Calliope articles from January 2004

Calliope archives from January 2004

Musings.(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
January 1, 2004... "The more they were honored, the more they wept, suffered affliction, sighed; they became most humble, most meek, most contrite. In such a manner, those who were the old men lived on earth. These men are those who go leaving us, your great...

Time line.
January 1, 2004... The World of the Ancient Maya (c. A.D. 250-1500) The World of the Ancient Toltec (c. A.D. 950-1200) The World of the Ancient Aztec (c. A.D. 1325-1519) 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300...

A surprise find.(Olmec civilization discovered in 1862)
January 1, 2004... America's oldest civilization was exposed--by accident--in 1862. However, it was not until 80 years later that it was officially recognized. What we know of this ancient culture comes from artifacts. We still are not sure who the people...

The rise of the Olmecs.(pre-Columbian civilization)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... The Olmecs created the very first civilization in all of ancient America. The two capital cities of San Lorenzo and La Venta sat on ridges overlooking two of the large rivers that wind through the swampy, lowland jungles of southern Mexico near...

Who's who in Mesoamerica.
January 1, 2004... Historians and archaeologists use the term "Mesoamerica" (mesos is the Greek word for "middle") to refer to the civilizations that flourished in Mexico and Central America before the arrival of European explorers. Since Christopher Columbus is...

The heads of San Lorenzo.(discovery at Mexican archaeological site)
January 1, 2004... Seventeen colossal heads have been found at four different archaeological sites on Mexico's southern Gulf coast. Ten are at San Lorenzo; four at La Venta; and two at Tres Zapotes. The largest one is at Cobata and may come from a workshop site...

America's pyramids.(La Venta)
January 1, 2004... The Olmecs were city builders. La Venta was the first of their cities to be discovered by archaeologists and is, by far, the best preserved. Its original plazas, pyramids, and mounds can still be seen today. This is because they were not...

City builder.(Activity)
January 1, 2004... (A game for 2 to 4 players) La Venta was a carefully laid out city built around a central plaza according to cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). The object of the game is to place a building on each of the four borders of the...

Stones that tell tales.(Olmec monumental art)
January 1, 2004... The human body is the most commonly represented figure in Olmec monumental art. For historians, this is important, because it tells us that the Olmecs were very concerned with how people related to each other and to the spiritual world. But...

An a-"maize"-ing story.(maize and its role in development of Olmec society)
January 1, 2004... Maize, commonly called corn, is the most important cereal crop to come from the Americas. The word "maize" comes from the Spanish maiz, a term that was itself adapted from the name used by the Caribbean natives who first met Christopher...

Writing in the New World.
January 1, 2004... Humans hove the ability, unique among animals, to create a limitless system of communication through the combining and recombining of elements such us words or numbers. Scientists believe that the ability, which we call language, may have...

Word origins.(Fun With Words)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ANTHROPOMORPHIC In many ancient cultures, the gods and goddesses worshiped by the people were considered anthropomorphic. By definition, the word means "assigning to gods, animals, or inanimate objects a human shape or human traits such as...

Word stories.(Fun With Words; chocolate)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... CHOCOLATE Most everyone loves chocolate, but few know its origin or its main ingredient. Chocolate comes in many forms: paste, powder, syrup, and bar-shaped. All are made from cacao seeds that are first roasted, then ground. In ancient...

A people in decline.(reasons for Olmecs' decline considered)
January 1, 2004... Understanding and explaining the transition between one civilization and the next is typically one of the most complicated issues archaeologists and historians face. Even when there are extensive written records (as there are, for example, from...

A wild grass.(Activity)
January 1, 2004... Use the clues below to help you unjumble the letters on the dashes to the right. Write the correct word each jumbled set of letters spells. The letters in the boxes will then spell the name of a wild grass. Clues: 1. Thin round...

From kitchen hearths to trash dumps: within the large mounds typical of many Olmec sites, Olmec deposits are often found buried under many feet of younger materials.(Digging Up the Past)
January 1, 2004... In 1868, Jose Maria Melgar y Serrano published a description of a large sculpted head that lay near the modern village of Tres Zapotes in the Mexican state of Veracruz. In the decades that followed, explorers continued to encounter other large...

The ceremonial seal.(Activity; making a cylinder seal)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Cylinder seals are an early form of printing used by the Olmecs and other ancient peoples of Mesoamerica. Archaeologists think the seals were used to print patterns and sacred symbols on cloth or even on a person's skin. Several examples are...

Ask CALLIOPE.
January 1, 2004... ? What did Marie Antoinette mean when she said "Let them eat cake"? --Marie, 10, Web post ! Marie Antoinette was not a well-liked queen. The wife of King Louis XVI of France, she was known for her lack of responsibility and her...

Books.(Off the Shelf; Atlas of Ancient America; Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World; The Maya: Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land; Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico; The Sad Night: The Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Atlas of Ancient America by Michael Coe, Dean Snow, and Elizabeth Benson (Facts On File, 1980, WWW.FACTSONFILE.COM) is a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about the area and time period. Clearly defined maps, site features (La Venta),...

Cobblestone resources.(Off the Shelf)
January 1, 2004... Materials that complement this issue's theme, "The Olmecs," and are available from Cobblestone Publishing include: CALLIOPE Magazine: The Ancient Maya (February 1999) The Incas of Peru (March 2000) DIG Magazine: Mayan Rivals...

On the net.(Off the Shelf)
January 1, 2004... For a wealth of information on the Olmec people, with numerous links to informative sites, try: www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/olmecs.htm For an introduction to Olmec culture and a reconstruction drawing of how the Olmec heads were...

Tres Zapotes holds the clues.(to decline of Olmecs)
January 1, 2004... What happened to the Olmecs? To answer this question, a team of archaeologists from the United States and Mexico is working at Tres Zapotes. Fieldwork shows that the site grew and declined over a period of 2,000 years, beginning around 1000...