Amazonian Ancient City

Scientists have discovered an ancient city in Eastern Ecuador using LIDAR. The Light Detection and Ranging technology (LIDAR) was used to map 115 square miles of Ecuador’s Upano Valley, along the foothills of the Andes. They found evidence of a settlement named Sangay, which could have been home to as many as 100,000 people.

 

One scientist remarked that this discovery changed the way to think about Amazonian cultures. Instead of small groups living in huts, at least some of them lived in complicated urban environments.

 

The system discovered at Sangay connected various urban centers. The road are nearly straight and contain right angles, which would be difficult in the Amazonian terrain.

 

We don’t know much about the people, archeologists also detected traces of fields where they likely grew maize, beans, sweet potatoes and cassava. And at the end of a hard day, they probably enjoyed a kind of sweet beer called ‘chicha’.

 

They have dated Sangay to have been active from 500BCE to possibly 600CE. The LIDAR scans have revealed various platforms, plazas, streets, and drains. But one unique aspect of Sangay is the complex road system that extends nearly 6 miles.

 

I am always interested in such discoveries. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more information about Sangay.

Municipality of Anchorage

It isn’t just a city, it includes suburbs, the urban core, a joint military base and most of Chugach State Park. It is the 4th largest city in the US by area, and larger than Rhode Island.

In 1867, US Secretary of State William Seward brokered a deal tp purchase Alaska from Russia for $7,200,00, about 2 cents an acre. The idea was lampooned by his political rivals, but in 1888, gold was discovered along Turnagain Arm, just south of modern-day Anchorage.

Alaska became a US territory in 1912. Anchorage started as neither a fishing nor mining camp.

There were a number of indigenous settlements along the Knik Inlet (north of Anchorage) for years. By 1911, the families of ‘Bud’ Whitney and Jim St Clair lived at the mouth of Ship Creek (on the south side of the Knik Inlet). There were joined there in 1912 by Jack and Nellie Brown.

In 1914, the Alaska Engineering Commission chose a site near the mouth of Ship Creek for a railroad construction port. The area quickly became a tent city, while a townsite was mapped out on higher ground to the south. Anchorage was incorporated on November 23, 1920.

On March 27, 1964, an earthquake of magnitude 9.2 struck Anchorage, killing 115 people and causing $116 million in damages. It was the world’s 2nd largest earthquake in recorded history. Because much of the city was built atop glacial silt, there was much soil liquefaction, leading to massive cracks in roads and the collapse of large swaths of land. Dozens of house that were originally 250 to 300 feet above sea level sank with the land they sat on, coming to a rest at sea level.

Although there have been many attempts to move the capitol to Anchorage or to a location closer to Anchorage, they have all ultimately been defeated. Even so, Anchorage has over twice as many state employees as Juneau, and is to a considerable extent the center of state and federal government activity in Alaska.

Cities often grow where they have easy access to trade routes, whether by water or land. Even Anchorage follows that stereotype, starting where an ocean inlet gave access to a creek from inland. And it continued by becoming a railroad hub, making (rail)roads where there hadn’t been any before. It currently has an international airport, which is fitting, since it is only 9.5 hours or less to most large cities in industrial countries.

We didn’t get to Anchorage when we went to Alaska; we took a cruise, and it didn’t go that far north. We may have to try again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorage,_Alaska

Bring the Green!

Have you read the ‘Green New Deal resolution that’s been introduced in both houses of Congress? Nope, me neither. First, I wouldn’t have any idea where to find it. Second, if I did find it, I fear it would be written in ‘Congress-ese’, which I expect is nigh on impossible for laypeople to understand.

But I was fairly certain it did NOT say we had to get rid of cows, as one news anchor claimed.

So, when I ran across an article that attempted to explain exactly what was included in this resolution (not a bill, a resolution), I took the time to read that.

It makes great sense to me. I agree with it completely. Basically, it states that since climate change is not only real but already effecting the population of the US, costing us time, money and even heath dangers, that it is the responsibility of the administration to do everything it can to assist and encourage changes to infrastructure, social norms, and a whole host of other things to help all of us deal with those climate changes. Nowhere in it does it even mention cows.

What kind of assistance could the government provide? Where do I begin?

We started looking at installing solar panels on our roof decades ago. But at that time, they weren’t very effective and lasted about 10 years, so by the time they ‘paid for themselves’, you needed to replace them. Plus, we were in the midwest, where there were NO companies who offered solar panels or knew how to install them. We got solar panels installed on our roof within a year of moving to Florida. But we still had to take out a loan to do it, and we may never get any of the cost ‘returned’ to us by the government, because we don’t have enough income.

Here’s the first few ideas I have on how the government could ‘encourage’ this change to our infrastructure (moving our electricity needs to solar panels and/or windmills): Make arrangements for homeowners to get loans for solar panels (windmills) at a really low interest rate. Encourage (or require) power companies to start replacing their fossil-fuel-powered power plants with solar panels/windmills and batteries. Why not encourage businesses to install solar panels/windmills on their roofs? Or the side of their building? There have been some wonderful innovations in solar panels; I understand one guy even figured out how to embed solar ‘panels’ in roads, so... why aren’t we taking advantage of these things?

We’d like to get an electric car, but they aren’t any good if you plan to drive more than an hour or 2. And it’s not like you can pull into any gas station and ‘fill up’ when your battery gets low. When I first started looking at electric cars, it seemed you could drive for 4 hours, then you had to stop and ‘recharge’ for about 8 hours. Assuming you could find a place to do that. About 3 years ago, I heard that ‘high-speed recharging’ only took 45 minutes, but while the Kansas City area had nearly a dozen ‘stations’ where you could recharge, it only had 1 place where you could recharge quickly. Some of the theme parks in Florida offer recharging stations in their parking lots, but I don’t know if you pay extra to get one of those, or how long it takes there.

Why aren’t gas stations hedging their bets by installing recharging stations? Investment in solar panels/windmills, a couple large batteries and the recharging equipment could make road trips so much easier for those trying to help save the world. Motels could offer to recharge your car while you catch some zzs. Rest areas could also offer a recharge while your kids and pets are running off their pent-up energy and the family has a snack.

How many people would be buying an electric car if they knew they could get it charged up while they were out and about, rather than ONLY in their garage? Parking meters could become charging stations, so that you could fill up while you shop. Why not put solar panels and (tiny) windmills on a car, to help it go another mile or 2 down the road before you have to recharge?

There are lots of ways to help ‘encourage and assist’ efforts to save the world, and by extension, ourselves. We just need to stop thinking things like, “That isn’t how it’s done.”

Where is Calukmul?

The original paragraph I saw about Calakmul consisted of 39 words, but something caught my attention. Usually, I might find 3 or 4 articles on the subject, each 1-2 pages long, and each repeating (or possibly contradicting) information in the other articles.

Calukmul’s different. The wikipedia article must be over 20 pages, and I don’t rely solely on wikipedia. So, let’s start, keeping in mind that I may have to boil things down drastically.

Calakmul (AKA Kalakmul) was a large and powerful Mayan city in what is now the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the Yucatan greater Peten Basin, 35 km (22 miles) from the Guatemalan border. During the Classic Period, Calakmul administered a large domain known as the Kingdom of the Snake. This region was marked by the emblem glyph of the snake head, read as ‘Kaan’. It is believed that the city existed from 550 BC to 900 AD. It held ‘powerhouse’ status from 500 AD to 800 AD.

Some of the major buildings can be traced back to at least 350 AD, with a 40-foot tall monument built sometime between 400 and 200 BC. This city’s long life gave plenty of time to create huge structures, following the Maya tradition of enlarging existing buildings by adding new layers and extending the lower floors. The earliest dated inscription found there is from 431 AD.

During the height of Calukmul’s existance, the city is believed to have had a population of 50,000, and 6,750 structures have been found there. Structure 2, their great pyramid, is the largest structure, standing over 45 m (148 ft), and contains 4 tombs. As explained in the previous paragraph, in MesoAmerica, the pyramid was increased in size by building upon the existing temple. Calakmul’s central monumental architecture covers about 2 sq km (0.77 sq miles), and the entire city - mostly covered with dense residential structures - is 20 sq km (7.7 sq miles).

Calukmul was linked to allied cities by causeway. It sits on a rise some 115 ft above and east of a large seasonal swamp, which was an important source of water. This seasonal swamp was linked to a sophisticated water-control system that encircled an 8.5 square mile area, considered the inner city. The swamp also provided fertile soil along its edge and access to abundant flint nodules. The rise was a limestone dome which the Maya had leveled. Homes began along the edge of the swamp, but during the Classic period, they were also built on high ground and small islands in the swamp.

But the swamp was not the only source of water, for Calakmul had an extensive system of at least 13 reservoirs, including the largest one found in the Maya world. Together, these held enough water to serve 50,000 to 100,000 people. There’s no sign that these reservoirs were used to irrigate crops, which were apparently dependant on the seasonal swamp, as mentioned before.

From 1 to 1000 AD, this area received regular rainfall, which would have made it fairly easy to support the city’s population of 50,000. Growing up in small towns, this sounds huge to me. But I also spent a large portion of my adult life living in Kansas City and Omaha, either one of which would dwarf Calukmul. When you look at the entire Snake kingdom, there were also 20 secondary cities, tertiary and quaternary sites, and rural areas. The total population of this 5,000 sq mile kingdom is estimated to have reached 1.75 million during the late Classic period. However, during the Terminal Class period, Calukmul’s population dramatically declined, and the rural population plummeted.

Throughout the Classic Period, Calukmul had an intense rivalry with the city of Tikal, which lay 100 km (62 miles) southeast. At one point, Calukmul and its allies defeated Tikal, but 150 years later, Tikal rose up anew, and ultimately, Calukmul not only lost its powerhouse status, but ceased to exist at all. Calukmul’s recorded history ends abruptly in 909 AD, about 200 years after Tikal defeated its king and sapped its power.

The great rivalry between Calukmul and Tikel could have been more than trying to prove which city could grab the most resources. Tikel was a powerful city before Calukmul. Tikal was strongly influenced by the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan, and its rulers were male only. Calukmul, on the other hand, seems derived from the city of El Mirador, and both a king and queen often ruled together. However, for whatever reason, when I came across a (partial) list of Calukmul rulers, it assumed all the names were kings, with no explanation of why no queens’ names were included.

The long abandoned Calukmul was rediscovered by air on December 29, 1931. Its current name is Mayan for ‘two adjacent pyramids’. In ancient times, it was Ox Te’ Tuun, which means ‘Three Stones.’ It was visited in 1932-1938, and a map was begun of the city, but work then ceased until 1982-1994. It is now a UNESCO site, contained within a UNESCO biodiversity reserve, and is the subject of a large-scale project of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. Unfortunately, the city was built with a soft limestone, so it is suffering from severe erosion, and many of the earlier inscriptions cannot be made out.

I’m very taken by this information, which was fairly uniform over all 3 articles I chose. In fact, after reading the Wikipedia article, the other 2 I chose were... monotonously uniform with it, although not nearly as heavy with intimate history of battles and the names of warring kings. But given these facts as I’ve gathered them, I can almost picture Calukmul, from start to finish, but particularly during its hey-day. Of course, that doesn’t mean it actually looked like anything I’ve dreamt up, but it’s more than what I’ve gotten from the few Maya ruins I’ve actually visited. What about you? Do you see anything more here than armies at war?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calakmul

https://www.locogringo.com/mexico/ways-to-play/mayan-ruins-archaeological-sites/calakmul-ruins/

http://mayanruins.info/mexico/calakmul-mexico/

Ancient Massacre

Why do humans go to war? It has long been believed that warfare began once early humans abandoned the carefree lifestyle of hunting and gathering in favor of building a home, farming, and establishing villages. People in the next village or the next valley, it was theorized, grew envious of their neighbor’s ‘luxury’, and decided to take it from them.

A single archaeological dig in Kenya may up-end that theory.

The dig site is Nataruk, which is currently dry scrub brush territory some distance from the southwest shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Human skeletons found at the Nataruk site have been dated to about 10,000 years ago, when Lake Turkana was much larger and the area of the site would have been fertile, perhaps even a marshland. Lots of animals would have used this area to drink, so hunting and gathering would have provided plenty.

What was found at Nataruk are the remains of 27 people, which included 12 skeletons that were relatively complete. When alive, they ranged in age from Old (back then, that meant over 45) to the very young, including one who either had not yet been born, or was an infant being held by one of the women. The archeological team who discovered them believe they died violently or were left to die, and were left unburied. They point to blunt-force trauma to some of the skulls, arrowheads and spear points found embedded in other skeletons, various other broken bones, and indications that some had their hands tied together. Other archeologists debate that these skeletal injuries might have happened after the people were dead.

These 27 people - who all appear to have died at the same time - included 8 men, 8 women and 6 children, with 5 others whose age and gender could not be determined.

Part of the reason why warfare has been assumed to have started after people settled into villages was because - before this - evidence of violence between nomadic groups has been sparse and hard to identify. Researchers mention the Jebel Sahaba graveyard (located in modern Sudan), which is dated to 13,000 years ago and contains the remains of some people obviously killed in violent skirmishes. That this is a cemetery indicates a settled community.

But, my mind says, the entire global population did not start farming and settling into villages at the same time. If food from plants, hunting and fishing were enough to sustain your tribe, and all you had to do was move a few miles every so often, why bother settling down? (Especially if you’ve never heard of such a thing.) Or maybe Nataruk was somewhat more of a settlement than a temporary camp, because the hunting, fishing and gathering was so good.

Whichever way it was, there might have been several ‘nomadic’ groups in the general area. Perhaps some were greedier than others. Or perhaps good eating led to more mouths to feed, and then the climate ‘shifted’ (the wetter late Pleistocene era slid into the drier early Holocene). It wouldn’t take much for the hunting, fishing and gathering to become less bountiful.

I’m not sure I believe that warfare came along only when people settled down, grew crops and started communities. They have found plenty of evidence of violence between nomadic individuals, so I’m not sure why they think warfare (between groups instead of individuals) wouldn’t have happened. They say the earliest group skirmishes happened because one group wanted something the other group had. Why would it be any different if neither group was settled? If a group of nomads were moving, desperately looking for food, and they stumbled across another group’s campfire while they were roasting a few nuts and cutting up a couple rabbits, why would the first group NOT want what the 2nd group had?

It’s something to remember if you are writing about other times and other cultures. We probably have to start by looking humans and their reactions to various circumstances, but I can’t imagine if 2 groups of nomads ran into each other, and neither had enough food to feel their own group, that they’d be very friendly with each other. If you want your alien species to always be friendly, no matter what the circumstances, you’d better figure out how that worked during their prehistory days. Why would sharing resources that really wouldn’t have been enough for 1 group be of benefit to them?

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/21/463835225/discovery-of-ancient-massacre-suggests-war-predated-settlements

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-brutal-massacre-may-be-earliest-evidence-war-180957884/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35370374

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataruk

Long Lost City

There are lots of stories about lost cities. I like to read about them after the archeologists have had some time to dig them up. So this time, I went out looking for what was known about Mohenjo-Daro.

This city was founded around 2500 BC in what is now Pakistan, and was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley civilization. But that civilization declined, and the city was abandoned sometime during the 19^th century BC. It was discovered in the 1920s, so I figure they’ve had time to find some interesting tidbits about who lived there. Let’s see what they’ve found.

Mohenjo-Daro is what it is called now, and that either means “Mound of Dead Men” or “Mound of Mohan”, where Mohan is apparently another name for Krishna. Examination of a city seal found during excavation suggests the city’s name was originally Kukkutarma, the “City of the Cockerel”. It is possible that cock-fighting was a ritual and religious activity here, with chickens bred and raised for that purpose, rather than as food. This city may also be where chicken domestication began, and was then introduced to the rest of the world.

Whatever it was called at the time, the city was built on a ridge between 2 rivers. It was an advanced city, with sophisticated civil engineering and urban development. It was one of the known merchant cities of the Indus Valley civilization.

Mohenjo-Daro was built on a grid pattern, with buildings made of fired bricks, sun-dried mud bricks, and wooden superstructures. One estimate of its maximum population is 40,000 people. It covered about 300 hectares, which is a little more than 741 acres.

The city had 2 sections: the Citidel and the Lower City. The Citidel was built on a 39-foot-tall mound made of mud bricks. It included baths, a residential structure to house 5,000 people, and 2 large assembly areas. The city as a whole had a central market with a big well. Households got their water from smaller wells scattered around town. Waste water flowed into covered drains that lined the major streets. Some houses had their own room set aside for bathing, and 1 even had a furnace to heat bath water! Almost every house had an inner courtyard that included a door to a side street. Some houses were 2 stories tall.

One archeologist found a large building that he thought looked like a place to store grain, calling it The Great Granary. A later archeologist pointed out there was no indication of grain being stored there, and he referred to it as a Great Hall of Unknown Function. Not far away is a large and elaborate bath, waterproofed with a lining of bitumen, which may have been used for religious purification. The city also included “College Hall”, 78 rooms in several buildings that may have been priestly residences.

The city had no walls surrounding it, only guard towers on the west and defensive fortifications on the south. Likewise, no weapons have been found there. It was destroyed 8 times, probably by floods. Each time, it was rebuilt directly on top of the previous city.

Artifacts they found include standing and sitting figures, copper and stone tools, balance scales and their weights, gold and jasper jewelry, beads of ivory, lapis, carnelian and gold, and children’s toys. One bronze figurine depicts a young girl dancing. Since it was bronze, the Indus Valley people knew how to blend metals, casting and other methods of using metal. It also shows that entertainment – such as dancing – was important to them. One of the toys was a cart pulled by oxen, so they did use wheels.

What hasn’t been found is any obvious palace or place of government, although it is suspected that Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center of the Indus Valley civilization. The many baths and grid structure of the streets have implied to some that the culture was more interested in order and cleanliness than they were in rulers.

This is the kind of information I like. I can almost see the city and hear the people living their lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/mohenjo-daro/

http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/9-facts-you-must-know-about-mohenjo-daro-before-watching-the-film-258775.html