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/edu/ - Education

'The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses.' - Karl Marx
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Not reporting is bourgeois


 

ITT post information about the history and anthropology of the New World. A lot of new anthropological work has been done in this field in recent decades that has not yet entered public consciousness.
90 posts and 108 image replies omitted.


>>21385
This is a bit sensationalist. The sites are in eastern Ecuador, near the Andes foothills and based around the Upano River that flows from there. Saying it's "in the Amazon" is really stretching it.

It's cool but I'm just mad at all the normalfags thinking it's some lost city deep in the jungle, when in reality it's a precursor to all the advanced cultures and civilizations that would develop in or near the Andes like the Muisca & Incas. Its discovery isn't unexpected or groundbreaking.

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>>21392
>The sites are in eastern Ecuador, near the Andes foothills and based around the Upano River that flows from there. Saying it's "in the Amazon" is really stretching it.
???? The Upano river is part of the Amazon basin, which stretches across almost the entire continent, and it's part of the rainforest.
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/amazon/about_the_amazon/

>It's cool but I'm just mad at all the normalfags thinking it's some lost city deep in the jungle, when in reality it's a precursor to all the advanced cultures and civilizations that would develop in or near the Andes like the Muisca & Incas.

It's both? The ruins were newly re-discovered, making it a lost city. And it most likely was an influencer/precursor to local cultures that thrived later on.
>Its discovery isn't unexpected or groundbreaking.
From the article:
<“It’s a gold rush scenario, especially for the Americas and the Amazon,” as Christopher Fisher, an archaeologist at Colorado State University who has scanned sites in the Americas but was not involved in this research, tells Science News. “Scientists are demonstrating conclusively that there were a lot more people in these areas, and that they significantly modified the landscape. … This is a paradigm shift in our thinking about how extensively people occupied these areas.”
<Previously, scientists assumed that ancient South Americans “lived nomadically or in tiny settlements in the Amazon,” writes BBC News, but researchers estimate the newly discovered cities housed a population “in the 10,000s if not 100,000s.”
<In recent years, lidar has been a vital tool for discovering traces of ancient Amazonian cities. Aerial laser sensing bypasses the forest’s density—which complicates and lengthens mapping by expedition—to create more accurate maps in a fraction of the time. As Fisher told Smithsonian magazine’s Brian Handwerk in 2022, the technology has proved “transformative for archaeology.” It’s helped uncover pre-Hispanic settlements in the forests of Bolivia, Brazil and Belize.
Seems pretty evident that this booming area of study is majorly changing how we understand the history of the place…

>>21393
Yes the Upano river is part of the basin, but the cities were found very close to its origin near the Andes where the terrain itself isn't jungle-y.
If you can describe this material culture as "Amazonian", then I guess the Incas would also be so, as important cities like Cusco were also close to its rivers (seen on your map).
>It's both?
Keywords "deep in the jungle". Not denying that they were large urban spaces.

Some stuff from the Nazca culture. It's interesting that pre-Inca societies in Peru like the Moche and Nazca built pyramids, but the Incas themselves did not.

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>>21394
>Keywords "deep in the jungle". Not denying that they were large urban spaces.
I think they mean it's in a location with heavy jungle, not that it's near the geographical middle of the Amazon…

>>21530
Hard to build pyramids in the mountains. Inca sites are concentrated in very mountainous areas. Moche and Nazca are in relatively flat spots.

>>11579
I started reading more about this recently and it's interesting it's mentioned that the Incas brought back "black people" from their voyage. Apparently the farthest west they went according to this map was to Mangareva in Polynesia. But I don't think it would make sense for the Incas to call Polynesians "black" since they have a similar brown skin color to native Peruvians. It would make more sense for them to call the darker-skinned Melanesians black, but if they found Melanesians that means they went really fucking far west

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Sharing this collaborative thread (you need to make an account to view it) about Aegon and his islands being transported into Mesoamerica in 1390:

>No one has been able to find an answer to how the event known as "The Shimmering" occurred. Scholars, priests, and more have all come up with many theories and ideas, but the answer may remain rooted in mystery til the end of time.

>What is known is that on the first of January, in the year 1390 AD of the Gregorian Calendar, three islands would appear to the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula. That the inhabitants of the islands, from their rulers to the lowest peasant, saw the sky shimmer and ripple with a strange, otherworldly light. Those who lived on the coast closest to where the event occurred likewise saw strange lights on the horizon, but lacked the means to investigate.

>History records that the impression the Targaryens and their dragons brought in the first major meeting ranged up and down the spectrum. From reverence to sheer terror, to fanatic euphoria to people fainting in shock in the streets. The display of power and might as the dragons flew circles over the city, dancing in the sky and belching forth gouts of flame, was both intimidating and mezmerizing.

>Among the members of the ruling family, the Cocoms, and their nobility, the message was a clear one. These strange new visitors were not like any they had seen before, in more ways then one. And it would be wise not to anger them, for even one of these great beasts they rode upon could likely bring the fury of the heavens to an entire city.
>The trio and their dragons landed outside the city, and it did not take long for a grand procession to exit the city to seek audience with these strangers. It is here that the first bit of miscommunication would come into play, and show that the Targaryens efforts at translation could still use much work. A great offering of sacrifices was brought forward, as a means to both appease and show reverence to those who were clearly touched by the gods if nothing else. >This however, took the Targaryens by surprise, and after a moment, prompted an argument that had the procession grow remarkably confused and even fearful, for as the three argued, the great dragons they had ridden seemed to grow restless and agitated as well.
>The locals were not the only ones worried about this, as historical details speak of the way the translators who had accompanied them worked feverishly to try and calm the situation while seeking to enlighten the rulers of the great city. It seemed that the visitors had not realized that the local peoples engaged in human sacrifice, and were divided on their opinions of it. One seemed to have no problem with it at all (and is believed to have been fine with letting the dragons eat the sacrifices outright), another seemed to find the idea abhorrent to a degree, and the one who rode the great black beast is said to have been somewhere in the middle.
>The situation would be resolved by the one calling himself Aegon, who urged the locals to carry on with their own rites and traditions as was their custom. Thus the sacrifices were killed, their blood an offering, and from there a great feast and tour was held. The the Targaryens would remain for a full week with their dragons, making efforts to learn as much as they could and fill in the many gaps in their knowledge. It was only before they departed that Aegon would request the submission of the League to him and his family. It was given without delay, though this would not be without consequences or challenge for some of the other members of the league as time went on, for already there were clear lines forming within the League and some would take offense and grow envious when they did not receive a visit in kind. (See the Mayan Insurrection, 1395-1396 for more details)

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/collaborative-empire-of-the-sun-a-targaryen-mesoamerica.551006/

sharing this book about the Maya.

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New evidence of contact between South America and Pacific islands over 1000 years ago.
<One thousand years ago, the first settlers of Rapa Nui — also known as Easter Island — feasted on a fusion cuisine of plants native to Polynesia but also ones indigenous to South America, around 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away, a new study finds.
<Researchers discovered the food remnants by identifying starch grains clinging to obsidian blades at the archaeological site of Anakena, the earliest known settlement on Rapa Nui, which was occupied from about A.D. 1000 to 1300, according to the study, published Wednesday (March 20) in the journal PLOS One. The finding suggests that the early Polynesians had regular contact with the people of South America as far back as a millennium ago.

<Starch grains from yam and taro were not a surprise, having been previously identified on Rapa Nui, but the team's discovery of breadfruit and Tahitian apple is new, as neither plant had been found on the island before, and their discovery of ginger is a first for Remote Oceania, the researchers wrote. Both breadfruit and Tahitian apple are essential Polynesian crops, probably brought on canoes by the earliest Polynesian settlers, while ginger may have been used as a medicine and spice.


https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/obsidian-blades-with-food-traces-reveal-1st-settlers-of-rapa-nui-had-regular-contact-with-south-americans-1000-years-ago

>>21814
I swear wasn't this always know, considering they got as far as the eastern Islands, I would assume plenty reaches south america at some point.

>>21818
It's been somewhat of a controversial opinion, just like "the vikings reached canada" was. If you can reach Rapa Nui from anywhere, you can reach any of the other places that could reach Rapa Nui. It's one of the most isolated places on the planet. This just confirms that not only were there people arriving there both from east and west but that they apparently had contact with each other and probably traveled both ways. We already had DNA evidence pointing in this direction (although it also could have indicated migration along the coasts from polynesians who reached north america first). This however is a smoking gun that there was active contact and trade going on between these people in the distant past, at least half a millenium before European colonialism. It's a very "duh" kind of thing to be discovered in principle, but there's a degree of cultural bias that chafes a lot of academics to find out that actually it wasn't Europeans who were the first to interact with the New World (ignoring as always the original inhabitants there).

>>21819
I don't fully buy there was active trading, but I'm sure there were some settlements that gradually assimilated to larger tribes, like the major Polynesian voyaging ended around 1300 AD for some unknown reason

>>21814
>Kon-Tiki theory proven again
Based

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>>21835
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact_theories#Claims_of_Egyptian_coca_and_tobacco
<In 1992, German toxicologist Svetlana Balabanova discovered traces of cocaine, hashish and nicotine on Henut Taui's hair as well as on the hair of several other mummies of the museum,which is significant in that the only source for cocaine and nicotine had at that time been considered to be the coca and tobacco plants native to the Americas
<This result was interpreted by theorists and supporters of contacts between pre-Columbian people and ancient Egyptians, as a proof for their claims.

>>21836
please don't go off the rails with this stuff and keep it to things that are substantiated. there's a Hancock thread for more open speculation about the topic >>>/hobby/36674

>However, mainstream scholars remain skeptical, and they do not see the results of these tests as proof of ancient contact between Africa and the Americas, especially because there may be possible Old World sources of cocaine and nicotine

>Two attempts to replicate Balabanova's findings of cocaine failed, suggesting "that either Balabanova and her associates are misinterpreting their results or that the samples of mummies tested by them have been mysteriously exposed to cocaine".
>a study in the journal Antiquity suggested that reports of both tobacco and cocaine in mummies "ignored their post-excavation histories" and pointed out that the mummy of Ramesses II had been moved five times between 1883 and 1975.
It's a very interesting line of evidence and while this seems like a pretty implausible explanation, there isn't as significant a body of evidence or an assurance of the evidence's legitimacy as seen here >>21814

However, the evidence of contact between South America and Rapa Nui does lend a lot of credence to the possibility of contact elsewhere and suggests more research should be done in that direction.

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>>21837
>>However, mainstream scholars
stopped reading there

>>21836
Werent these mummies previously displayed openly in a museum at a time when people were smoking inside?

>>21929
And probably openly doing cocaine too lol

More Mayan artifacts

>>10656
who is it on the shield then?
>>10668
has there ever been any genetic proof of japanese arriving in the northwest?
>>21819
>We already had DNA evidence pointing in this direction (although it also could have indicated migration along the coasts from polynesians who reached north america first).
are you referencing those native tribes in brazil and ecuador? their connection is to melanesians not polynesians.

==Native American gene flow into Polynesia
predating Easter Island settlement==

The possibility of voyaging contact between prehistoric Polynesian and Native American populations has long intrigued researchers. Proponents have pointed to the existence of New World crops, such as the sweet potato and bottle gourd, in the Polynesian archaeological record, but nowhere else outside the pre-Columbian Americas, while critics have argued that these botanical dispersals need not have been human mediated. The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl controversially suggested that prehistoric South American populations had an important role in the settlement of east Polynesia and particularly of Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Several limited molecular genetic studies have reached opposing conclusions, and the possibility continues to be as hotly contested today as it was when first suggested. Here we analyse genome-wide variation in individuals from islands across Polynesia for signs of Native American admixture, analysing 807 individuals from 17 island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups. We find conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesian individuals with Native American individuals (around ad 1200) contemporaneous with the settlement of remote Oceania 13–15 . Our analyses suggest strongly that a single contact event occurred in eastern Polynesia, before the settlement of Rapa Nui, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.

https://sci-hub.se/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2

Some years ago there were opposite results on two aDNA studies looking at pre-Hispanic individuals from Rapa Nui but this study seems to have tipped the scale.

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>>23465
why does title formatting not work here

anyway don't you guys think it would be crazy and amazing if a group of native americans had been blown off course and ended up in the marquesas (now in french polynesia) and set up a little outpost of civilization there.
so many images and ideas spring up to my head. how many people were there? what was first contact like? what did they feel seeing other people for the first time in perhaps years or months after having arrived at the marquesas and being all alone? and for these people to be from a completely different culture.

it makes me wonder what if polynesians had never embarked on their voyages and these people that arrived in the marquesas from south america established a successful society and colonized the ocean instead.

and the melancholy they must've felt knowing they could never go back home and see their families again.

>>23466
The PDF you copy pasted from had line breaks in it, which stopped the = text from formatting correctly (has to be one line).

The San Bartolo murals. They are the earliest Maya murals ever discovered and date to the 1st century BC during the pre-Classic.

Despite being the earliest murals on record it's clear the Maya already had a long tradition of mural painting by then. The forms, arrangement and colors just feel so cohesive, sophisticated and intricate and I get this sense of movement and action from the figures.

I can't help but feel their aesthetic feels so unique compared to stuff from the Old World.

<other anons welcome to share their opinions on the murals

>>23469
It's pretty obvious at a glance that this is the result of a well established tradition of murals considering how consistent and complex the style is.

>>23468
Thanks
>>23469
These pre-Classic murals definitely feel different from Classic and Post-Classic painting, though.
>two classic (and probably most famous examples) of maya mural painting from bonampak
>watercolor reproductions by adela breton of murals that used to decorate the jaguar temple of the post-classic city of chichen itza (these specific murals have unfortunately disappeared since then)

>>9253
Theres metalwork at Chavin de Huantar, press incan times

>>9253
yeah

Since Ancient Americas has already been posted ITT I'd like to recommend the ArchaeoEd podcast in case anyone else is looking for more content about the pre-contact Americas:

If anyone knows of other YT channels/podcasts besides these two do share :)

Sprawling Lost City From 600 Years Ago Revealed

An archaeologist has revealed a sprawling, lost 15th-century city in southern Mexico at a site that was long thought to have been merely a garrison for soldiers.

Guiengola, which was built by the indigenous Zapotec people, is located in the south of the state of Oaxaca, some 17 miles from the pacific coastline.

Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis of McGill University in Montreal, Canada revealed the true extent of forest-covered Guiengola using a laser-based scanning technique, flying over the site in an airplane. His study has revealed that the fortified city covers a whopping 360 hectares and sported more than 1,100 structures—including temples, ball courts and different neighborhoods for the commoners and the elite—and 2.5 miles of walls.

According to Ramón Celis, evidence suggests that the fortified city was abandoned just before the Spanish arrived in Mexico—with its residents relocating to nearby Tehuantepec, a small city where their descendants still live.

By the end of the 15th century, Ramón Celis told Newsweek, the Zapotecs had managed to both gain almost total control of Oaxaca's Pacific Coat, and had resisted the aggressive Late Postclassic expansion of the Mexicas (the Aztec Empire).

"This was especially remarkable following a lengthy, seven-month siege, led by Aztec emperor Ahuizotl, at Guiengola," he noted.

"After securing this region of southern Mesoamerica, the Zapotecs no longer needed to inhabit this city.

"While living in a mountainous area had its advantages, access to running water and more fertile land were likely more important for a large population, and the site of Tehuantepec had this advantage over Guiengola."

This is only the start of the analysis—with the archaeologist hoping that future studies of Guiengola will provide fresh insights in the Zapotecs' social and political organization, which may shine a light on their relationship with the Spanish.

"Currently, I'm planning my fourth field season, during which my team and I will cover all the approximately 1,170 structures in the LiDAR scan, which will take us a few years," Ramón Celis said, stressing that this work will involve further remote sensing, rather than physical excavations of the site.

https://www.newsweek.com/lost-city-mexico-guiengola-zapotec-forest-lidar-archaeology-2023494

<Anyone else kind of not like this kind of studies? I can't help but think looters will be rushing to places like Guiengola or that recently discovered Maya city to look for valuables.

>>23503
Not from Guiengola but some other cool Zapotec art

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Collage

>>23933
This is the first draft cause I couldn't put all that I wanted in it.

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>>23933
>4096x4096
>24.9 MB
I just wish it had citations or at least the names of the artifacts so I could look them up.

>>23935
I know the feeling, anon. Spent a lot of time last month on a Mesoamerican art deep dive and it was frustrating when I couldn't find more info on the objects I found (doubly so when it was on some foreign museum (Like seriously, monkey? You stole this and you can't even be bothered to investigate what it represents or where it comes from?)).

But you can ask me about any objects you are curious about in the pic, I know the name of most of them and where they are located or if you want the full res pic of the object.

Breaking

>New Teotihuacan-style altar and burials found at Tikal


The nature and extent of interactions between the distant regions and cultures of Mesoamerica remain open to much debate. Close economic and political ties developed between Teotihuacan and the lowland Maya during the Early Classic period (AD 250–550), yet the relationship between these cultures continues to perplex scholars. This article presents an elaborately painted altar from an elite residential group at the lowland Maya centre of Tikal, Guatemala. Dating to the fifth century AD, the altar is unique in its display of Teotihuacan architectural and artistic forms, adding to evidence not only for cultural influence during this period, but also for an active Teotihuacan presence at Tikal.


https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/teotihuacan-altar-at-tikal-guatemala-central-mexican-ritual-and-elite-interaction-in-the-maya-lowlands/78F1EE665FD51C6B41457872CDA20A80

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>>24123
>includes map showing location of Tikal but not Teotihuacan

Reading through this thread with 4chan down and I appreciate it
I wish /his/ still had this kind of in depth thread, nothing too substantial to add (though if you're interested in the US Northeast, Saltwater Frontiers is a good read… as is Reflections in Bullough's Pond though that goes way beyond the colonial period) but thanks anons

Remains of 3,000-Year-Old Maya City Discovered in Guatemala

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Maya city nearly 3,000 years old in northern Guatemala, with pyramids and monuments that point to its significance as an important ceremonial site, the Central American country's culture ministry said Thursday.

The city named "Los Abuelos," Spanish for "The Grandparents," once stood some 21 kilometers (13 miles) from the important archaeological site of Uaxactun, in Guatemala's northern Peten department, the ministry said in a statement.

It is dated to what is known as the "Middle Preclassic" period from about 800 to 500 BCE, and is believed to have been "one of the most ancient and important ceremonial centers" of the Maya civilization in the jungle area of Peten near the Mexican border, it added.

"The site presents remarkable architectural planning" with pyramids and monuments "sculpted with unique iconography from the region," said the ministry.

The city takes its name from two human-like sculptures of an "ancestral couple" found at the site.

The figures, dated to between 500 and 300 BCE, "could be linked to ancient ritual practices of ancestor worship," said the ministry.

The city, which covers an area of about 16 square kilometers (six square miles) was discovered by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists in previously little-explored areas of the Uaxactun park.

Nearby, they also found a pyramid standing 33 meters (108 feet) high with murals from the Preclassic period and "a unique canal system," according to the statement.

"The set of these three sites forms a previously unknown urban triangle… These findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and socio-political organization of pre-Hispanic Peten," said the ministry.

https://www.sciencealert.com/remains-of-3000-year-old-maya-city-discovered-in-guatemala

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is it just me or do people in general seem to more interested in mesoamerica than in the andes? just as an example when looking for reconstructions on what tenochtitlan and cusco looked like there are TONS for tenochtitlan including many made by non-mexicans whereas there's hardly any for cusco and certainly no high quality ones

I don't know much about latam anthropology. Is there a good overview of the field I can check out?

>>24463
>is it just me or do people in general seem to more interested in mesoamerica than in the andes?
It's not just you. The Aztec and Maya are more prominent in popular culture, probably because they are both found in Mexico which is a very well known country and tourist destination compared to Peru for instance.

>>24467
1491 is a good overview of the place before colonialism.

>>24470
but is mesoamerica famous because of modern mexico? or is mexico famous because of its mesoamerican ruins?

>>24467
for indigenous societies in brazil read florestan fernandes, curt nimuendaju, ronaldo vainfas, joão azevedo fernandes and eduardo viveiros de castro. there are some indigenous writers such as david kopenawa and ailton krenak
http://www.etnolinguistica.org/
this repository is useful

This one was pretty ground breaking to me, I had no idea that some people in the Owen's Valley were practicing agriculture, and even if I did, I would have naively assumed they were just planting corn.

>>24473
Mexico is a large country because of Spanish colonialism. It's one of the largest Latin American countries, and it shares a border with the US. The mesoamerican ruins aren't responsible for that. It's the other way around.

>>24484
>Mexico is a large country because of Spanish colonialism.
but that was not what i asked

Farming Was Extensive in Ancient North America, Study Finds

A new study has found that a thickly forested sliver of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is the most complete ancient agricultural location in the eastern United States. The Sixty Islands archaeological site is recognized as the ancestral home of the Menominee Nation. Known to the members of the tribe as Anaem Omot (Dog’s Belly), the area is a destination of pilgrimage, where remains of the settlement date to as far back as 8,000 B.C.

Located along a two-mile stretch of the Menominee River, Sixty Islands is defined by its cold temperatures, poor soil quality and short growing season. Although the land has long been considered unsuitable for farming, an academic paper published on Thursday in the journal Science revealed that the Menominee’s forbears cultivated vast fields of corn and potentially other crops there.

“Traditionally, intensive farming in former times has been thought to be mostly limited to societies that had centralized power, large populations and a hierarchical structure, often with accumulated wealth,” said Madeleine McLeester, an environmental archaeologist at Dartmouth College and lead author of the study. “And yet until now the assumption has been that the agriculture of the Menominee community in the Sixty Islands area was small in scale, and that the society was largely egalitarian.”

The findings of the new survey indicate that from A.D. 1000 to 1600 the communities that developed and maintained the fields were seasonally mobile, visiting the area for only a portion of the year. They modified the landscape to suit their needs, by clearing forest, establishing fields and even amending the soil to make fertilizer.

>Mapping an ancient site


In the spring of 2023, when the snow cover was gone but the leaves had not yet emerged, Dr. McLeester and her team conducted a drone-based LIDAR survey over some 330 remarkably intact acres of Sixty Islands, about 40 percent of the site.

LIDAR uses pulses of laser light to create a detailed map of Earth’s surface. Over the last decade, archaeologists have relied heavily on the technology; drone-based LIDAR has only become practical or possible within the last few years. “It provides much higher resolution, which enables us to recognize subtle features that would otherwise be invisible,” said Jesse Casana, the Dartmouth archaeologist who operated the drone.

The survey detected looted burial mounds, ritual earthworks, a circular dance ring, the remnants of 19th-century logging camps, the foundation of a building that may have been a colonial trading post, and, most unexpectedly, a raised ridge field system, where grouped garden beds had been built with heights ranging from four to 12 inches.

John Marston, an archaeologist at Boston University who was not involved with the project, said most traces of agricultural features at Native American sites were erased during the 20th century by the introduction of mechanized farming. “The Sixty Islands region appears to preserve features that were likely much more widespread across eastern North America at the time of European contact,” he said. For the record, that was in 1634.

The landscape at the site is covered by quilt-like patterns, created by parallel ridges oriented in different directions. This suggested to Dr. McLeester that the ridge locations were decided by individual farmers, rather than dictated by the natural environment. And what did these premature agronomists cultivate? “Crops such as corn, beans and squash,” Dr. McLeester said.

>A sacred landscape


According to one version of the Menominee creation story, a holy man, inspired by a dream, told a search party to journey through the morning with the promise of finding a treasure when the sun reached its highest point at noon.

At midday, the story goes, the leader of the party spotted an unfamiliar object. “This is corn,” he declared. “We will call it Wapi’min, white kernel.” The others sampled the Wapi’min, liked it, and took some kernels back with them. They sowed the seeds in the spring and watched them flourish.

Twenty-five years ago, David Overstreet, an archaeologist at the University of Wisconsin who lived and worked with Menominee elders, discovered the site’s elevated agricultural beds. He proposed that the planting mounds protected against frost and that the depressions between ridges served to manage moisture. In 2023, he helped convince federal officials to place Sixty Islands on the National Register of Historic Places.

While surveying the terrain, Dr. McLeester and her crew excavated three raised ridges set at varying distances from the Menominee River. The recovery of charcoal, broken pottery and other artifacts suggested to them that ancient farmers probably used burned household waste, wetland soils and possibly sturgeon guts as compost to enrich their fields. Carbon dating of the charcoal showed that the ridges were rebuilt over a 600-year span, beginning around A.D. 1000 during what is known as the Late Woodland period in North America.

Matthew Boyd, an anthropologist at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, said the study should make scholars and the general public cast aside many assumptions about the Indigenous peoples of antiquity. He believes that on the eve of European colonialism, the ancestors of the Menominee were highly successful farmers who most likely produced large surpluses of corn and other foods in a less-than-ideal setting and profoundly altered the natural landscape to increase its productivity.

The land and its findings are threatened by large-scale industry in the area. For the last decade, the Menominee Nation has battled open-pit mining companies that hope to extract gold, silver, zinc and copper in the area.

Susan Kooiman, an anthropologist at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, considers the new survey, initiated by the tribe and carried out in partnership with them, a model for ethical archaeology, particularly in light of previous practices that disenfranchised descendant communities from their heritage.

“Sixty Islands is part of a sacred landscape for the Menominee,” Dr. Kooiman said. “It’s important that it be documented before it’s potentially destroyed.”

NYTimes article:
https://archive.is/0dKXN

Study in question:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads1643
<anyone knows how to access science papers since normal sci-hub is now useless and i don't feel like getting into crypto for the new version

>We describe archaeological evidence of intensive ancestral Native American agriculture in the now heavily forested Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Recent LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and excavation data have uncovered densely clustered ancient agricultural raised garden bed ridges covering an expanse far greater than previously realized. These raised agricultural fields are deeply enmeshed in the broader cultural landscape, as ceremonial and other features were also found. Our results demonstrate a rich anthropogenic landscape created by small-scale ancestral Menominee communities, located near the northern limits of maize agriculture. The excellent preservation of this site is exceptional in eastern North America and suggests that the precolonial landscape was more anthropogenically influenced than currently recognized.


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