Exotic items clearly imported from Central America have been repeatedly uncovered in the archaeological records within the traditional territory of the northerners collectively known aptly as the ‘Pueblo’, or town peoples.
Such items include, but are not necessarily limited to, copper bells and macaw-parrots (the Hopi people of U.S. northern Arizona do indeed have a parrot clan — pic 3); utensils such as corn-grinding mano-metates; architectural features such as platform mounds, ball-courts (pic 4) and residences; and particularly their cultivated plants that originated in Mexico, especially the ‘Three Sisters’, maize-corn, beans and squashes.
This influence is also seen in pottery styles and artistic iconography, the latter exemplified by the mysterious and ubiquitous T-shape symbol (as found in Pueblo doorways and tablita headdress, plus Meso-American funerary masks).
Wow.
Dude the pueblo were in heavy contact with mesoamerica. They played a similar ball game and they were the main source of turquoise that the mexica would use as one of their currencies. It made them really wealthy for a time.
People don’t realize just insanely connected native America really was. There was a road that went from alaska to florida. Genuinely try and comprehend how crazy that is. I still can’t wrap my head around it.
I still remember that shortly before I looked up this history I had this conception in mind that Mesoamerica was basically the New York City of Turtle Island. It’s fun to imagine tribes in the north hearing rumors or tales of a great city down to the south rich in agriculture and stone architecture.
At first I thought that it would have been very rare for anybody in the upper regions to even attempt to trek all the way down to Mesoamerica, but if there was a road stretching all the way from Alaska to Florida, maybe it was less rare than I thought!
Before I tell you just how right you are I need to explain who the aztecs actually were rq. Basically what most people know as the aztec were a confederation of 3 city states, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. At first they ruled semi-equally but eventually Tenochtitlan came to dominate the political sphere. The primary ethnic group of Tenochtitlan were the Mexica and their homeland was a place they called Aztlan from which we derive the term Aztec.
Now the Mexica didn’t originally live in the valley of mexico, their home of Aztlan was most likely in the south western United States like arizona and new mexico. For whatever reason they were pushed out of that land and took the dangerous journey south to the valley of mexico. Now, we cannot know this for certain but I believe they were willing to take this perilous trek because they had heard of a flourishing culture there. However, upon their arrival they found the land completely and utterly inhabited. They had travelled through hell to get here probably dreaming of a paradise but found it heavily guarded by the people living off of it. As a solution they lived in the lake and made new land, they acted as mercenaries for other powerful forces and became known for their valor and skill. There story is one of persistence and often immense comraderie.
I think there were 100% rumors of a far off exotic land south of that great desert and I think they took their chances. I am doubtful they were the first to make this journey with these hopes. Their history evens mentions that their god huiztlapochli told them to leave Aztlan for a paradise but this could technically be a later revision.
But how on earth did a desert people quickly develop the incredibly unique and complex chinampa system? They must have either learned it from locals who were already practicing it or had generations of occupancy to develop it.
CORRECT AGAIN! They learned it from a people just south of them and it was a large part of their early imperial growth
“road” in this context probably isn’t something we’d visually recognize in the modern or roman sense.
Closer to a stroadthen. I see.
Little known fact that combined Taco Bell-Pizza Hut gas stations are actually pre-Columbian
Copper mined from the Great Lakes cultures have been found as far as the Gulf Coast.
It’s really kind of incredible how effectively we’ve all convinced ourselves that colonized peoples were basically cavemen. Egypt was importing cinnamon from Sri Lanka as early as 2000BC. Why wouldn’t there be cross-continental trade in the Americas?
