As textile artists, ancient Americans were great innova-
tors. Peruvians and Bolivians began using looms for weav-
ing sometime in the second or third millennium b.c.e. and
pioneered a staggering range of textile techniques, including
simple warp-and-weft weaves, scaff old weaving (discontinu-
ous warp-weft ), single-needle knitting, and a host of other
demanding ways of weaving and decorating cloth. Th ese
textiles of animal hair and domesticated cotton were used by
ancient Americans for clothing, shelter, wrapping the dead,
decoration, and furnishings, and they were even used as
containers. Even tie-dyed textiles, a kind of cloth associated
with southern Asia today, were produced in the Americas by
the ninth century b.c.e. Th e use of woven containers among
Amazonians may have inspired their clever invention of the
hammock, a swinging bed suspended off the ground between
two trees or posts.
In the later part of the Pre-Classic period (nearing the
start of the Common Era) the Maya civilization developed
a full-fl edged calendar system. Since the second millennium
b.c.e. early Maya astronomers and their Zapotec and Olmec
contemporaries had followed the movements of the sun, moon
and Venus and had come to mark time by the movements of
these celestial bodies. Th ey invented three separate calendars
to trace and regulate the lives, agricultural activities, dynas-
ties, and mythic sagas of their civilization. Th e fi rst was a
365-day haab, or solar year (much like our modern calendar),
made up of 18 months. Th ere was also a 260-day tzolk’in, or
cycle of religious ceremonies and festivals, with each day as-
signed its own name and ritual signifi cance. Finally, a great
era or Calendar Round was celebrated every 52 years at the
coincidence of the other two calendars. Th e Calendar Round,
functioning much like the Gregorian century, was a large pe-
riod used by historians and some religious leaders to mark
ages, the return of rare celestial events, dynastic changes, cul-
tural trends, and even the fulfi llment of prophecies.
Many modern sports were born of early antecedents in
the ancient Americas. Most notable of these sports is bas-
ketball, which was a ceremonial game played by religious
devotees in eastern Mexico from about 1000 b.c.e. Th e very
possibility of the bouncing ball originated in another Meso-
american invention, that of vulcanized rubber. Both the rub-
ber and sapodilla trees of eastern Mexico produce latex. Th e
Mesoamericans were the fi rst to put latex to use as a sealant
and sculpture material. Th e Olmec developed the process of
vulcanizing rubber, whereby it was heated to make it more
malleable so the material could be fashioned into any shape
desired. Th us, the ancient Olmec civilization contributed one
of the most important materials to the development of the
modern world.
Th ere is evidence that soccer and football also existed
in early versions among the ancient Mesoamericans as rit-
ual games played at religious ceremonies. Both fi eld and ice
hockey have ancient origins in early versions of shinny, a
sport played in the North American Great Plains region up to
European colonial times.
Th e early urban centers of the Andes date back as far as
the third millennium b.c.e. Many early cities such as Caral
and Kotosh feature centrally located plazas, sunken court-
yards, and pyramidal temples. Th e adobe pyramids at Caral
and El Aspero in Peru were built around 3000 b.c.e., several
centuries before the stone ones in Egypt. Th e ancient Olmec
employed outdoor and indoor plumbing to conduct water
through their cities. Th ey installed carved canal blocks in
three- to fi ve-foot lengths to create aqueducts centuries be-
fore the Romans or Maya employed similar concepts in their
urban centers. Th e so-called New Temple at Chavín de Huan-
tar in Peru also shows knowledge of aqueduct technology.
Th e Chavín culture of the fi rst millennium b.c.e. em-
ployed conduits for air as well as water in a fully function-
ing hydraulic system that drew both substances into the New
Temple. Th is design created a constant roar of running water
and a steady circulation of air that is still functioning today.
Indeed, Native American structures from ancient Chavín’s
temple complex to medieval-era cliff dwellings in Arizona all
employ ventilation concepts pioneered sometime in the fi rst
or second millennium b.c.e.
In their use of durable, carved basalt aqueducts, the Ol-
mec showed a mastery of stonemasonry, which they seem to
have developed to a fi ne point by 1000 b.c.e. Later civiliza-
tions in both Mesoamerica and South America, who had little
contact with the Olmec civilization, also became well known
for their stonemasonry, which suggests that this inventive en-
gineering was developed in several places independently. Th e
Late Pre-Classic Maya (400 b.c.e.–250 c.e.) adapted earlier
stonemasonry to their own needs, adding a stone and lime
compound that Romans, who were inventing it at roughly the
same time, would call concrete. Th e early Maya also devel-
oped a soft er mortar, now called stucco, that they carved into
beautiful designs on their palaces and temples.
Many hunting tools were invented by early Americans
to support a lifestyle that was far from sedentary. Detachable
harpoon points from the Northwest Coast North Americans
and fl uted arrow points from the Clovis culture allowed whal-
ers and hunters to fi re at their prey and then get out of the
animal’s way as it rampaged. Th e weapons were carefully re-
covered from the dead animal by the fi sherman or hunter. By
sea, river, and estuary, ancient Americans also became mas-
ter fi shers in their canoes, kayaks, or reed or skin boats, all
invented in ancient times. Combining effi cient weapons and
watercraft with woven fi shing nets and waterproof garments,
ancient Americans invented an almost modern ensemble of
fi shing apparatuses.
American agriculture was apparently in progress by the
seventh millennium b.c.e. By the second millennium b.c.e.
a full range of farming techniques existed in the Americas,
from terraced fi elds to desert, swamp, and jungle planta-
tions. Some scientists believe ancient Americans may have
loosely tailored certain North and South American forests to
increase the density of food sources, modifying established
forests. Th e ancient Americans exhibited some of the world’s604 inventions: The Americas