1. What effects did domestication of plants and animals have on human societies?
Until 10.000 years ago, people were nomads, without permanent residence, always in search for food, gathering plants and following animals. Then, according to Mac Neash, the famous archeologist, some 10 000 age people began to farm. People realized what cultures could be preserved during the dry period of time. For an example, we have the culture corn. It is culture that can be saved as a seed for a long period of time. Effect that domestication of plants and animals in The New World, as well in The Old World can be seen on the examples of three civilizations in The New World (Teotihuacan, Monte Alban and Mesoamerica). People started forming settlements and connecting in larger societies. And the need for inventiveness appeared. From food collectors, people became food producers. Once a simple society, they become complex society. Domestication of plants and animal expanded in the New World, and increased human population. It is interesting that the rising period in The Old World was similar or parallel with the rising period in the New World.
2. What archaeological remains provide clues to the cultures associated with the sites of Copan and Teotihuacan? How do archaeologists interpret these clues?
A famous archeologist Mac Neash came first at Teotihuacan valley and discovered a time capsule which revealed how people lived in the Puron Cave. According to plant remains from the layers in Puron caves, he and his team came to a conclusion that this was a summer camp. So, they left to find the winter camp. In another cave that overlooked oasis they found remains of dry Nopal (cactus) that was the evidence that this cave was occupied during the dry seasons. A hollow bone was the most obvious evidence that was occupied during the winter, dry season. They compared their life with The Bushman people, the people who live nomad life nowadays.
According to remains of ancient Maya, Copan was a big settlement. Ancient Maya people had an elite settlement where a noble family lived. Archeologists reached this conclusion from the remains that they found beneath a natural hill, where a noble family lived. Near they found tunes where they were buried. With the help of forensic archeologists they discovered that the males have more wives, based on the evidence of skeletons. Social classes appeared along the increase of culture. Less than a mile from the compound lived a king with his own palace built on the palace of the old king.
Remains from the New World discovered that cultures that lived in ancient time were complex, divided in classes, where the majority worked to support a wealthy few. In Maya civilization we can see a cultural patter that has been followed in every civilization in the world.
