The Maryhill Museum located near Goldendale, Washington, has a display of Plateau stone artifacts. The Plateau Culture Area is the area between the Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia, and Western Montana. From north to south it runs from the Fraser River in the north to the Blue Mountains … Continued
In major museums, only a small fraction of the artifacts held by the museum are on display and interpreted for the public. Most of the museum’s artifacts are in vaults where they are available only to researchers. The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History maintains a Visible Vault in which visitors can view hundreds … Continued
Veracruz is a region in Mexico’s gulf coastal lowlands. This was the homeland for one of Mesoamerica’s earliest civilizations, the Olmec. The Olmec first emerged about 1500 BCE. Their civilization and their art styles influence many of the later Mesoamerican civilizations. In their Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesoamerica, Margaret Bunson and Stephen Bunson report: “As the … Continued
For more than 10,000 years Indian people have lived adjacent to the Columbia River. In the Columbia Gorge area, hundreds, if not thousands, of archaeological sites provide silent testimony to this long period of human occupation. Rock art, in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs, is found throughout the area. The area along the Columbia … Continued
At one time, Teotihuacán, was not only the largest city in Mexico, but also one of the largest cities in the world. Construction of this city, which is located to the northeast of present-day Mexico City, was started about 2,200 years ago. By 1,500 years ago Teotihuacán had a population of about 250,000 people, making … Continued
The San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California, includes displays of archaeological artifacts from Western Mexico. Western Mexico includes the modern states of Colima, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, and Sinaloa. One of the archaeological features within this region are shaft tombs. Shaft tombs by 300 BCE are associated with circular architecture. There is a central … Continued
In major museums, only a small fraction of the artifacts held by the museum are on display and interpreted for the public. Most of the museum’s artifacts are in vaults where they are available only to researchers. The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History maintains a Visible Vault in which visitors can view hundreds … Continued
The San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California has a display of ancient artifacts from Central America: the countries south of Mexico and north of South America. From an archaeological perspective, Central America is also called the Mesoamerican Frontier and the Southern Maya Periphery. In her entry on Central America in The Oxford Companion to … Continued
For most people the mention of ancient Mexico brings up images of the Aztecs, the Mayas, and perhaps the ancient city of Teotihucán. Ancient Mexico, however, also includes somesites which are much older than these and which are not tourist attractions.One of these is Tlatilco in the Valley of Mexico. For today’s archaeologically-oriented tourist, accustomed … Continued
One of the displays in the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California, is entitled Sacred Earth and subtitled Understanding our past and honoring cultures that thrive today. The first section of this display looks at American Indian cultures between 16,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago. According to the Museum display: “Some archaeologists believe … Continued
