Early Americans (1975)

way beyond the reach of History this land of ours holds a record of Human Experience Unwritten and unknown till our own time the trail of Discovery is long and full of surprises evidence can turn up anywhere here for instance on a lonely Ranch in the Southeast corner of Arizona summer 1974 and Rancher Ed Lena is host to a team of archaeologists professors and students from universities as far apart as Texas Nebraska and Washington as well as nearby Tucson they've come to extend their investigation of the discovery he made back in the early 50s something he found half buried in the ground close behind the ranch house the remains of Mammoth a species of elephant extinct for over 10,000 years Emil Harry joins van Hayes the director of the Dig very good looks like we have two mammoths over here instead of one another pair of them pair of young ones Jeff seems to think that the first one we found over there is about 8 years old looks like the bones are pretty well scattered y they're all up what makes the Lena site so important is the way the mammoth died doing a great job it was back in 1955 that Professor Howry excavated an area close to the present dig and established Lena as one of the oldest prehistoric sites in America the remains of nine Mammoth most of them not yet full grown and among their bones 13 of the weapons that kill them the spear points of Stone Age Hunters of the type known as [Music] Clovis now 20 years later the archaeologists are busy searching for further Clues to the early presence of man in America that was good CH Bruce huckle is is working on a hearth where the hunters lit a fire collecting fragments of burnt wood that could reveal how long ago they were here samples will be sent away for analysis by radiocarbon dating the charcoal is first burned to extract the carbon it will contain minute traces of a radioactive isotope carbon 14 an element present in the atmosphere and absorbs by all living things it's this that will be measured once the contaminants have been removed carbon 14 is present in living tissues in a constant amount but when the plant or animal dies absorption stops and radioactive decay begins at a known and steady rate the time of death can therefore be dated with a high degree of accuracy by measuring the am amount of radioactivity remaining in the sample in this way it's been found that the dates for all the clois kill sites are surprisingly close together between 11,000 and 11,500 years ago what was it like in Arizona so long ago the excavation shows the dry sand of the surface continuing down for a good 10 ft but beneath it is a dark band of organic matter formed when the site was a wet Marshland and immediately below that the bones themselves embedded in Sandy gravel laid by a shallow stream the landscape was different 11,000 years ago but what did it look like sampling the soil beneath the dark band is Peter maringer he's made a detailed study of the environment analyzing the distribution of pollen from the plants and trees that used to grow here evidence that can only be seen through a [Music] microscope grass sge Ragweed and salt Bush Ash Cottonwood and w [Music] now we have the setting we can imagine the scene itself the moment of the [Music] Kill The Mammoth Hunters of Arizona the clearest Vision we yet have of the early presence of man in America but where did they come from and how long ago during the past million years blankets of ice covered much of North America yet the evidence points a man having reached the new world sometime during the Ice Age from the north we think of Alaska and Siberia as separate but whenever the ice sheets were building over the continent the sea level fell in the last 50,000 years this happened not once but twice two long periods when animals and people could have wandered with comparative ease across the [Music] landbridge this must have been good hunting ground but the way to the interior was still barred by the ice for the next part of the story we have to move east across the Rockies how often an ice free carer opened like this we don't know but the way was certainly clear 12,000 years ago very close to the dates we have for the sights of the Clovis [Music] hunters for some archaeologists this is no coinci Ence to them it suggests a major Southward migration of this [Music] time but the Clovis spear point is not the earliest evidence of man's presence in the new world this bone butchering tool found in the Yukon has a much earlier carbon date 27,000 years old these weapons and butchering tools are from vako in Mexico 22,000 years old from Wilson but a cave in Idaho 14,500 and from ayacucho in Peru 14,200 was it perhaps the descendant of some much earlier migration who developed the Clovis spear point one thing is beyond argument the remarkable skill of its making an archaeologist on the Lena dig Bruce Bradley he knows the places where the hunters found their flint and uses the same kind of tools hammerstones and the antlers of deer in Moose it's a skill that has taken him years to acquire one miscalculation and the Flint could shatter with the Flint roughly formed he prepares it for the final shaping switching to a slim deer antler for even finer control now he prepares for the final blow that will give his Clovis point its distinctive feature the fluted Groove that was set into the spear shaft Stone Age Technology at its finest the craft of a people whose way of life was ruled by the hunt for big game along with Peery and Antelope there were camel taper and horse the Big Horn bison and greatest of them all the mammoth primary target of the Clovis Hunters [Music] in the west Mammoth remains have been founded a number of sites but none is less than 11,000 years old was it the changing climate that caused them to die out or did the hunters wipe them out of distance either way it's intriguing that around this time there's evidence of a change in weapon design [Music] from sights on the Western Plains have come spear points made over a span of 3,000 years their Quarry was no longer the mammoth but the big horn [Music] bison this was killing on a massive scale the kind of wholesale Butchery that hastened the extinction of so many Ice Age animals and with it the end of an era by his Mastery of the hunt man had established himself throughout the new [Music] world from now on he turned increasingly to other means of survival exploiting the varied resources of a land newly freed from the grip of the Ice Age cut off once more from direct contact with the rest of the world with the retreat of the ice the forest had spread back over the humid L lands of the Midwest and where creeks and rivers wound through the gentle slopes of countless valleys nature was to prove particularly generous the skills of the hunter were still essential to survival but no no longer the wide ranging nomadic life of the past food in plenty lay close at hand Hickory nuts were rich in fats and protein and in the many creeks and Backwater Lakes as well as fish and muscles there were Lotus roots for the taking hunting and Gathering became increasingly systematic often there was enough to share and exchange with neighboring bands of people and so began the development of larger communities based on the security of ample food and now archaeologists are probing for the evidence discovering this time not just a single incident but an 8,000 years sequence of History look at it it's beautiful what do you think it is looks like a plummet what would you use it for the dig at coster's Farm in Green County Illinois has become the most elaborate excavation never undertaken in America 14 distinct Horizons have already been discovered and there may be more each marks a period of human occupation from 1200 ad back to 6,500 BC and Beyond for site manager Gail Howard and director Stuart ster this is the fascination of costers it's one of the longest sequences yet discovered in one place the chance to study in unusual detail how people gradually achieved command of their environment they've been digging since 1969 and yet the discovery of an artifact a weapon or a tool is a comparatively rare event but this fine silt is just as important at one time it would have been disregarded and dumped aside but now it's recognized as a vital source of information it contains the debris left behind by the people who once lived here to isolate the evidence they use the nearby Illinois River What's Left Behind is then sorted and delivered to the Laboratories in Campville in converted houses and shops botanists and zoologists analyze the debris identifying and comparing the food remains recovered from the different Horizons from such meager fragments of evidence comes a far-reaching conclusion whether it's the charred remnants of Hickory nuts or the bones of small animals and fish they show a significant Trend 6,000 years ago occupation of the Coster site was only seasonal but by 2500 BC it had become a permanent base the home of the settled Community exploiting a much greater variety of resources hey ra you want to give me a hand yeah sure at times the higher levels of the site have yielded artifacts that could never have belonged to people on the Move weighing over 40 lb this grinding stone was used for Milling nuts and seeds for Gregory Perino a fine like this has a particular Fascination he's not only an archaeologist but a master Craftsman who's developed a great respect for the accomplishments of the prehistoric woodlanders not the first but sure the best his Workshop in Campville is given over to experimental archaeology making working replicas of archaic tools [Music] with their simple but effective technology and their intelligent use of the resources available to them the inhabitants of the Eastern Woodlands achieve the stability necessary for the evolution of a new and more elaborate [Music] culture from 1,000 BC onwards there began to emerge a form of society that has left a unique and haunting [Music] record sacred burial Ms resting place of the elite of Woodland Society buried with them the symbols of their status and influence along with strings of precious pearls from the local Rivers there were grizzly bear teeth traded from the Rockies con shells from Florida beaten Copper from Lake Superior obsidian from Yellowstone and Micah from the southern Appalachians exotic materials handled with consumate skill and Imagination [Music] many of these artifacts seem to have been associated with religious ceremonial with the rituals that assured man's harmony with the spirit [Music] world some of the most elaborate burials have thought to be those of the shamans the Priestly leaders the people look to them not only for influence over the supernatural but for regulation of their daily lives [Music] powerful in life their memory was honored long after death the immense labor of building the moms and their function over Generations as places of reverence reveal the continuity of a powerful cultural tradition from its Beginnings over 3,000 years years ago the practice of mound building spread Till by 500 AD there were over 100,000 relics of a way of life shared by many peoples marking the presence of an early culture we might otherwise never have [Music] known meanwhile far across the continent in the Arid Southwest the way to civilization was to take a different course today the Papago Indians of Arizona still gather the fruit of the zaro cactus they no longer have to depend on the desert for survival but their ancestors did for thousands of years this was a mean and harsh environment small chance for populations to increase and elaborate their culture yet it did happen overlooking the high plains of St Augustine in central New Mexico is bat cave it was here in the 1940s that an expedition led by Herbert dick discovered the 4,000-year-old remains of a plant a plant introduced from the Upland valleys of Mexico and with it a new way of life corn once it was a wild grass but by a long process of selective cultivation Indian corn was to become the America's greatest gift to the world a people the Pima Indians regard as their ancestors brought it to the heila River Basin south of Phoenix over 2,000 years [Music] ago they mastered the desert by building an extensive network of canals along Contours still in use today and they dug them with nothing more than wooden sticks wherever there was adequate water the growing of corn is to become the key to human progress [Music] gradually it spread North through the magayon mountains of New Mexico wherever there was a Valley Stream to irrigate the fields and on to the high plateaus of the Four Corners where summer rains fell on the fertile tops of the [Music] Maes by the first century ad populations had begun to concentrate on sites favorable to agriculture as their communities grew their simple culture elaborated into a way of life that is left a vivid record with Traditions that have survived even to the present day Dexter kutsa is a Potter of the Hopi tribe who follows the ancient ways it's an art that was first introduced to the farming Villages of the Southwest some 2,000 years ago and we can trace its Evolution from its first primitive [Music] Beginnings some prehistoric pots show clearly the method of construction retaining the coils as external decoration but most early examples were scraped smooth inside and out in Imitation Of The Vessel they replaced the gourd which had long been used for storing seed and carrying water they also imitated their own baskets intricate patterns that were to remain a favored Motif for cooking pots throughout the period [Music] [Music] but they also learned the art of decoration using pigments derived from plants and minerals applied with brushes made of yucka fiber it's with the Advent of decoration that we begin to recognize both the individuality of the Potter and the development of traditions that differed from Village to Village at first designs were primitive but around 700 AD we start to see the emergence of a true ceramic art covering the whole surface of the pot with bold patterns and great Assurance of line [Music] [Music] as well as Exquisite designs in the classic forms found all over the world like the narrow neck storage jar The Potters of the Southwest produced eccentric designs of great charm and individuality [Music] Effigies of birds and strange creatures that existed only in the minds of their creators perhaps most appealing of all are the graphic designs of mimas from central New Mexico simple bowls decorated with Supreme confidence and style [Music] no objects of human labor illustrate more vividly the development of a culture from its primitive Beginnings out of their first crude experiments came a Mastery of the art that has seldom been surpassed the achiev M of generations of women from the Farmland Villages of the Southwest [Music] the great pblos of the Anasazi why after hundreds of years of living on the Mesa Toops they suddenly started to build within the cliffs we have yet to understand whatever the reason the result was a unique architectural achievement [Music] these walls of carefully dressed Stone were built to house a community in which everyone lived in Intimate daily contact with his neighbor beneath their multi-story departments were the keas underground chambers that were the centers of religious observance and other social activities the architecture of a rural people shaped by long experience of communal living as impressive in its way as that of the Aztecs or the ancient [Music] Greeks here at Mesa verie the largest of the pblos once housed over 400 people but in chako Canyon New Mexico they built on an even greater [Music] scale poblo Bonito a prehistoric Town built to a master plan a ceremonial center with trade links reaching far across the region today it is an empty shell but the sheer quality of its construction could still be seen in its tapered walls and meticulous Sandstone [Music] masonry at first they used the rocks that lay at the foot of the cliffs but in succeeding phases of building made increasing use of a harder laminated Stone quarried from the plateau above in places they built four stories high with elaborate ceilings of pine Logs overlaid with Willow and Juniper bark sealed with Clay but above all the genius of Bonito lies in its conception around the Great Plaza a d-shaped complex of kaas sto rooms and interconnected Apartments study of this intricate Maze of rooms is established precisely when they were built the evidence is in these Timbers in the pattern of their annual growth rings the use of tree rings in dating archaeological ruins was pioneered at Bonito in the 1920s tree growth varies from year to year according to the weather as this produces rings of varying width and character the pattern this makes can be plotted but this in itself cannot give us a date for that we need a record that goes back in time from the present day we need a continuous succession of tree rings starting with a freshly cut tree and then taking Timber from successively older buildings it's been possible to construct Master chronologies for many regions of the Southwest back to prehistoric times nowadays pieces of wood from a pbl ruin can be dated simply by checking their plot against the master chronology to see where it fits backwards then 900 10 coming in right there cut in 1037 this sounds from Bonito belongs to a late phase of building and was fed in 1037 less than a century later building abruptly ceased early in the 12th century the Builders of Bonito and its neighboring pblos began to drift away from chako Canyon at Mesa Veri the same mysterious Exodus less than 100 years [Music] later their Misfortune was to build their civilization in a land where the balance of nature had always been precarious in the end there were too many people competing for its limited resources their buildings stand as monuments to the security they strove for but finally lost [Music] by 1300 ad the end of a 20-year drought saw the last of the great quow deserted abandoned to the Wilderness a golden age had ended but Echoes of the pbl way of life were to survive even to the present day the only prehistoric culture left relatively undisturbed by the ensuing course of history while pelo civilization declined a vigorous new culture had Arisen in The Woodlands close to St Louis and the Confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers stands the largest Earthworks in the United States the platform on which once stood a temple to the [Music] sun around it lay the city of Cahokia a metropolis that in 1300 ad had a population of 30,000 its streets docks and warehouses spread over 6 square miles its trade and influence reaching from the Rockies to the adirondac from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico by this time the introduction of corn had produced radical changes in Woodland Society populations had grown rapidly and were now concentrated on the fertile flood Plains of the major rivers strategically cited throughout this vast region the centers of trade and tribal power time has obliterated their remains but in places the temple Mound still stand OK Mali on the Mak plateau of Georgia and etawa 100 Mil to the north from sites like these Has Come What evidence we have of the most highly developed culture to evolve in North America [Music] Bears was an art of astonishing technical accomplishment and Power Of Invention the equal of any in the ancient world an art that shows influences derived from the neighboring civilizations of Mexico a reflection of the cultural contacts which had done so much to revitalize Woodland Society [Music] works of bizarre imagination commissioned to embellish the power of a ruling class providing them with the ritual vessels and ceremonial trappings of a Theocratic [Music] State the importance of ritual and ceremonial reached its most Vivid expression in the graphic imagery of the Southern cult a display of religious symbolism in which the natural and the supernatural myth Legend and reality are freely and powerfully combined [Music] the more we see of its achievements the more we become aware of the wealth of human experience that lies beyond the reach of History buried and ignored for so long the story of the first Americans is at last beginning to [Music] emerge they came to an empty continent and made it theirs for over 10,000 years at different times in different places they experienced both success and failure a pattern that is everywhere marked the uncertain course of human [Music] progress this is the fascination of archaeology the chance to understand more fully the nature of man and Society by studying the past that lies buried beneath our feet [Music]