The Story of the World - Volume 1 - Ancient Times - Ch. 26.1 - The People of the Americans
Summary
TLDRChapter 26 explores the enigmatic Nazca people of ancient South America, who left behind a legacy of massive geoglyphs in Peru. Without written records, the Nazca's expertise in creating intricate drawings spanning hundreds of miles remains a mystery. Discovered from the air, these drawings include animals, plants, and geometric shapes, preserved for over a millennium due to the arid climate. Theories suggest the Nazca's mathematical prowess or celestial navigation aided their creation, but the true method remains unsolved.
Takeaways
- 🌍 The ancient civilizations of the Americas, like those in Africa and Asia, left behind artifacts but no written records, making them less known than civilizations like the Egyptians or Greeks.
- 🏞️ The Americas consist of North America, South America, and Central America, with South America featuring mountains and fertile flatlands where ancient tribes lived.
- 🌾 Ancient South American tribes cultivated crops, raised animals, hunted, and fished, with cassava being a staple food similar to ancient Africa.
- 🍮 The Nazca people, a South American tribe, are known for creating tapioca pudding from cassava roots, a technique passed down to modern cuisine.
- 🐵 The Nazca drawings, discovered from the air, are a series of large-scale geoglyphs depicting animals, plants, and geometric shapes, spanning hundreds of miles.
- 🚁 The Nazca lines were not visible from the ground and were only recognized as drawings when viewed from an aerial perspective, such as an airplane.
- 🌀 There are over 300 line drawings and patterns at the Nazca site, preserved for over a thousand years due to the arid climate of the region.
- 🛣️ Some of the Nazca drawings have been damaged by modern infrastructure like highways and human interference, but many remain intact.
- 🤔 The method by which the Nazca people created these drawings remains a mystery, with theories suggesting advanced mathematical skills or the use of star positions for guidance.
- ⏳ The Nazca civilization ended around 1500 years ago, leaving the true purpose and techniques behind their drawings unknown to this day.
Q & A
What are the Nazca drawings?
-The Nazca drawings are a series of large ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between 500 BCE and 500 CE.
Why are the Nazca drawings significant?
-The Nazca drawings are significant because they are one of the oldest and largest examples of geoglyphs in the world, and their purpose and method of creation remain a mystery.
How were the Nazca drawings discovered from the air?
-The Nazca drawings were discovered from the air when an airplane flew over Peru, and the pilot noticed the lines forming recognizable shapes such as a monkey, a spider, and a pelican.
What materials were used to create the Nazca drawings?
-The Nazca drawings were created by removing the reddish-brown iron oxide pebbles that cover the surface of the Nazca desert, revealing the lighter-colored earth underneath.
How long have the Nazca drawings lasted?
-Due to the arid climate of the Nazca region, which receives very little rain, the drawings have been preserved for over a thousand years.
What challenges have the Nazca drawings faced in recent times?
-The Nazca drawings have faced challenges such as damage from a highway built across some of them and from cars driving over them, as well as from people disturbing the lines.
What are some theories about how the Nazca people created these drawings?
-One theory is that the Nazca people were skilled in mathematics and used precise calculations to create the drawings. Another theory suggests they used the position of the stars to guide their designs.
Why is it difficult to understand how the Nazca people made these drawings?
-It is difficult to understand how the Nazca people made these drawings because they did not have the ability to fly or see their work from above, which is necessary to create such large-scale accurate images.
What other ancient civilizations in the Americas are mentioned in the script?
-The script mentions ancient civilizations in the Americas, including tribes that lived in the mountains and jungles of South America, similar to the people of ancient Mesopotamia.
What crops did the ancient people of South America grow, and how did they process them?
-The ancient people of South America grew cassava, which they learned to dry and grind into a powder, using it to make a type of pudding known as tapioca pudding.
What is the geographical significance of the Americas mentioned in the script?
-The script describes the geographical significance of the Americas as two continents, North and South America, linked by a narrower strip called Central America, located across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Outlines
🌏 Ancient Civilizations of the Americas
This paragraph introduces the chapter on the people of the Americas, highlighting the Nazca drawings as a significant artifact left by ancient civilizations. Unlike those in Europe, Africa, and Asia, the people of the Americas did not leave written records, making their history less known. However, they left behind physical evidence such as buildings, villages, and earth mounds. The text describes the geographical features of the Americas, with North and South America connected by Central America. It mentions the agricultural practices and diet of the ancient South Americans, including the cultivation of cassava, similar to ancient Africans. The Nazca tribe, who lived in what is now Peru, is noted for creating the Nazca lines, a series of geoglyphs that can only be fully appreciated from the air. The Nazca lines include drawings of animals, plants, and geometric shapes, and despite theories about their creation, the exact method remains a mystery.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Nazca Drawings
💡Geoglyphs
💡Ancient Civilizations
💡Artifacts
💡Fertile Crescent
💡South America
💡Cassava
💡Tapioca Pudding
💡Peru
💡Mystery
💡Mathematics
Highlights
Ancient civilizations in the Americas left no written records, making them less known compared to Egyptians or Babylonians.
Artifacts such as ancient buildings, ruined villages, and earth mounds are remnants of the people of the Americas.
The Americas consist of North America, South America, and a narrow strip called Central America.
South America features mountains along one edge and fertile flatlands, where ancient tribes lived.
Ancient South Americans grew crops, kept animals, hunted, and fished, similar to ancient Mesopotamians.
Cassava was a staple food for ancient South Americans, and they developed a method to make tapioca pudding from it.
The Nazca tribe lived along the rivers of South America in what is now Peru.
The Nazca drawings are one of the strangest mysteries of ancient times, discovered from the air.
The Nazca drawings include a monkey, a spider, a pelican, a hummingbird, and various geometric patterns.
Over 300 line drawings and patterns have been found at the Nazca site.
The Nazca drawings have lasted over a thousand years due to the arid climate of the region.
Some Nazca drawings have been damaged by modern infrastructure and human interference.
The Nazca people's method of creating these drawings remains a mystery, as they did not have flight.
It is speculated that the Nazca were skilled in mathematics, which helped them in drawing the lines.
Another theory suggests the Nazca used star positions to guide their drawings.
The Nazca civilization ended about 1500 years ago, leaving the purpose of the drawings unknown.
Transcripts
chapter 26
the people of the americas
the nazca drawings
we have been reading about the people
who live in europe africa and asia but
over on the other side of the world
other ancient civilizations lived like
the people of ancient africa the people
of the americas didn't leave written
records behind them so we don't know as
much about them as we know about the
egyptians the babylonians the assyrians
and the greeks but the people of the
americas did leave artifacts behind them
ancient buildings ruined villages and
mysterious earth mounds if you put your
finger on the fertile crescent again and
this time go left you'll go across the
mediterranean sea and out into the
atlantic ocean and if you keep going
across the atlantic ocean you'll come to
two continents
big masses of land linked together in
the middle by a narrower strip
these are the americas the top continent
is called north america and the bottom
continent is called south america we
call the strip in the middle central
america
south america has mountains all along
one edge and flat fertile land in the
middle
tribes of ancient people lived both in
the mountains and down in the jungles of
the flatlands like the people of ancient
mesopotamia the people of ancient south
america grew crops kept animals hunted
and caught fish they ate cassava just
like the people of ancient africa as a
matter of fact they learned how to dry
cassava roots and grind them up into a
powder they used this powder to make a
kind of pudding that you've probably
eaten yourself
tapioca pudding
one of these south american tribes was
called the nazca they lived along the
rivers of south america in a place that
is now called peru the nazca left behind
them one of the strangest mysteries of
ancient times
more than 2 000 years after the nazca
lived in south america an airplane flew
over peru the pilot looked down he saw a
drawing of a monkey a drawing that
covered hundreds of miles of ground
the lines of the drawing were scraped
into the earth from down on the ground
the drawings couldn't be seen
the lines just looked like old roads or
gashes on the ground
but from up in the air
those lines made pictures
soon flyers discovered more enormous
pictures a spider a pelican more than
one thousand feet tall
a hummingbird and flowers they also
found spirals squares and other patterns
carved into the ground there were over
300 line drawings and patterns there on
the earth
because there is very little rain in the
area where the nazca drawings were made
the lines have lasted for over a
thousand
years a highway was built across some of
the drawings and others have been
damaged by cars driving across them or
by people scuffing at the lines with
their feet but many of the drawings are
still intact look on the next page for a
map of the drawings can you tell what
they are
so how did the nazca people make these
drawings after all they couldn't fly
they couldn't get up in the air to see
what their finished drawings looked like
making a lion drawing on the ground must
have been like drawing with your eyes
closed
do you think you could draw these
pictures with your eyes closed
it probably wouldn't look much like a
bird when you were finished
no one has been able to solve the
mystery of the nazca drawings the best
guess we can make is that the nazca
people were very good at mathematics
they could figure out how long each line
should be where it should turn and where
it should meet the next line
through doing calculations
another theory is that the nazca artists
used the position of the stars to help
them with their drawings but the nazca
civilization ended about
1500 years ago so we will never know the
answer to this question
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