Ancient South America

Ancient South America, 2nd edition features the full panorama of the South American past from the first inhabitants to the European invasions.

Karen Olsen Bruhns (Author)

9780521682497, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 May 2024

484 pages
25.5 x 17.9 x 2.3 cm, 1.02 kg

'… provides an excellent introduction to the better-studied cultures of ancient South America … Recommended.' E. R. Swenson, CHOICE

Ancient South America, 2nd edition features the full panorama of the South American past from the first inhabitants to the European invasions  Isolated for all of prehistory and much of history, the continent witnessed the rise of cultures and advanced civilizations rivalling those of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Independently of developments elsewhere, South American peoples invented agriculture, domesticated animals, and created pottery, elaborate architecture, and the arts of working metals. Tribes, chiefdoms, and immense conquest states rose, flourished, and disappeared, leaving only their ruined monuments and broken artifacts as testimonials to past greatness. This new edition is completely revised and updated to reflect archaeological discoveries and insights made in the past three decades. Incorporating new findings on northern and eastern lowlands, and discussions of the first civilizations, it also examines the first inhabitants of Brazil and Patagonia as well as the Andes. Accessibly written and abundantly illustration, the volume also includes chronological charts and new examples.

1. Still a new world
2. A matter of time
3. The physical setting
4. The first peoples: 12,000–6000BC
5. Settling down: 6000–3500BC
6. The problems of maize
7. Cultural intensifications in the Andes: 3500–2000BC
8. Ceramics: their origins and spread
9. Further developments in the beginnings of civilization: 2000–200BC
10. Textiles: the highest art of South America
11. Metallurgy in Ancient South America
12. Regional diversification in the Andes 200BC–AD800
13. Iconographic studies
14. Militaristic and religious movements in the Andes AD600–900
15. Transport and trade
16. Kingdoms, chiefdoms and empires AD900–1438
17. The Amazon: mistaken ideas and new investigations
18. The 16th century
19. Intercontinental movements before Columbus
20. The future of a continent.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]