1.
Mound Builders
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Since the 19th century, the prevailing scholarly consensus has been that the mounds were constructed by indigenous peoples of the Americas. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers made contact with living in a number of later Mississippian cities, described their cultures. By the time of United States westward expansion two hundred years later, Native Americans were generally not knowledgeable about the civilizations that produced the mounds, research and study of these cultures and peoples has been based mostly on archaeology and anthropology. At one time, the mound builder was applied to the people believed to have constructed these earthworks. In the 16th through 19th centuries, Europeans and Americans generally thought that an other than one related to the historic Native Americans had built the mounds. The namesake cultural trait of the Mound Builders was the building of mounds and these burial and ceremonial structures were typically flat-topped pyramids or platform mounds, flat-topped or rounded cones, elongated ridges, and sometimes a variety of other forms. They were generally built as part of villages that arose from more dense populations, with a specialization of skills. The early earthworks built in Louisiana c.3500 BCE are the ones known to be built by a hunter-gatherer culture. The best-known flat-topped pyramidal structure, which at over 100 feet tall is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork north of Mexico, is Monks Mound at Cahokia in present-day Collinsville, Illinois. At its peak about 1150 CE, Cahokia was a settlement with 20, 000-30,000 people. Some effigy mounds were constructed in the shapes or outlines of culturally significant animals, the most famous effigy mound, Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, ranges from 1 to just over 3 feet tall. 20 feet wide, over 1,330 feet long, many different tribal groups and chiefdoms, involving an array of beliefs and unique cultures over thousands of years, built mounds as expressions of their cultures. The general term, mound builder, covered their shared architectural practice of earthwork mound construction and this practice, believed to be associated with a cosmology that had a cross-cultural appeal, may indicate common cultural antecedents. The first mound building was a marker of political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. Watson Brake in Louisiana, constructed about 3500 BCE during the Middle Archaic period, is the oldest dated mound complex in North America and it is one of eleven mound complexes from this period found in the Lower Mississippi Valley. We can conclude that these mound builders were very organized people, hundreds or even thousands of workers had to dig up tons of earth with the hand tools available. Then the dirt had to be moved long distances. The most complete reference for these earthworks is Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, written by Ephraim G. Squier and it was published in 1848 by the Smithsonian
2.
Native Americans in the United States
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In the United States, Native Americans are people descended from the Pre-Columbian indigenous population of the land within the countrys modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, at the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal, the majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations, during the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands and this resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. As American expansion reached into the West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Basin, Great Plains and these were complex nomadic cultures based on horse culture and seasonal bison hunting. Over time, the United States forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, in 1924, Native Americans who were not already U. S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. Contemporary Native Americans have a relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes. The terms used to refer to Native Americans have at times been controversial, by comparison, the indigenous peoples of Canada are generally known as First Nations. It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and these early inhabitants, called Paleoamericans, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips 1958 book Method and they divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, see Archaeology of the Americas. The Clovis culture, a hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, the Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B. P, other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River. Genetic and linguistic data connect the people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians
3.
Cahokia
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The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville, the park covers 2,200 acres, or about 3.5 square miles, and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. In its heyday, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles and included about 120 human-made earthen mounds in a range of sizes, shapes. Today, Cahokia Mounds is considered the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great cities in Mexico. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a site for state protection. It is also one of only 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States, although there is some evidence of occupation during the Late Archaic period in and around the site, Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period. Mound building at this location began with the Emergent Mississippian cultural period, the citys original name is unknown. The Mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century. As this was centuries after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants, most likely multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the Cahokia area. Though widely debated, some archaeologists connect Dhegihan Siouan-speaking tribes to Cahokia and they include the Osage, Kaw, Omaha, Ponca, and Quapaw. These peoples are believed to have migrated from the east of the Ohio Valley. Many Native American tribes migrated over the centuries in response to local conditions and those living in territories at the time of the European encounter were often not the descendants of peoples who had lived there centuries before and built the mounds. Historian Daniel Richter notes that the apex of the city occurred during the Medieval Warming Period, the decline of the city coincides with the little ice age, although by then the three-fold agriculture remained well-established throughout temperate North America. Cahokia became the most important center for the peoples known today as Mississippians and their settlements ranged across what is now the Midwest, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Cahokia was located in a position near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to the north and the Gulf Coast to the south, trading in such items as copper, Mill Creek chert. Mill Creek chert, most notably, was used in the production of hoes, Cahokias control of the manufacture and distribution of these hand tools was an important economic activity that allowed the city to thrive. Bartering, not money was used in trade, at the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico and Central America
4.
Great Lakes
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Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 21% of the worlds surface fresh water by volume. The total surface is 94,250 square miles, and the volume is 5,439 cubic miles. Due to their sea-like characteristics the five Great Lakes have also long been referred to as inland seas, Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world by area, and Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country. The southern half of the Great Lakes is bordered by the Great Lakes Megalopolis, the lakes have been a major highway for transportation, migration and trade, and they are home to a large number of aquatic species. Many invasive species have been introduced due to trade, and some threaten the regions biodiversity, though the five lakes reside in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin. The lakes form a chain connecting the interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, the lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers, and are studded with approximately 35,000 islands. There are also several smaller lakes, often called inland lakes. The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the area of the entire basin is about the size of the UK. Lake Michigan is the one of the Great Lakes that is located entirely within the United States. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U. S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both Ontario and Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes, Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, New York and Wisconsins jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and the remaining states into one of the lakes. This designation, however, is not universal and those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as the lower lakes, because they are farther south. This corresponds to thinking of Lakes Erie and Ontario as down south, vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered upbound even though they are sailing toward its effluent current. The Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect the Great Lakes Basin to the Mississippi River System through man-made alterations, the St. Marys River, including the Soo Locks, connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, the St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The Detroit River connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, the Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal, bypassing the Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River connects Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which connects to the Atlantic Ocean
5.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
6.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
7.
Midwestern United States
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It was officially named the North Central region by the Census Bureau until 1984. Illinois is the most populous of the states and North Dakota the least, a 2012 report from the United States Census put the population of the Midwest at 65,377,684. The Midwest is divided by the Census Bureau into two divisions, the East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of the Great Lakes region. Major rivers in the include, from east to west, the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River. Chicago is the most populated city in the American Midwest and the third most populous in the entire country, other large Midwest cities include, Indianapolis, Columbus, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Wichita and St. Louis. Chicago and its suburbs form the largest metropolitan area with 9.8 million people, followed by Metro Detroit. Paul, Greater St. Louis, Greater Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati, Kansas City metro area, the term Midwestern has been in use since the 1880s to refer to portions of the central United States. A variant term, Middle West, has used since the 19th century. Another term sometimes applied to the general region is the heartland. Other designations for the region have fallen out of use, such as the Northwest or Old Northwest, the Northwest Territory was one of the earliest territories of the United States, stretching northwest from the Ohio River to northern Minnesota and upper-Mississippi. The upper-Mississippi watershed including the Missouri and Illinois Rivers was the setting for the earlier French settlements of the Illinois Country, economically the region is balanced between heavy industry and agriculture, with finance and services such as medicine and education becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks. Politically the region swings back and forth between the parties, and thus is heavily contested and often decisive in elections, after the sociological study Middletown, which was based on Muncie, Indiana, commentators used Midwestern cities as typical of the nation. The region has a higher ratio than the Northeast, the West. Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance Old Northwest states, the states of the Old Northwest are also known as Great Lakes states and are east-north central in the United States. The Ohio River runs along the section while the Mississippi River runs north to south near the center. Many of the Louisiana Purchase states in the west-north central United States, are known as Great Plains states. The Midwest lies north of the 36°30′ parallel that the 1820 Missouri Compromise established as the line between future slave and non-slave states
8.
Mississippi River
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The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
9.
Appalachians
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The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period and it once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before naturally occurring erosion. The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east-west travel, as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines, definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians. A common variant definition does not include the Adirondack Mountains, which belong to the Grenville Orogeny and have a different geological history from the rest of the Appalachians. The range covers parts of the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft. The highest of the group is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet, the term Appalachian refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the mountain range with its surrounding hills. The Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas and Oklahoma were originally part of the Appalachians as well, the name was soon altered by the Spanish to Apalachee and used as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north. Pánfilo de Narváezs expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15,1528, now spelled Appalachian, it is the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US. After the de Soto expedition in 1540, Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the mountains themselves. The first cartographic appearance of Apalchen is on Diego Gutierrezs map of 1562, the name was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century. A competing and often more popular name was the Allegheny Mountains, Alleghenies, in the early 19th century, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either Appalachia or Alleghania. In U. S. dialects in the regions of the Appalachians. In northern parts of the range, it is pronounced /ˌæpəˈleɪtʃᵻnz/ or /ˌæpəˈleɪʃᵻnz/, the third syllable is like lay. There is often debate between the residents of the regions as to which pronunciation is the more correct one. Elsewhere, a commonly accepted pronunciation for the adjective Appalachian is /ˌæpəˈlætʃiən/, the whole system may be divided into three great sections, Northern, The northern section runs from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the Hudson River. The Monteregian Hills, which cross the Green Mountains in Quebec, are also unassociated with the Appalachians, Central, The central section goes from the Hudson Valley to the New River running through Virginia and West Virginia. Southern, The southern section runs from the New River onwards and it consists of the prolongation of the Blue Ridge, which is divided into the Western Blue Ridge Front and the Eastern Blue Ridge Front, the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, and the Cumberland Plateau
10.
Southeastern United States
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The Southeastern United States is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, and the southern portion of the Eastern United States. It comprises 15 states in the southern United States, there is no official Census Bureau definition of the southeastern United States. The OSBO uses the same states, but includes Arkansas and Louisiana, the most populous state in the region is Florida, followed by Georgia, and North Carolina. With tropical air masses influencing the region precipitation is high throughout the year, the tropical air masses do however cause significant hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina wreaking havoc and causing significant damage to coastal areas. The winters highly vary depending on latitude and elevation, the Southeast has changed dramatically in the last two generations. Since 1980, there has been a boom in its economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries. Fortune 500 companies having headquarters in the region included 20 in Virginia,16 in Florida,15 in North Carolina and this economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to have of some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States. In Alabama, there is a manufacturing project owned by the German steel megacorporation Thyssen-Krupp. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama area is the second largest research complex in the nation, located in Huntsville is the Redstone Arsenal, United States Army Missile Command, the U. S. Space and Rocket Center, NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center and many key government, military. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the devoted to the study of magnetism. There are a number of universities, with several large research universities which exert influence beyond the region. These include the oldest public universities in the country, the University of Alabama, the region is home to the most historically black colleges and universities in the nation. The three largest in the region are North Carolina A&T University, Florida A&M University, and Jackson State University, on this list New Orleans Refers to the Orleans Parish Population. Therefore the population given is for the entire city excluding other incorporated places lying within the county limits, five Major League Baseball teams play in the Southeast, Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins play in the NL East,4 Major League Lacrosse teams play in the southeast, Chesapeake Bayhawks, Florida Launch, Charlotte Hounds, and the Atlanta Blaze. Seven National Basketball Association teams play in the Southeast, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and New Orleans Pelicans. The Wizards, Heat, Hornets, Magic and Hawks are in the Eastern Conference, the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Citrus Bowl are notable college football bowls held in Southeastern cities
11.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
12.
Tennessee River
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The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as many of the Cherokee had their territory along its banks, especially in eastern Tennessee. Its current name is derived from the Cherokee village Tanasi, the Tennessee River is formed at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers on the east side of present-day Knoxville, Tennessee. From Knoxville, it flows southwest through East Tennessee toward Chattanooga before crossing into Alabama and it loops through northern Alabama and eventually forms a small part of the states border with Mississippi, before returning to Tennessee. At this point, it defines the boundary between two of Tennessees Grand Divisions, Middle and West Tennessee and this waterway reduces the navigation distance from Tennessee, north Alabama, and northern Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by hundreds of miles. The final part of the Tennessees run is in Kentucky, where it separates the Jackson Purchase from the rest of the state and it flows into the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. The river has been dammed numerous times, primarily in the 20th century by Tennessee Valley Authority projects since the 1930s, a navigation canal located at Grand Rivers, Kentucky, links Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. The canal allows for a trip for river traffic going from the Tennessee to most of the Ohio River. Maps from the early 18th century call it Cussate, Hogohegee, Callamaco, a 1755 British map showed the Tennessee River as the River of the Cherakees. By the late 18th century, it had come to be called Tennessee, the river was a major highway to transport goods and explorers in the years when Tennessee was not yet settled. Some major towns that still exist today, and major ports at them were established by those who rode down the river, and settled along it. The Tennessee River begins at mile post 652, where the French Broad River meets the Holston River, in the late 18th century, the mouth of the Little Tennessee River was considered to be the beginning of the Tennessee River. Through much of the 19th century, the Tennessee River was considered to start at the mouth of Clinch River, at various points since the early 19th century, Georgia has disputed its northern border with Tennessee. Georgia made several attempts to correct what Georgia felt was an erroneous survey line in the 1890s,1905,1915,1922,1941,1947 and 1971 to resolve the dispute. Crews Townsend, Joseph McCoin, Robert F. Parsley, Alison Martin and Zachary H. Greene, writing for the Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association, appearing on May 12,2008. In 2008, as a result of a drought and resulting water shortage. In a two-page resolution passed overwhelmingly by the senate, Georgia declared that it, not its neighbor to the north
13.
Hernando de Soto
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A vast undertaking, de Sotos North American expedition ranged throughout the southeastern United States searching for gold, and a passage to China. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River in what is now Guachoya, Arkansas or Ferriday and he was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, in the current province of Badajoz. However, three towns—Badajoz, Barcarrota and Jerez de los Caballeros—claim to be his birthplace and he spent time as a child at each place, and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were interred. The age of the Conquerors came on the heels of the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Islamic forces, Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the Moors were defeated. With discovery of new lands to the west, they were attracted to whispers of glory, De Soto sailed to the New World with the first Governor of Panama, Pedrarias Dávila. In 1520 he participated in Gaspar de Espinosas expedition to Veragua, there he acquired an encomienda and a public office in Leon, Nicaragua. Brave leadership, unwavering loyalty, and ruthless schemes for the extortion of native villages for their chiefs became de Sotos hallmarks during the Conquest of Central America. He gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician, in 1530, de Soto became a regidor of León, Nicaragua. He led an expedition up the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula searching for a passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to enable trade with the Orient, the richest market in the world. Failing that, and without means to further, de Soto, upon Pedro Arias Dávilas death. Bringing his own men on ships which he hired, de Soto joined Francisco Pizarro at his first base of Tumbes shortly before departure for the interior of present-day Peru, Pizarro quickly made de Soto one of his captains. When Pizarro and his men first encountered the army of the Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca, when Pizarros men attacked Atahualpa and his guard the next day, de Soto led one of the three groups of mounted soldiers. De Soto was sent to the camp of the Incan army, during 1533, the Spanish held Atahualpa captive in Cajamarca for months while his subjects paid for his ransom by filling a room with gold and silver objects. During this captivity, de Soto became friendly with Atahualpa and taught him to play chess, by the time the ransom had been completed, the Spanish became alarmed by rumors of an Incan army advancing on Cajamarca. Pizarro sent de Soto with 200 soldiers to scout for the rumored army, while de Soto was gone, the Spanish in Cajamarca decided to kill Atahualpa to prevent his rescue. De Soto returned to report that he found no signs of an army in the area, after executing Atahualpa, Pizarro and his men headed to Cuzco, the capital of the Incan Empire. As the Spanish force approached Cuzco, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando, the advance guard fought a pitched battle with Incan troops in front of the city, but the battle had ended before Pizarro arrived with the rest of the Spanish party. The Incan army withdrew during the night, the Spanish plundered Cuzco, where they found much gold and silver
14.
Natchez people
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They spoke a language with no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy. The Natchez are noted for being the only Mississippian culture with complex chiefdom characteristics to have survived long into the period after the European colonization of America began, others had generally declined a century or two before European encounter. The Natchez are also noted for having had a social system of nobility classes. It was a matrilineal kinship society, with descent reckoned along female lines. The paramount chief named the Great Sun was always the son of the Female Sun and this ensured that the chiefdom stayed under the control of the single Sun lineage. Ethnologists have not reached consensus on how the Natchez social system originally functioned, around 1730, after several wars with the French, the Natchez were defeated and dispersed. Most survivors were sold by the French into slavery in the West Indies, others took refuge with other tribes, such as the Muskogean Chickasaw and Creek, and the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee. Today, most Natchez families and communities are found in Oklahoma, two Natchez communities are recognized by the state of South Carolina. Its largest center was at Cahokia in present-day Illinois near the confluence of the Illinois and its peoples were noted for their hierarchical communities, building complex earthworks and platform mound architecture, and intensively cultivating maize. Archaeological evidence indicates that people of the Plaquemine culture, an elaboration of the Coles Creek culture, had lived in the Natchez Bluffs region since at least as long ago as 700 CE, the Natchez Bluffs are located along the east side of the Mississippi River in present-day Mississippi. During the late prehistoric era, around 1500, Plaquemine-culture people occupied territory from the Big Black River in the north to about the Homochitto River in the south. The Plaquemine people built many platform mounds, including Emerald Mound, Emerald Mound was an important ceremonial center. The Natchez used Emerald Mound in their time, but they abandoned the site before 1700 and their center of power shifted to the Grand Village of the Natchez. The Grand Village has three platform mounds, by 1700, the Natchez occupied a territory that covered only an area roughly between Fairchilds Creek and South Fork Coles Creek in the north to St. Catherines Creek in the south. This area is approximately that of the half of present-day Adams County. The earliest European account of the Natchez comes from the Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto, in 1542 de Sotos expedition encountered a powerful nation which he called the province of Quigualtam, after the leaders name. Scholars have classified this as the Emerald Phase of the Mississippian Natchez chiefdom presumed to be the Winterville site, the encounter was brief and violent, and the Natchez killed most of the Spanish. These and other intrusions had severely reduced the native populations, the Natchez culture continued at the Grand Village
15.
Human sacrifice
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Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of a ritual. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history, closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. By the Iron Age, with the developments in religion, human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout the Old World. In the New World, however, human sacrifice continued to be widespread to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas, in modern times, even the practice of animal sacrifice has virtually disappeared from all major religions, and human sacrifice has become extremely rare. Most religions condemn the practice, and modern secular laws treat it as murder, in a society which condemns human sacrifice, the term ritual murder is used. Human sacrifice is distinguished from infanticide, infanticide is deliberately causing the death of an unwanted infant or young child, but without a ritualistic or religious purpose. The idea of sacrifice has its roots in deep prehistory. From its historical occurrences it seems mostly associated with neolithic or nomadic cultures, Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. The various rationales behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general, Human sacrifice is intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods, for example in the context of the dedication of a completed building like a temple or bridge. There is a Chinese legend that there are thousands of people entombed in the Great Wall of China, for the re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they killed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days. According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed in the ceremony, Human sacrifice can also have the intention of winning the gods favour in warfare. In Homeric legend, Iphigeneia was to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to appease Artemis so she would allow the Greeks to wage the Trojan War. According to the Bible, Jephthah vowed to devote to God the first creature to come out of his house to him if he won the battle against the Ammonites. His daughter was the first to come out and meet him, in some notions of an afterlife, the deceased will benefit from victims killed at his funeral. Mongols, Scythians, early Egyptians and various Mesoamerican chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and concubines, with them to the next world. This is sometimes called a sacrifice, as the leaders retainers would be sacrificed along with their master. Another purpose is divination from the parts of the victim. According to Strabo, Celts stabbed a victim with a sword, headhunting is the practice of taking the head of a killed adversary, for ceremonial or magical purposes, or for reasons of prestige
16.
Mississippian copper plates
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Mississippian copper plates, or plaques, are plain and repousséd plates of beaten copper crafted by peoples of the various regional expressions of the Mississippian culture between 800 and 1600 CE. They have been found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast, some of the more notable examples are representations of raptorial birds and avian-themed dancing warriors. Copper trade routes throughout the Eastern Woodlands were established during the Archaic period, Copper was usually imported from the Great Lakes region, however other sources of copper have been found elsewhere including in the Appalachian Mountains near the Etowah Site in Alabama. These elites used a network that spanned most of North America to acquire exotic trade items from far away, trading their own locally manufactured elite goods. After the collapse of the Mississippian way of life in the 1500s with the advent of European colonization, Copper was traditionally regarded as sacred by many historic period Eastern tribes. Copper nuggets are included in medicine bundles among Great Lakes tribes, among 19th century Muscogee, a group of copper plates carried along the Trail of Tears are regarded as some of the tribes most sacred items. They were also able to determine that the Cahokian coppersmiths had heated the copper in a fire to produce sufficient heat for this process. Researchers have also tried different techniques to duplicate how larger pieces were manufactured and they determined that the larger pieces had not been laminated together but had most likely been riveted together with small copper knobs. Researchers were also able to determine that the cut the copper into the desired shapes by bending the sheet metal back. After the flat sheets of copper were produced, designs were then embossed into the surfaces probably with stone, bone or wooden tools, frank Hamilton Cushing, an anthropologist working in the early 20th century, worked out a method for flattening and embossing the plates. He hammered raw nuggets of copper smooth and removed imperfections by scouring the surface with a piece of sandstone. He was then able to duplicate the avian designs by resting the sheet of copper on a pad and pressing into the surface using a piece of pointed deer antler. This produced a thin line that when the plate was reversed resembled the embossed lines of the aboriginal artifacts. This process is considered to be similar to how Mississippian coppersmiths probably worked. Avian themed plates are thought to depict aspects of the Birdman, a figure in Mississippian iconography closely associated with warfare, ritual dancing. Excavations of the workshops at Mound 34, indicate copper was worked there. The area contains the remains of three tree stumps thought to have used to hold anvil stones used for beating out the flattened sheets of copper. However, despite the lack of copper plates, one copper artifact has been found at the site, a copper-covered wooden mace 6.3 centimetres by 2.5 centimetres thought to have been part of a headdress was found during surface collections at Cahokia
17.
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
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The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, aka S. E. C. C. This development appears to have no links to Mesoamerica. This ceremonial complex represents a component of the religion of the Mississippian peoples. Obsolete names for this complex, found in some anthropological sources, include Buzzard Cult. Much of what is called a complex was more of an exchange network and this kind of network may be illustrated by a pair of shell gorgets whose representation is so similar as to suggest that they were made by the same artist. One is found in southeast Missouri and the other in Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma, numerous other pairs of extremely similar gorgets serve to link sites across the entire Southeast. Such objects occur in burials, together with war axes, maces. These warrior symbols occur alongside other artifacts, which bear cosmic imagery depicting animals, humans and this symbolic imagery bound together warfare, cosmology, and nobility into a coherent whole. Some of these categories of artifacts were used as markers of chiefly office, the term Southeast Ceremonial Complex refers to a complex, highly variable set of religious mechanisms that supported the authority of local chiefs. The S. E. C. C. was first defined in 1945 by the archaeologists Antonio Waring and Preston Holder as a series of four lists of traits, which they categorized as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Their concept was of a complex of a specific cult manifestation that originated with Muskogean speakers in the southern United States, since then scholars have expanded the original definition, while using its trait lists as a foundation for critical analysis of the entire concept. In 1989 scholars proposed a more archaeologically based definition for the Mississippian artistic tradition. With the redefinition of the complex, some scholars have suggested choosing a new name to exemplify the new understanding of the body of art symbols classified as the S. E. C. C. Present theories suggest that the complex developed from pre-existing beliefs spread over the midwest and southeast by the Hopewell Interaction Sphere from 100 BCE to 500 CE. The major expression of the complex developed at the Cahokia site and is known as the Braden Style, other regional styles developed as a result of the fusion of ideas borrowed from the Braden Style and pre-existing local expressions of post-Hopewellian traditions. As the major centers, such as Cahokia, collapsed and the trade broke down. During the ensuing centuries, the local traditions diverged into the religious beliefs, imagery focuses on cosmology and the supernatural beings who inhabit the cosmos. The cosmological map encompassed real, knowable locations, whether in this world or the reality of the Otherworld
18.
Parkin Archeological State Park
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Parkin Archeological State Park, also known as Parkin Indian Mound, is an archeological site and state park in Parkin, Cross County, Arkansas. Around 1350–1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded village existed at the site, at the confluence of the St. Francis, artifacts from this site are on display at the site museum. The Parkin Site is the site for the Parkin phase. Many archeologists believe it to be part of the province of Casqui, Archeological artifacts from the village of the Parkin people are dated to 1400–1650 CE. The Parkin site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 for its significance as a site of the Parkin Phase. In 1966, the Parkin Indian Mound was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Parkin Archeological State Park is located at 60 Arkansas Highway 184 North, Parkin, Arkansas. The Parkin Site is the site for an important Late Mississippian cultural component, the Parkin phase. The Parkin phase was a collection of villages along the St. Francis and this culture is contemporary with the Caborn-Welborn culture and Menard, Tipton, Walls and the Nodena phases. It has been determined that the site was occupied for at least 500 years. The province takes its name from the chieftain Casqui, who ruled the tribe from its primary village. The Parkin phase is a series of villages of varying sizes along the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers. These sites include the Rose Mound, Glover, Neeleys Ferry and they would leave their villages during the day to farm their fields, collect wood, and hunt, but at night return to the safety of their well defended villages. The people of the Parkin phase were isolated from other phases to their east and southeast by swamps, the swamps acted as buffer zones in between the hostile phases. As time went on, the culture of the Parkin phase diverged more and more from the surrounding phases. Among other indicators, this diversion was characterized by changes in pottery designs, the cultural changes show that the peoples of the Parkin phase were becoming isolated from their neighbors not only culturally but also physically. The people of Parkin were intensely involved in agriculture, as well as other food crops originating in the Americas, such as beans, gourds, squash. After the harvest maize was stored in large above ground cribs for consumption during the remainder of the year and they also gathered wild foodstuffs such as pecans and persimmons. The de Soto chroniclers described the area as being under cultivation
19.
Cross County, Arkansas
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Cross County is a county located in the U. S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 17,870, Cross County is Arkansass 53rd county, formed on 15 November 1862 and named for Confederate Colonel David C. Cross, a leader in the area. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 622 square miles. The population density was 32 per square mile, there were 8,030 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile. 0. 93% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,23. 50% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the family size was 3.07. 27. 80% of the population were under the age of 18,8. 50% from 18 to 24,27. 40% from 25 to 44,22. 60% from 45 to 64, the median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 94.00 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.40 males. The median household income was $29,362 and the family income was $34,044. Males had an income of $27,880 and females $20,133. The per capita income for the county was $15,726, about 16. 40% of families and 19. 90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27. 90% of those under age 18 and 17. 50% of those age 65 or over. Cherry Valley Hickory Ridge Parkin Wynne Levesque Twist Wittsburg Vanndale Townships in Arkansas are the divisions of a county, each township includes unincorporated areas, some may have incorporated cities or towns within part of their boundaries. Arkansas townships have limited purposes in modern times, however, the United States Census does list Arkansas population based on townships. Townships are also of value for purposes in terms of genealogical research. Each town or city is one or more townships in an Arkansas county based on census maps. The townships of Cross County are listed below, listed in parentheses are the cities, towns, list of lakes in Cross County, Arkansas National Register of Historic Places listings in Cross County, Arkansas Cross County Historical Society
20.
Earthworks (archaeology)
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In archaeology, earthworks are artificial changes in land level, typically made from piles of artificially placed or sculpted rocks and soil. Earthworks are often known as barrows in England, and mounds in North America, Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features, or they can show features beneath the surface. They are believed to have used as monuments for spiritual ritual ceremonies. Long barrows are oblong-shaped mounds that are used for burials, tumuli are mounds of earth created over a tomb, it has the same meaning as barrow. A cross dyke or cross-ridge dyke is a bank and ditch, found in Europe and often belonging to the later Bronze Age or Iron Age. Often marked on Ordnance Survey maps in the UK. Ridge and furrows are sets of parallel depressions, mottes are mound structures made of earth and stone that once held castles. A round barrow is a mound that is in a shape that was used during Neolithic times as a burial mound. Geoglyph, a design or motif Earthworks can vary in height from a few centimetres to the size of Silbury Hill at 40 metres. They can date from the Neolithic to the present, the structures can also stretch for many tens of kilometres. In area, they can cover many hectares, for example, Maiden Castle, shallow earthworks are often more visible as cropmarks or in aerial photographs if taken when the sun is low in the sky and shadows are more pronounced. Similarly, earthworks may be visible after a frost or a light dusting of snow. Earthworks can be detected and plotted using Light Detection and Ranging and this technique is particularly useful for mapping small variations in land height that would be difficult to detect by eye. It can be used to map features beneath forest canopy and for features hidden by other vegetation, LIDAR results can be input into a geographic information system to produce three-dimensional representations of the earthworks. An accurate survey of the earthworks can enable them to be interpreted without the need for excavation, for example, earthworks from deserted medieval villages can be used to determine the location, size, and layout of lost settlements. Often these earthworks can point to the purpose of such a settlement, Earthworks in North America include mounds built by Native Americans known as the Mound Builders. Ancient people who lived in the American Midwest commonly built effigy mounds, possibly the most famous of these effigy mounds is Serpent Mound. Located in the Ohio, this 411-meterlong earthen work is thought to memorialize alignments of the planets, cone-shaped or conical mounds are also numerous, with thousands of them scattered across the American Midwest, some over 80 feet tall. These conical mounds appear to be marking the graves of one person or even dozens of people
21.
Platform mound
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A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and these platform mounds are usually four-sided truncated pyramids, steeply sided, with steps built of wooden logs ascending one side of the earthworks. When European first arrived in North America, the peoples of the Mississippian culture were still using and building platform mounds, many of the mounds underwent multiple episodes of mound construction, with the mound becoming larger with each event. The site of a mound was usually a site with special significance and this site was then covered with a layer of basket-transported soil and clay known as mound fill and a new structure constructed on its summit. Sometimes the surface of the mounds would get a several inches thick coat of brightly colored clay and this pattern could be repeated many times during the life of a site. The large amounts of fill needed for the mounds left large holes in the now known by archaeologists as borrow pits. These pits were sometimes left to fill with water and stocked with fish, monks Mound had at least ten separate periods of mound construction over a 200-year period. Some of the terraces and aprons on the mound seem to have added to stop slumping of the enormous mound. Although the mounds were primarily meant as substructure mounds for buildings or activities, sometimes burials did occur, intrusive burials occurred when a grave was dug into a mound and the body or a bundle of defleshed, disarticulated bones was deposited into it. Also interred in this mound was a set of white marble Mississippian stone statues. His logic is based on analogy to ethnographic and historic data on related Native American tribal groups in the Southeastern United States. Knight suggests a microcosmic ritual organization based around a native earth autochthony, agriculture, fertility, and purification scheme, in which mounds and the site layout replicate cosmology. Mound rebuilding episodes are construed as rituals of burial and renewal, while the four-sided construction acts to replicate the flat earth, platform mounds in the Arizona Desert. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, geographic distribution and symbolism of colored mound architecture in the Mississippian Southeast. Mississippian capitals, an investigation of Precolumbian political structure. Sociopolitical implications of Mississippian mound volume, raised ground, Razed structure, Ceramic chronology, occupation and chiefly authority on Mound P at Moundville. Kitt Chappell, Sally A. Cahokia, Mirror of the Cosmos
22.
Charnel house
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A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves. The term can also be used generally as a description of a place filled with death. In countries where ground suitable for burial was scarce, corpses would be interred for approximately five years following death, after this, the remains would be exhumed and moved to an ossuary or charnel house, thereby allowing the original burial place to be reused. In modern times, the use of houses is a characteristic of cultures living in rocky or arid places, such as the Cyclades archipelago. Saint Catherines Monastery in the Sinai is famous for having a working charnel house, Saint Catherines was founded by Justinian in the early 6th century, on the site of an older monastery founded about 313 AD and named for Helena of Constantinople. The monastery comprises the whole Autonomous Church of Sinai, under the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the site lies at the foot of Mount Sinai where Christians believe Moses received the Ten Commandments. Since the Sinai is a place, the brethren of St. Catherines have struggled to eke out a subsistence-level existence. The Archbishop of Saint Catherines is commonly the Abbot as well, after death, he is afforded the dignity of a special niche within the Skull-House. A charnel house is also a commonly seen in some Native American societies of the Eastern United States. Major examples are the Hopewell cultures and Mississippian cultures and these houses were used specifically for mortuary services and, although they required many more resources to build and maintain than a crypt, they were widely used. They offered privacy and shelter as well as enough workspace for mortuary proceedings and these proceedings included cremation as well as defleshing of the body before the cremation. Once the houses had served their purpose, they were burned to the ground and covered by earth, creating a sort of burial mound. Anthropologist William F. Mortuary house Ossuary Papaioannou, Evangelos The Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai, St. Catherines Monastery, Guidebook,48 pp. Cairo, Isis Press. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Media related to Charnel house at Wikimedia Commons
23.
Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
