r/AncientAmericas

Traditionally, they were made of animal or sometimes human skin and bones, but the surviving ones we have today were made of materials like wood and ivory in the late 1800s to be preserved.

Pemmican is dried meat pounded into powder, combined with rendered fat in equal proportions by weight, and pressed into bars with dried berries. That is the entire recipe. Three ingredients. No refrigeration. No cooking required to eat it. A shelf life measured in months to years under the right conditions. One pound of pemmican delivers approximately 3,000 to 3,500 calories, a full day of sustenance for an active adult, in a package you can carry in your coat pocket.

The Cree, Lakota, Blackfeet and dozens of other Plains nations had been making it for generations before the fur trade era, and when European explorers and traders encountered it they immediately understood what they were looking at. The Hudson's Bay Company built an entire industrial supply chain around it. Robert Falcon Scott took it to Antarctica. Ernest Shackleton's men ate it on the ice after the Endurance was crushed.

William Clark wrote in his journal near what is now Great Falls Montana in 1805: the Hunters killed 3 buffaloe, the most of all the meat I had dried for to make Pemitigon. The spelling is characteristically Clark, creative and phonetic, but the reference is unambiguous. The Corps of Discovery made pemmican from bison on the trail and first encountered it as a prepared food at the formal feast hosted by the Lakota Sioux early in the journey.

The journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Gary Moulton and published by the University of Nebraska Press, are the most thoroughly documented food record in American exploration history and pemmican appears in them as a staple of survival rather than a curiosity. These men were eating nine pounds of fresh meat per man per day on good days and boiling candles to eat on bad ones. When they made pemmican they were thinking about the bad days.

El Señor de Sipán fue un poderoso gobernante de la cultura mochica del siglo III d. C., cuyo descubrimiento en 1987 por el arqueólogo peruano Walter Alva en Huaca Rajada (Lambayeque) constituyó un hito histórico al tratarse de la primera tumba real de una civilización preincaica hallada completamente intacta. El mandatario, quien falleció a una edad estimada de entre 45 y 55 años, fue sepultado con un fastuoso ajuar funerario compuesto por más de 600 objetos de oro, plata y piedras preciosas, y estuvo acompañado en su entierro por un séquito de ocho personas y varios animales sacrificados para servirle en el más allá. Este hallazgo no solo transformó la comprensión sobre la jerarquía y el avanzado desarrollo metalúrgico del antiguo Perú, sino que hoy en día sus tesoros originales se exhiben en el Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, consolidándose como uno de los mayores atractivos arqueológicos de América. El Señor de Sipán es llamado el

"Tutankamón de América" porque su tumba es la más rica y fastuosa jamás hallada intacta en el continente americano, habiendo sobrevivido intacta al saqueo por más de 1,600 años al igual que la del célebre faraón egipcio. Ambos gobernantes eran considerados semidioses y fueron sepultados con impresionantes tesoros de oro, plata y gemas preciosas que reflejaban su inmenso estatus real, convirtiendo sus respectivos descubrimientos arqueológicos en los hitos científicos más importantes e impactantes de sus propias regiones a nivel mundial. Mientras que Tutankamón basaba su riqueza en el uso masivo de oro casi puro y macizo (como su ataúd de 110 kg y su máscara de 22.5 quilates) decorado con complejas técnicas de fundición e incrustaciones de vidrio, el Señor de Sipán destacó por una sofisticada innovación tecnológica y química al utilizar la tumbaga una aleación de cobre, plata y oro de baja pureza y el revolucionario método de dorado por sustitución electroquímica para cubrir con finísimas láminas de oro piezas de cobre. Además, a diferencia de la búsqueda egipcia de inmortalidad a través de la incorruptibilidad del oro macizo, la orfebrería mochica priorizaba la dualidad cosmológica, confeccionando cientos de trajes y ornamentos divididos simétricamente entre oro (el Sol) y plata (la Luna) unidos por avanzadas soldaduras de precisión microscópica

In the prestigious National Geographic magazine, a team of experts claims to have discovered a mythical Inca citadel in Cusco, Peru, that had been lost to time and whose area is four times larger than Machu Picchu.

Description of the discovery at T'aqrachullo:

T'aqrachullo is a complex of ruins located 225 kilometers from the world wonder and about 90 meters above the Apurímac River. Although the site has been known for more than three decades, a series of archaeological discoveries in recent years have changed its significance in the history books.

Interest in T'aqrachullo began to grow after archaeologist Dante Huallpayunca discovered nearly 3,000 gold, silver, and copper sequins in a place that was formerly used as an alpaca corral. This discovery was made in 2022 as part of an excavation project by the Ministry of Culture.

After analysis, it was discovered that these objects date back to the 16th century, a time when they served as adornments for the ceremonial garments of the Inca elite. "Many archaeologists never find anything like this in their entire career", the expert told NatGeo magazine.

However, one of the most surprising details for researchers is that the characteristics of the site coincide with an Inca temple whose whereabouts were previously unknown.

The numerous findings related to the Inca period have led archaeologists to believe that T'aqrachullo is actually Ancocagua, an Inca city described in colonial-era chronicles as one of the most important temples of the Tahuantinsuyo (Inca Empire) and the site of a bloody battle with the Spanish conquistadors.

In an interview with Exitosa, Huallpayunca stated that Ancocagua is a temple as important as Qorikancha, Huanacaure, or Pachacamac. While its existence was known from the writings of the colonial chronicler Pedro Cieza de León, its exact location was unknown until now.

Although the site receives occasional visitors, it lacks a formal tourist circuit like those of other national sites. Investigations are ongoing, and the available findings represent only a fraction of the total complex, so its definitive opening to the public will depend on future conservation efforts and government planning.

Many civilizations have historical leaders who are remembered as the ones who brought their empires into greatness.

For example, Rome had Julius Caesar or Octavian and while France had Napoleon....

This made me curious......In Aztec history, who is generally considered the greatest ruler or leader?

Was there an emperor who led the empire into its golden age, expanded its territory the most, strengthened its government, or brought major achievements in culture, warfare, or influence...?

And also brought the whole Empire to Greatness for its time?

And Do you think that if the certain Aztec ruler was alive when The Spanish Conquistadors arrived.... How would he handle their presence?

Would like to know your insights and perspectives on this.

hi all. love this design/image in my collection. any details that stick out to you?

Long story short:

Was drinkin' my coffee and scrollin', and ran across a Tiktok about the Pirahã. Course, I lost it cause I got distracted by comments. Basically, many commentors claimed it was debunked sensationalism. Which tracks: my first thought was "How can an entire cultural group NOT count, when other mammals and birds can? This has to be misrepresented. Wait- they 'see their culture as complete and perfect', but trade for canoes"- that is admitting they see other groups as doing things better, and can grasp quantities."

One guy did post a vid, saying later fieldworkers debunked Everett and Wikipedia's summary. (TBF, the wiki mostly just cites the one book.)

A Reddit search finds linguists basically see it as sensationalism, but that the guy just keeps digging in. Which reminds me of Lesson One of Undergrad: Having a Ph.D. doesn't actually equal genius, honor, and truth.

Several commentors claiming to be Brazillian stated that their country's researchers found the Pirahã do have stories, history, counting, and aren't comically culturally supremacist; one said a few of Everett's claims were basically taking a joke serious.

(Seeing my state has "The Mountains of the Bark-Eating Dumbasses", and other ethnographers accounts- I can see that happening)

Thing is, the vid is mostly in Portugese and seems w/o context:

https://youtu.be/lC-8J1lUBVU?si=HYz1XvmCEosnw4ET

It looks like a channel made for an academic conference ages back. The commentor claimed it debunked most of the sensationalist description of the culture.

This gilded copper disk featuring a three-dimensional butterfly at its center was produced by Moche metalsmiths on Peru’s North Coast. The ornament was originally cut from a larger sheet of hammered copper and then gilded (Lechtman, 1982; Schorsch, 1998). The disk features a solid roundel at the center surrounded by concentric bands of step motifs. The outermost ring is adorned with gilded dangles suspended by copper bands attached to the back of the disk. There are additional disks at vertices within the roundel yielding what must have been a dazzling spectacle when displayed in the sun. The gilded butterfly is represented with notable attention to anatomical detail, including its spread spotted wings, each inscribed with the wing veins, an abdomen with the sections apparent, and a head inlaid with shell and turquoise eyes. The insect is attached to the main body of the disk by six thin copper legs. These appendages would have permitted a slight movement of the figure as the disk was moved suggesting the idea of flight. The wires that hold the dangles are oriented so that only when the butterfly is pointing up do the dangles hang properly. The cut-out design may suggest a sense of place, as step designs are often associated with architecture: they may represent mirror images of temple steps or a repeating stepped wave design common in representations of buildings in Moche ceramics.

The function of disks such as the present example is unclear. They may have served as shield frontals, attached to a cane backing, but the delicate nature of the butterfly would have made this work impractical in battle. More likely, this disk served as part of the ceremonial regalia deployed in ritual performance. Alternatively, these disks may have been attached to textile banners or wooden supports of some sort. In either case, the presence of only one or two holes for attachment also seems to indicate that disks like this were not used in activities that involved strenuous motion. 

The Moche (also known as the Mochicas) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from AD 200-850, centuries before the rise of the Incas. Over the course of some six centuries, the Moche built thriving regional centers from the Nepeña River Valley in the south to perhaps as far north as the Piura River, near the modern border with Ecuador, developing coastal deserts into rich farmlands and drawing upon the abundant maritime resources of the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. Although the Moche never formed a single centralized political entity, they shared unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

This object was said to have been found at the burial site of Loma Negra, which was one of the most northern outposts of Moche culture. Loma Negra works in metal share similar iconography with ceramics and metalwork found at Moche sites father to the south, such as Ucupe (Bourget, 2014). The precise relationship between the Loma Negra and the Moche “heartland” remains a subject of debate, however (Kaulicke, 2006).

It was discovered in an offering or altar inside a tomb in Group B of the archaeological zone of Palenque, in Chiapas, Mexico. Chronology: Dates from the Late Classic period (approximately between 550 and 900 AD). Current preservation: It is exhibited in the "Alberto Ruz Lhuillier" Site Museum of Palenque.

After a month of intense work and a race against time, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), with the support of local authorities and the Maya Chortí indigenous communities, successfully rescued and relocated a Mayan stela and three altars at the Petapilla archaeological site, located in the municipality of Santa Rita, Copán.

These archaeological pieces were at serious risk of destruction due to a geological fault that threatened to sweep them away and bury them