Page 73 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1850 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

That some should be rich shows that others may become
rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and
enterprise. • Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

polities. Less flamboyant than their Maya counterparts, objects (including distinctive stone pestles).The trade con-
the rulers of Teotihuacán concentrated more effort on nections with South America were still going strong with
trade and craft production. Located near several major Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. He noted orna-
geological sources of obsidian, Teotihuacán controlled ments of a gold-copper alloy worn by Taino chiefs. The
the production and trade of obsidian tools and jewelry in Taino worked locally-occurring gold but did not cast
northern Mesoamerica. Excavations have located numer- metal, and these ornaments must have been obtained
ous craft workshops, and Teotihuacán houses have through trade with the South American mainland.
yielded goods imported from all parts of Mesoamerica.
Teotihuacán exports—found all over Mesoamerica— South America
include ceramic vessels in addition to obsidian objects. As in North America and Mesoamerica, long-distance
Some kind of special economic and diplomatic relation- exchange in South America started with the earliest
ship existed between Teotihuacán and the city of Monte hunter-gatherers of the Paleoindian period. Exchange
Albán in Oaxaca, and a colony of merchants from the lat- throughout the Amazon Basin was probably extensive in
ter area has been excavated at Teotihuacán. most periods, but since the bulk of the material culture
The transition to the Postclassic period (900–1520) consisted of perishable goods this trade is difficult to doc-
was marked by a significant increase in economic activ- ument archaeologically. Early explorers and travelers
ity in most parts of Mesoamerica. For this period, written reported active riverine exchange systems that some
historical records supplement archaeological evidence, scholars treat as models for earlier periods. For a variety
and it is clear that highly commercialized long-distance of reasons, trade is easier to study archaeologically in the
trade flourished. Details of that trade, however, are cov- Andean region. After the development of chiefdoms and
ered elsewhere in the encyclopedia. states in the Andes, several goods of limited occurrence
were widely traded over great distances. Of these goods,
Caribbean Islands obsidian and marine shell stand out.There are fewer geo-
The initial inhabitants of the Caribbean islands, most logical sources of obsidian in the Andes than in Meso-
likely immigrants from the Mexican mainland, traded america, but Andean peoples made active use of the
with peoples of northeast South America for crystals and superior cutting edges of this stone in all periods. Marine
other ritual items. A major migration from South Amer- shell was another important trade good in the Andes. Par-
ica began c. 2000 BCE, bringing new peoples into the ticularly valued was the colorful shell of the spiny oyster
Lesser Antilles and eventually to most of the Caribbean. (genus Spondylus), used to make ornaments and ritual
These “Saladoid” peoples, ancestors of the Tainos, main- goods.These shells occur naturally only along the Pacific
tained contact with people in South America through coast of Ecuador and Central America, and their presence
trade in a variety of goods. From earliest times, the peo- at sites in the Andes was due to long-distance exchanges
ples of the Caribbean were expert mariners who used with northern groups. Metallurgy developed early in the
dugout canoes to undertake both local and long-distance Andes (c.1800 BCE), and objects of gold, silver, and
voyages. Trade within islands and between adjacent bronze were widely traded.
islands was extensive in all periods, whereas the extent of The entire Andean zone was linked into a single cul-
long-distance trade varied across time and space. tural and economic system during three periods, called
The major long-distance trade goods found at archae- “horizons” by archaeologists. The Early Horizon (800–
ological sites in the Caribbean are chert (for flaked stone 200 BCE) was dominated by the Chavín culture.The cen-
tools), pottery and volcanic pottery temper, beads made tral settlement, Chavín de Huantar (in present-day west-
from a variety of exotic stones (e.g., quartz crystals, ern central Peru), has yielded archaeological evidence of
amethyst, and diorite), and ornamental carved stone exchange with both the Amazonian lowlands and the