners of the grave; this prominent position suggests that they were more than simple toys. Wheeled wagons also appear as decorations on pottery about the same time. Some anthropologists claim that “wagons provided the bulk transport that … for the first time freed herders from logistical dependence on river valleys” and expanded the range of steppe populations.
A key development, especially for war chariots, was the invention of the spoked wheel. The first spoked-wheel chariots, BTW, were not seen in Egypt or Mesopotamia but by 2000 BC in the Sintashta culture of Central Eurasia, to the north of the Aral Sea.
That proves the greek proverb “a hair from a pussy drags a ship.”.
[aside]
Now is the season when the Cyprian Queen
With genial charm translates our mortal scene,
When swains their nymphs in fervent arms enfold
And with a kiss restore the Age of Gold.
Don’t forget Greece’s Golden Age, Spanish Poetry’s Gold Age, etc. etc.
[/aside]
The golden age is a common theme in the mythologies of mediterranean and middle-eastern nations. Supposedly there was a time far in the past, where people lived in constant plenty, all peaceful together, with no notion of war, and died at extreme old ages.