Collision of WorldsPub Date : 2020-08-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190864354.003.0002
D. Carballo
{"title":"Mesoamerica","authors":"D. Carballo","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190864354.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190864354.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"A deep history of Mesoamerica traces how the transition from nomadic foragers to settled farmers of maize and other crops resulted in the first villages, unifying art styles, and later cities, states, and empires. Cultures such as the Olmecs, Mayas, Teotihuacanos, and Toltecs preceded the Aztecs, who incorporated elements of all of them, particularly the last two from the same region of central Mexico. This chapter examines millennia of Mesoamerican history known through archaeology, the history of art, and epigraphic study of the few extant Native texts from the pre-Hispanic era. It explores how Mesoamericans first cultivated maize and other crops to establish an agricultural base somewhat familiar to readers as Mexican and Central American cuisine; the development of the earliest team sports involving rubber balls; urbanization into populous cities featuring pyramidal temple complexes; the invention of hieroglyphic scripts and the concept of zero before it existed in Europe; and the political rise and collapse of successive civilizations prior to the Aztecs.","PeriodicalId":131527,"journal":{"name":"Collision of Worlds","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129434203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iberia","authors":"D. Carballo","doi":"10.1163/9789004402836_009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004402836_009","url":null,"abstract":"A deep history of Iberia examines the waves of conquest and cultural developments on the Iberian peninsula. Agriculture was imported to Iberia from the Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia and included animal husbandry and the use of pack animals. Autonomous cultural developments of native Iberians were stimulated by maritime powers that sailed west along the Mediterranean: the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans, each growing in their imperial reach and providing a base for later political and economic developments. Iberians also took advantage of their geographical setting on a peninsular hinge between the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds, which connected two major maritime spheres of interaction and saw the development of hybrid ships increasingly suited to open ocean crossing. Following the collapse of imperial Rome, Iberia fluctuated between Christian and Islamic rule, with the former emerging victorious after a centuries-long program of national unification known as the Reconquista, or “reconquest.” Crops introduced by Muslims and administrative strategies implemented by Christian kingdoms in frontier regions were direct predecessors of the plantation-like economies eventually imposed on the Americas.","PeriodicalId":131527,"journal":{"name":"Collision of Worlds","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121856255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}