From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Sun Jan 13 2002 - 18:07:26 MST
In a message dated 1/13/02 8:31:09 AM, mlorrey@datamann.com writes:
>The "Complex large scale political organization"
>was nothing more than a priestly caste, but I would not characterise
>their culture as a 'civilization'.
Running an empire the length of the Andes under a nigh-communistic
regime requires a lot of organization. Several Andean civilizations
had built large-scale irrigation works.
>They had not invented the wheel for
>transportation (something that the barbaric tribes of the eurasian
>steppes had had for thousands of years prior).
Precisely. Barbarians can have the wheel, and civilizations can
lack them.
>Their 'cities' were
>nothing more than large religious complexes surrounded by several
>villages,
Their cities were more than a "couple of villages". Cuzco had over
10,000.
>and they had no metals technology beyond working with gold,
>copper, and in a few cases, bronze. Iron technology was just beginning
>to be experimented with by a few Toltec tribes at the time of the
>Conquistadors.
Which makes them equivalent to Egypt around 1400 BC. Hardly
uncivilized.
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