Stuart George E. Ancient Pioneers: the First Americans

Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2001. — 200 p. — ISBN: 0-7922-7874-7.Who were the first americans? Where did they come from, and when? What do we know, or think we know, about their migrations, their ways of life, their villages, cities, and civilizations? These are just a few of the fascinating questions explored in this lavishly illustrated and informative chronicle that spans more than 12,000 years, from the Ice Age nomads to the nourishing empires of the Aztec and Inka.
George Stuart is an ideal guide to this remarkable archaeological odyssey. President of the Center for Maya Research and longtime staff archaeologist for the National Geographic Society, he is a recognized authority on prehistoric America and a specialist on the ancient cultures of Mesoamerica and the southeastern United States. In Ancient Pioneers he creates a vivid panorama of human achievement as he traces the gradual occupation of the Western Hemisphere, beginning in the harsh polar regions of the Arctic and expanding to fill the land from ocean to ocean and from Alaska to the distant tip of South America. He explains how modern investigators are reconstructing the lives of these ancient Americans and describes how geography and the human talent for adaptation helped shape an extraordinary variety of cultures.
Dramatic photographs suggest the primeval landscapes that greeted these first explorers and capture the mystery reflected in the artifacts they left behind. From ihe intricate flaking of a 10,000-year-old weapon point to the magnificent workmanship of a Moche lord's jewelry, from Inuit igloos to the "great houses" ol the Anasazi to Maya temples to the astonishing stone city of Machu Picchu, Ancient Pioneers offers a new and enthralling glimpse of America's distant past.
From the first nomadic hunters to set foot in Alaska to the "Indians" who greeted Columbus, the story of ancient America is a fascinating, 12,000-year epic that has only begun to be told. In this wonderfully illustrated, wide-ranging volume, a leading archaeologist traces the gradual settlement of two continents, the remarkably diverse cultures that they fostered, and the great civilizations that rose and flourished, sometimes for many centuries, only to fall victim to the caprice of nature or human conquest. Highlighted by scores of stunning photographs, Ancient Pioneers is at once a solid scientific survey, a showcase of visual splendors, and a vivid panorama of the lost worlds of North America, Mesoamerica, and South America—the Anasazi, the Aztec, the Maya, the Inka, and many more.