Restored Israel

“Some of these speculations are reasonable. Proof of the mating network isolates is probably distant, but the evidence for a dynamic environment, where floral change was rapid and the accompanying faunal distribution was fluid is convincing. The absence of tundra would mean no huge migrating herds of caribou…Deberet and Vail, however, because of their extreme northern location, would probably still have been harvesting herd caribou. The shifting of recourses would lead to the suggested loose and fluid settlement pattern, or at least to a far ranging hunting pattern, possibly out of a base camp.
There have been scattered reports of mastodon and artifact associations east of the Plains, but the data have been inadequate or flawed in one way or another so that none have bee fully accepted.”↵

Prehistory 1989 pg. 58-59: “Mention of mega fauna always raises the question of extinction. Why are there no mega fauna left? This reasonable query remains unanswered, but it has been the subject of much speculation. One favorite commonsense explanation is that changing climates and vegetation altered the regional ecology so greatly that the habitat no longer favored several species. Reduction or disappearance of the late Wisconsin precipitation would have rapidly reduced the amount of coarse grasses and reeds available for the bands of Pleistocene elephant (mammoth). That species could not adapt to a plains or desert ecobase; evidently the elephant population dwindled and disappeared in the West by about 11,200 B.P. The long-horned bison held on longer, but they, too, were gone by about 9500-9000 B.P.
Another explanation is again a biological one. In the face of the postulated worsening climate and result increased stress the elephants may have dropped below the critical biological mass. In this view a deteriorating environment would endure the disappearance of the species at a very rapid rate because it would lead to a minus birth rate. Disease has also been invoked as a cause. But the perennial favorite is that perennial favorite is that the human hunter, history’s most efficient predator, administered the coup de grace in a phenomenon called overkill. This means merely that regardless of environment the kill rate exceeded the regenerative capacity of the species. If all or some of the other causes cited above were operative, the overkill toll exerted could well have been the final push to extinction.”↵

Zapotec 1996 pg. 49-63: “Outside the boulder-lined feature, Gheo-Shih had oval concentrations of flints and fire-cracked rocks, suggesting that small temporary shelters or windbreacks were built at the camp. There were areas with high concentrations of grinding stones, other places with abundant atlatl points and scrapers, even an area where stream pebbles had been drilled to make ornaments.
Reynold’s results increase our information on division of labor in the Archaic. He found that men’s tool kits included atlatl points; the oval blanks or “preforms” from which the points were chipped; and a whole series of scrapers that were probably used for working animal hides. Woman’s tools included discoidal cores from which flakes had been struck; the flakes themselves; crude blades; and flakes with “sheen” or “edge polish” that probably resulted from the repeated cutting of coarse plant material like agave leaves. One of the most interesting implications was that men and women may have used somewhat different cores, or flint nuclei, from which they struck the flakes that would later be made into tools.”↵

“In western California, there was evidently a much greater concern with the dead. Many were buried in mounds, others in extensive cemeteries. An analysis of the grave goods of these many cemeteries has led some scholars to suggest that there was in California a social complexity quite unlike the simple egalitarian societies usually posited for most of the western Arachaic and quite at variance with the simple and relatively stable technology the archaeology reveals.
Burial, Bundle: Reburial of defleshed and disarticulated bones tied or wrapped together in a bundle.”↵

Zapotec 1996 pg. 71-75: “While the Early Archaic occupants of the Valley of Oaxaca did not lie ate the extreme of either continuum, they can be described as “foragers” because they changed residence several times during the year, traveling to where the recourses were most abundant. They also spent parts of the years in “microbands” of 4-6 persons, made up of both men and women. These small groups were probably analogous to the family collecting bands of the Paiute and Shoshone Indians of the western United States, who accepted the risk at the family level.
At certain times, however, these dispersed family bands came together to form larger “macroband” camps of 15-25 persons. Since the antelopes and jackrabbits of the late Ice Age were no longer abundant, these larger camps were not made for communal hunting drives. Instead, they were made fro harvesting seasonally abundant plants found in the denser post-Pleistoncene vegetation.”

Mexico 1994 pg. 41-58: “In the late nineteenth century, there was really no idea at all of the sequence of developmental in pre-Spanish Mexico. Of course, everyone knew perfectly well that the Aztecs were quite late, and that the Aztecs had spoken of an earlier people called the Toltecs. There was also a vague feeling that the great ruins fo Teotihuacan were somehow the products of an even earlier people- but that was about all. Imagine the delight, then, of Mexican antiquarians when there began to appear in their collections little handmade clay figurines, of naive and amusing style totally removed from that of the moldmade products of later peoples in the Valley of Mexico. Most astonishing was their obvious antiquity, for some had been recovered from deposits underlying the Pedregal, the lava covering much of the southwestern part of the Valley. Scholars, prone to labels, immediately named the culture which had produced the figurines and the very abundant pottery associated with it ‘Archaic,’ and in 1911 and 1912 Manuel Gamio demonstrated stratigraphically that the central Mexican sequence runs from earliest to latest: ‘Archaic,’ Teotihuacan, Aztec.”↵

Mexico 1994 pg. 50:↵

Maya 1999 pg. 46-49: “Barra also marks the beginning of fired clay figurens in Mesoamerica, a tradition that was to continue throughout the Preclassic. These objects, generally female, were made by the thousands in many later Preclassic villages of both Mexico and the Maya area, while nobody is exactly sure of their meaning, it is generally thought that they had something to do with the fertility of crops, in much the same way as did the Mother Goddess figurines of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe.”↵

Zapotec 1996 pg. 76-92, fig. 82: “Villages within 40 km of Otumba received nearly all their obsidian from that source; villages 245-390 km away received perhaps a third of their obsidian from Otumba. This pattern suggests that Otumba obsidian passed slowly from villages in the Basin of Mexico, to villages in Tehuacan, and on to villages in Oaxaca, with each village keeping part of what it received and passing the rest “down the line.”

Mexico 1994 pg. 43-50: “Survey and excavations carried out by the Michigan archaeologists have identified 17 permanent settlements of the Tierras Largas phase, but almost all of these are little more than hamlets of ten or fewer households; the largest settlement in the Valley of Oaxaca at the time was San Jose Mogote, which ranked as a small village of about 150 persons, sharing a lime-plastered public building.”↵

Mexico 1994 pg. 62, 66-70:↵

Maya 1999 pg. 50, 55: “The lowland Maya almost always built their temples over older ones, so that in the course of centuries the earliest constructions would eventually come to be deeply buried within the towering accretions of Classic period rubble and plaster. Consequently, to prospect for Mamom temples in one of the larger sites would be extremely costly in time and labor.
But towards the close of the Late Preclassic, writing had begun to appear sporadically, and it definitely celebrated the doings of great personages. A good example of this would be the greenstone pectoral at Dumbarton Oaks, said to be from Quintana Roo. A were-jaguar face on one side indicates that the object was originally Olmec.”

Zapotec 1996 pg. 92, 118-119: “Finally, we are struck by our current lack of evidence for similar public buildings on the Gulf Coast of southern Veracruz and Tabasco. Thirty years ago that coastal plain, sometimes referred to as the Olmec region, was labeled “precocious” in its social evolution. The last two decades have shown that view to be partly true, partly hyperbole, and partly the result of our previous ignorance of Chiapas and Oaxaca. There were indeed villages in the Olmec region between 1400 and 1200 BC, but their pottery has recently been described as a “country-cousin version” of the more sophisticated ceramics at contemporary sites on the Chiapas Coast.”

Mexico 1994 pg. 66-81, 86-87:↵

Maya 1999 pg. 50-55; 63-66; 78-79: “The lowland Maya almost always built their temples over older ones, so that in the course of centuries the earliest constructions would eventually come to be deeply buried within the towering accretions of Classic period rubble and plaster. Consequently, to prospect for Mamom temples in one of the larger sites would be extremely costly in time and labor.
But towards the close of the Late Preclassic, writing had begun to appear sporadically, and it definitely celebrated the doings of great personages. A good example of this would be the greenstone pectoral at Dumbarton Oaks, said to be from Quintana Roo. A were-jaguar face on one side indicates that the object was originally Olmec.”

Zapotec 1996 pg. 118-119, 138: “By 800 BC, Chalcatzingo had become the dominant civic-ceremonial center for more than 50 settlements. As in the case of San Jose Mogote, its centripetal pull was such that 50 percent of the region’s population clustered within a 6-km radius of Chalcatzingo. Also like San Jose Mogote, it attracted and held most of the craftspeople of its region and served as a middleman for the movement of local white kaolin clay, Basin of Mexico obsidian, and jade. Between 750 and 500 BC Chalcatzingo had reached 25 ha in extent, with 6 ha devoted to public buildings. Its elite had also commissioned several monumental reliefs, carved into the living rock of the cliffs above the site.
A similar process can be seen as San Lorenzo in southern Veracruz, excavated in the 1960’s by Michael Coe and Richard Diehl and in the 1990’s by Ann Cyphers Guillen. In 1350 BC San Loernzo appears to have been no more than a village, its exact dimensions hidden by later overburden. Between 1350 and 1150 BC there is evidence for the construction of earhern mounds, but as yet no information on whether Men’s Houses or “initiate’s temples” like those in Oaxaca were built.
During the San Lorenzo phase the site grew enormously; while its exact limits have not yet been ascertained, Coe and Diehl estimate its population at 1000. At this point San Lorenzo had undergone its own ethno-genesis and become a chiefly center of the Olmec culture. Coe and Diehl’s work produced no actual buildings of the San Lorenzo phase, no burials, and little in the way of jade. They did, however, produce numbers of magnetite mirrors and considerable evidence for earthen mound construction.”

Mexico 1994 pg. 60-81, 86-87:↵

Mexico 1994 pg. 46-58:

Zapotec 1996 pg. 93-120: “The great disparity between San Jose Mogote and its satellites gives us a site size hierarchy with two clear levels- and more than mere size is involved, since San Jose Mogote also had a range of public buildings not seen in smaller sites.
If we assume that the construction of public buildings was sponsored by the elite, then we must also conclude that there were elite families at several Guadalupe phase communities. By this time, it had become standard practice to use bun-shaped adobes for the interior retaining walls of earthen platforms.↵

Mexico 1994 pg. 77, 82-83, 86-87: “Most of the constructions that meet the eye at Monte Alban are of the Classic period. However, in the southwestern corner of the site, which is laid on a north-south axis, excavations have disclosed the Temple of the Danzantes, a stone-faced platform contemporary with the first occupation of the site, Monte Alban I. The so-called Danzantes (i.e. ‘dancers’) are bas-relief figures on large stone slabs set into the outside of the platform. Nude men with slightly Olmecoid features (i.e. the down-turned mouth), the Danzantes are shown in strange, rubbery postures as though they were swimming or dancing in viscous fluid. Some are represented as old, bearded individuals with toothless gums or with only a single protuberant incisor. About 150 of these strange yet powerful figures are known as Monte Alban, and it might be reasonably asked exactly what their function was, or what they depict. The distorted pose of the limbs, the open mouth and closed eyes indicate that these are corpses, undoubtedly chiefs or kings slain by the earliest rulers of Monte Alban. In many individuals the genitals are clearly delineated, usually the stigma laid on captives in Mesoamerica where nudity was considered scandalous. Furthermore, there are cases of sexual mutilation depicted on some Danzantes, blood streaming in flowery patterns from the severed part. Evidence to corroborate such violence comes from one Danzante, which is nothing more than a severed head.”

Zapotec pg. 121-171: “Warfare, as the lines at the start of this chapter say, can “powerfully shape” chiefdoms. While Carnerio’s conclusions were based on Colombia’s Cauca Valley, what he says is equally true of the Valley of Oaxaca. Several lines of evidence indicate that warfare had begun to affect Roario society.
Chiefly warfare usually results from competition between paramounts, or between a paramount and his ambitious subcheifs. Paramounts try to aggrandize themselves by taking followers away from their rivals. Ambitious subchiefs try to replace the paramount at the top of the hierarchy.”↵

Maya 1999 pg. 63, 75: “Some of the Late Preclassic tombs at Tik’al prove that the Chikanel elite did not lag behind the nobles of Miraflores in wealth and honor. Burial 85, for instance, like all the others enclosed by platform substructures and covered by a primitive corbel vault, contained a single skeleton. Suprisingly, this individual lacked head and thigh bones, but from the richness of the goods placed with him it may be guessed that he must have perished in battle and been despoiled by his enemies, his mutilated body being later recovered by his subjects.”

Zapotec pg. 121-171: “Also left behind in Tomb 10 was an offering of eleven small projectile points, probably missed because they were buried in large deposit of red ochre. A study by William Parry shows that all eleven points had been made from three large blades of imported greenish-black obsidian. These points may well have been hafted as atlatl darts, and their inclusion in the tomb suggests that some kind of military activity–perhaps raiding, or defense from raiding–might have been expected of the individual buried there.”

Mexico 1994 pg. 58, 69, 77, 82-83, 86-87: “↵

Prehistory pg 240-242:↵

Zapotec pg 172: “The Monte Alban II state was very likely supported by a combination of dry farming, irrigation, and tribute. Maize, beans, squash, chili peppers, avocados, agaves, prickly pear, and other wild and domestic plants figured in the diet. There were now so many people in the valley that venison probably had to be restricted to the elite, but there were plenty of rabbits, mud turtles, pocket gophers, birds, and lizards for commoners. To the domestic dog, still a major meat source, the Zapotec had now added flesh and eggs of the turkey. Where and when the turkeys were first domesticated is unknown; their wild ancestors can still be found in northern Mexico and the United States.”

Prehistory pg 243; 279, 299: “What can be inferred from the above description? Whatever the reason, the central theme, the power of the interaction sphere lay in the mortuary ritual and the trappings that accompanied it. To call the force religious is to claim more than can be proved, but religion is a force that can flow across cultural and linguistic boundaries as an overlay or veneer upon the local cultures. To stretch the point, world history offers such obvious examples as the spread of Islam and Christianity. At any rate, a religious motivation for the Hopewellian cult is not totally unreasonable. Usually (though not always), religion implies a superordinate priesthood, that is, a class of specialists with superior status. Priest-chief-tians combining both sacred and secular powers can be postulated. The presence of a priesthood suggests a stratified society, an idea supported by the rich grave offerings for a few of the dead. The huge earthen monuments and a probable artisan class suggest a measure of secular control over the community, perhaps resembling a corvee or labor tax.”↵

Prehistory pg 293: “There are many areas of naked rock, and soils are thin. Horticulture was practical only in the valleys where alluvial soils had accumulated or on the mesas in aeolian deposits, as the Mesa Verde. The tablelands, being well watered, now support forests of pine. Below 7000 feet, the forests are largely pinon and juniper. Game tends to be plentiful even today. At lower elevations shrub and grasslands are dominant. Gardening appears to have been on a dry-farming basis in the higher, better-watered locations and on a combined dry-farming and irrigation basis at lower elevations.
The Hohokam were generally restricted to the deserts of the southern Basin and Range province along the lower Salt and middle Gila rivers (and a few of their tributaries) and used these waters for large-scale irrigation. The Modern city of Phoenix, Arizona, is built upon the ruins of many Hohokam settlements and the complex system of irrigation ditches that made life possible. The major canals of the Hohokam system underwent constant repair and modification. The biotic resources in these valleys were undoubtedly much restricted, as they are today. The summer heat is intense. Faunal resources are scarce, but many edible plant species occur, including fruits of several cacti and beans from tree legumes such as acacia and mesquite. Rainfall is low except to the east, and the three traditions the Hohokam were probably the most dependent on their fields for food.”

Mexico pg 91:

Zapotec pg 172-175: “Two other settlements, classified as Tier 2 centers on the basis of size, do not seem to have been surrounded by comparable cells of large villages. Magdelena Apasco seems to have been a town in the San Jose Mogote cell. Scuhilquitongo, a hilltop center near the upper Atoyac River, may have served to defend the northern entrance to the valley. (A smaller mountaintop center, El Choco, may have defended the pass where the Atoyac River exits the valley on its way south.)”↵

Zapotec pg 172-175: “Two other settlements, classified as Tier 2 centers on the basis of size, do not seem to have been surrounded by comparable cells of large villages. Magdelena Apasco seems to have been a town in the San Jose Mogote cell. Scuhilquitongo, a hilltop center near the upper Atoyac River, may have served to defend the northern entrance to the valley. (A smaller mountaintop center, El Choco, may have defended the pass where the Atoyac River exits the valley on its way south.)”↵

Zapotec pg. 208-209 (Zapotec pg. 208-209, 216-221, 224): “As for the rulers themselves, they are often depicted in ceramic sculpture- seated on thrones or cross-legged on royal mats, weighed down with jewelry and immense feather headdresses. Rulers evidently had a variety of masks, so many that one wonders if their faces were ever seen by commoners. Rulers in many cultures have disguised themselves to maintain the myth that they were not mere mortals, and Zapotec kings seem to have had numerous costumes depending on the occasion. Their ties to Lightning were reinforced by jade or wooden masks depicting the powerful face of Cociyo; their roles as warriors were reinforced by wearing a mask made from the facial skin of a flayed captive.
A magnificent example of the latter can be seen in the funerary urn from Tomb 103, a royal burial beneath a palace at Monte Alban. The Zapotec ruler sits on his throne in the guise of a warrior, holding a staff or war club in his right hand. In his left he grasps the hair of an enemy’s severed head, as he peers through the dried skin of a flayed enemy’s face. His headdress, featuring the plumes of birds from distant cloud forests, covers not only his head but also the back of his throne. Jade spools in his earlobes, a massive jade necklace, and a kilt covered with tubular sea shells add to his elegance. Note that, in the tradition of the figurines of 850-700 BC, the sculptor has paid great attention to every detail of the lord’s sandals, right down to the tying of the laces.”

Prehistory pg 238, 247, 249, 282, 294-297, 299, 308: “After about 250 AD the Hopewell Tradition traits disappear there. It is about that time that the cultures of the Midwest and East developed stronger regional differences, with many local sequences replacing the more uniform culture characteristic of Hopewell dominance”.↵