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AMERICAN HISTORY > PRE-COLUMBUS

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message 1: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (new)

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
This is a thread to discuss the history of the Americas pre-Columbus.


message 2: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (new)

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
Here is a good book to start off this thread:

1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann by Charles C. Mann Charles C. Mann

Goodreads Synopsis:

"A study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492." "Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus's landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last thirty years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong." In a book that startles and persuades, Mann reveals how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques came to previously unheard-of conclusions


message 3: by Doug (new)

Doug DePew (dougdepew) | 33 comments That book looks fascinating! One of my particular areas of interest is pre-Columbian American history.

It's historical fiction, but this is one of the best looks I've seen:
Aztec by Gary Jennings by Gary Jennings

I'm sure you're familiar with Jennings. I simply love that book, and I've read it two times already. I'll go check out my shelf and see what else I have, but the first book that popped into my head when I saw the thread heading was Aztec.

I build primitive bows, and studying pre-Columbian history in an integral part of that. It's a big part of what we do as bow-makers.


message 4: by Scott (new)

Scott | 134 comments Hidden Cities The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization by Roger G. Kennedy Roger G. Kennedy

Learn about archeological sites within an hour's drive. Evidence of an effigy mound under an "L" station in Chicago. "Hidden Cities" brings archeology home.


message 5: by Bryan (new)

Bryan Craig Doug: do you recommend:

Aztec by Gary Jennings Gary Jennings Gary Jennings

I had it in my library for so long and gave it away, but I knew I wanted to read it some day.


message 6: by Jerome, Assisting Moderator - Upcoming Books and Releases (new)

Jerome Otte | 4790 comments Mod
This sounds a little odd:

1421: The Year China Discovered America

1421 The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies by Gavin Menzies Gavin Menzies

Synopsis

On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. Its mission was "to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. When it returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and had circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed was how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted in America and other countries the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world.

Unveiling incontrovertible evidence of these astonishing voyages, "1421" rewrites our understanding of history. Our knowledge of world exploration as it has been commonly accepted for centuries must now be reconceived due to this landmark work of historical investigation.


message 7: by Marren (new)

Marren | 53 comments Oh, I really want and need to read this book, Jerome.


message 8: by Bryan (new)

Bryan Craig Who Discovered America?: The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas

Who Discovered America? The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas by Gavin Menzies by Gavin Menzies Gavin Menzies

Synopsis:

Greatly expanding on his blockbuster 1421, distinguished historian Gavin Menzies uncovers the complete untold history of how mankind came to the Americas—offering new revelations and a radical rethinking of the accepted historical record in Who Discovered America?

The iconoclastic historian’s magnum opus, Who Discovered America? calls into question our understanding of how the American continents were settled, shedding new light on the well-known “discoveries” of European explorers, including Christopher Columbus. In Who Discovered America? he combines meticulous research and an adventurer’s spirit to reveal astounding new evidence of an ancient Asian seagoing tradition—most notably the Chinese—that dates as far back as 130,000 years ago.

Menzies offers a revolutionary new alternative to the “Beringia” theory of how humans crossed a land bridge connecting Asia and North America during the last Ice Age, and provides a wealth of staggering claims, that hold fascinating and astonishing implications for the history of mankind.

Work Cited:

1421 The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies by Gavin Menzies Gavin Menzies


message 9: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (new)

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
Thank you Bryan


message 10: by Teri (new)

Teri (teriboop) The Lost Treasure of King Juba: The Evidence of Africans in America before Columbus

The Lost Treasure of King Juba The Evidence of Africans in America before Columbus by Frank Joseph by Frank Joseph (no photo)

Synopsis:

The story of a mysterious southern Illinois treasure cave and its proof of the presence of Africans in North America long before Columbus.

• Includes over 100 photographs of the artifacts discovered.

• Re-creates the historic voyage of King Juba and his Mauretanian sailors across the Atlantic to rebuild their society in the New World.

• Explains the mystery of the Washitaws, a tribal group of African origin, first encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

In 1982 Russell E. Burrows, a treasure hunter in southern Illinois, stumbled on a cache of ancient weapons, jewels, and gold sarcophagi in a remote cave. There also were stone tablets inscribed with illustrations of Roman-like soldiers, Jews, early Christians, and West African sailors. These relics fueled a bitter controversy in the archaeological community regarding their authenticity, leading Burrows to destroy the entrance to the cave.

Researching more than 7,000 artifacts removed from the cave before it was sealed, Frank Joseph explains how these objects came to be buried in the middle of the United States. It started with Cleopatra, whose daughter was made queen of the semi-independent realm of Mauretania, present-day Morocco, which she ruled with her husband, King Juba II. Following the execution of their son, Ptolemy, by Emperor Caligula, the Mauretanians rebelled against their Roman overlords and made their way into what is now Ghana. There they constructed a fleet of ships for a transatlantic voyage to a land where they hoped to rebuild their kingdom safe from Roman rule. They took with them a great prize unsuccessfully sought by two Roman emperors: Cleopatra's golden treasure and King Juba's encyclopedic library of ancient wisdom.

Fully illustrated with many previously unpublished photographs of artifacts retrieved from the southern Illinois site, The Lost Treasure of King Juba is a compelling story that could force us to rethink the early history of our nation and the possibility that Africans arrived on our continent nearly fifteen centuries before Columbus.


message 11: by Teri (new)

Teri (teriboop) Ancient Mounds of Watson Brake: Oldest Earthworks in North America

Ancient Mounds of Watson Brake Oldest Earthworks in North America by Elizabeth Moore by Elizabeth Moore (no photo)

Synopsis:

As archaeologist Reca Jones cooks with her grandchildren, the blocks of fudge they make remind her of the clay she discovered at the mounds of Watson Brake near West Monroe, Louisiana. The inquisitive kids ask their grandmother many questions, and she explains the significance of the mysterious mounds, and then takes them to the site. To the children's astonishment, Reca reveals such artifacts as spear points, fishhooks, beads, and bones from the animals eaten by dwellers long ago. Each relic is a clue to the puzzling origin of an archeological site older than the pyramids of Egypt.

Detailed illustrations provide an accurate depiction of the mounds at Watson Brake, which form an oval-shaped ring around an area the size of three football fields. Although no human bones have been found at the site, some archaeologists speculate that the mounds were built for religious ceremonies or even flood protection. A brief biography of the real Reca Jones completes this unique and fascinating story.


message 12: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (new)

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
Thank you Teri for updating these threads


message 13: by Teri (new)

Teri (teriboop) A Serpent's Tale: Discovering America's Ancient Mound Builders

A Serpent's Tale Discovering America's Ancient Mound Builders by Lorett Treese by Lorett Treese (no photo)

Synopsis:

The fascinating story of the enigmatic monuments that inspired American archaeology

When American settlers first crossed the Appalachian Mountains they were amazed to discover that the wilderness beyond contained ancient ruins—large man-made mounds and enclosures, and impressive earthen sculptures, such as a gigantic serpent. Reports trickled back to the eager ears of President Thomas Jefferson and others. However, most did not believe these earthworks had anything to do with Native Americans; rather, given the intense interest in the history of Western Civilization at the time, it became popular to speculate that the ruins had been built by refugees from Greece, Rome, Egypt—or even the lost continent of Atlantis. Since their discovery, the mounds have attracted both scholars and quacks, from the early investigations sponsored by the then new Smithsonian Institution to the visions of the American psychic Edgar Cayce.

As Lorett Treese explains in her fascinating history A Serpent’s Tale: Discovering America’s Ancient Mound Builders, the enigmatic nature of these antiquities fueled both fanciful claims and scientific inquiry. Early on, the earthworks began to fall to agricultural and urban development. Realizing that only careful on-site investigation could reveal the mysteries of the mounds, scholars hastened to document and classify them, giving rise to American archaeology as a discipline. Research made it possible to separate the Mound Builders into three distinct pre-contact Native American cultures. More recently, Mound Builder remains have attracted the practitioners of new disciplines like archaeoastronomy who suggest they may have functioned as calendars. There is no doubt that the abandoned monuments that made the Midwest’s Ohio Valley the birthplace of American archaeology have yet to reveal all the knowledge they contain on the daily lives and world views of persons of North American prehistory.


message 14: by Michele (new)

Michele (micheleevansito) | 55 comments The First North Americans: An Archaeological Journey

The First North Americans An Archaeological Journey by Brian M. Fagan by Brian M. Fagan Brian M. Fagan

Synopsis:

This new history of North America is based mainly on archaeology, but also on cutting-edge research in many scientific disciplines, from biology and climatology to ethnohistory and high-tech chemistry and physics. Brian Fagan describes the controversies over first settlement, which likely occurred via Siberia at the end of the Ice Age, and the debates over the routes used as humans moved southward into the heart of the continent. A remarkable diversity of hunter-gatherer societies evolved in the rapidly changing North American environments, and the book explores the ingenious ways in which people adapted to every kind of landscape imaginable, from arctic tundra to open plains and thick woodland.

Professor Fagan recounts the increasingly sophisticated acclimation by Native Americans to arctic, arid and semiarid lands, culminating in the spectacular Ancestral Pueblo societies of the Southwest and the elaborate coastal settlements of California and the Pacific Northwest. He then traces the origins of the Moundbuilder societies of the Eastern Woodlands, which reached their apogee in the flamboyant Mississippian culture of the South and Southeast and the mounds of the ancient city of Cahokia. The book ends with a description of the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples of the Northeast and St. Lawrence Valley, and an epilogue that enumerates the devastating consequences of European contact for Native Americans


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