THE AMERICAS
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Horses, donkeys, and oxen were not introduced to the Ameri-
cas until the time of European contact. Meanwhile, the large
nat ive a n i ma l s , such a s bu ff a lo, were poorly su ited to dome st i-
cation eit her for riding or for pu lling loads. Some sma ller ani-
mals, such as the llamas of South America, could be trained
to carry modest burdens on their backs but were too small
to ride or to use as draft animals. Wheeled vehicles existed
only in the form of a few toys, since there were no animals
to pull the real thing. Th us, for thousands of years, when an-
cient Americans traveled by land, they went on foot, carrying
whatever they needed with them.
Prehistoric Americans traveled along routes that were de-
termined primarily by two factors. One was the movement of
wild game, which they followed in search of food. Migratory
animals such as mastodons, deer, elk, and bison created trails
through forests and over plains, and ancient Americans fol-
lowed these trails in search of food. Th ey became adept at read-
ing the signs that nature provided, including hoofprints and the
droppings the animals left behind. From these signs they could
tell when animals had passed and what they were eating, which
provided hunters with clues about where to look for them.
Th e other factor that determined the footways of an-
cient Americans was the terrain. Th roughout the Americas
people were confronted with diff erent types of terrain, from
the Rocky Mountains of the American West and the Andes
Mountains of South America to the tropical forests of Cen-
tral America and the woodlands of the eastern half of what
is today the United States. When the fi rst Americans crossed
the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and then moved
southward, their movements were channeled by a path be-
tween two glaciers. Th ey faced changes in elevation, marshes
and swamps, ravines, rivers and streams, mountains, and
other natural obstacles. Naturally they sought to avoid these
obstacles in their travels or, if that was not possible, at least to
fi nd the easiest way over them. Many modern roadways, as
well as hiking trails in national parks, follow the same tracks
left behind by ancient Americans.
During prehistoric times, when people sur vived by hunt-
ing and gathering, they moved about in search of food, oft en
following similar routes each year as the seasons passed. Th e
advent of agriculture required those who adopted this way of
life to settle in more or less permanent communities, remain-
ing in one place year-round or at least for much of the year.
But circumstances oft en caused even settled farmers to pack
up their belongings and travel, sometimes for great distances.
In some cases they were motivated by the basic human need
to explore. In other cases changes in climate conditions
forced them to seek new farmland, or perhaps a natural di-
saster such as a fl ood, earthquake, fi re, or volcanic eruption
forced them to move.
In time the roadways that people had worn into the
ground over generations became used for trade and culturalcontact. Roads led to the diff usion of languages and ideas and
to the construction of cities that served as administrative cen-
ters and hubs for the movement of goods and people. Roads
enabled rural people to transport their goods to the cities.
Empires such as those of Central America needed roads for
communication and in some cases military conquest. In
many cases roads were needed to transport raw materials
used for building cities. Th ey also led to ceremonial centers,
where people gathered for religious purposes.
As time passed, some early Americans traveled by water.
Th ose who settled along waterways or in coastal areas used
canoes and small boats, usually for hunting purposes but
sometimes to transport goods for trade as well. Most of these
early boats were dugout canoes; that is, they were carved out
of a single log. Numerous examples of dugout canoes dating
to ancient times have been found in the southeast of what is
now the United States, with its long coastline and numerous
rivers and lakes. Archaeologists have discovered 400 such ca-
noes, and although some date from the later medieval period,
others are thousands of years old. In Mesoamerica water be-
came important for the transportation of goods late in the
ancient period, and the peoples of the Caribbean islands re-
lied on seacraft to travel from island to island trading goods.
By about 300 c.e. the Moche of Peru in South America were
using canoes to hunt mammals at sea. Th is growing reliance
on waterways for transportation, however, was a late develop-
ment in the ancient period. Transportation by foot remained
the norm for many millennia.See also agriculture; art; economy; festivals; inven-
tions; metallurgy; migration and population move-
ments; military; religion and cosmology; roads and
bridges; seafaring and navigation; ships and ship-
building; slaves and slavery; trade and exchange.FURTHER READING
Lionel Casson, Travel in the Ancient World (Baltimore, Md.: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1994).
Jac J. Janssen, Donkeys at Deir el-Medina (Leiden, Netherlands:
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2005).
M. A. Littauer and J. H. Crouwel, Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Ani-
mals in the Ancient Near East (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill,
1979).
Robert Partridge, Transport in Ancient Egypt (London: Rubicon
Press, 1996)
Stuart Piggott, Th e Earliest Wheeled Transport (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor-
nell University Press, 1983).
Stuart Piggott, Wagon, Chariot and Carriage (London: Th ames and
Hudson, 1992).
D. T. Potts, “Camel Hybridization and the Role of Camelus bactria-
nus in the Ancient Near East,” Journal of the Economic and So-
cial History of the Orient 47, no. 2 (2004): 143–165.
Steve Vinson, “Transportation.” In Th e Oxford Encyclopedia of An-
cient Egypt, ed. Donald B. Redford, vol. 2 (Cairo: American
University Press, 2001): 450–453.1120 transportation: The Americas0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1120 1120 10/10/07 2:31:09 PM