Page 531 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

agriculturally based societies were confined this place turned out to be inspired by great
within climatic limits. This limitation meant sheets of mica. This and the native copper that
that a border zone of relatively complex cul- were used to make precious objects conferring
tures existed to the north of the southeast in the high prestige were found to be the closest
Lower Great Lakes and northwest along the fin- things to reservoirs of value that were recog-
gers of well-watered valleys stretching out into nized by the native peoples. In what is now
the Great Plains. The other concentration northwest Georgia the powerful leader of the
existed in the arid southwestern United States Coosa held authority over subordinate chiefs in
where the pueblo towns were spotted along the a wide swath of the intermontane valley.
few dependable watercourses. Otherwise, most In the Mississippi River Valley the largest
of the population at 1492 was packed along the and most compact of the towns were located
Pacific Coast from California to Alaska. Seafood north of the mouth of the Arkansas up to what
provided the basis of settled life and complex is now the Missouri state line. Here the
culture in this area. Elsewhere, populations explorers found the most populous area of their
were sparse and scattered, and economic life was journey. Territories were under the sway of
dependent upon hunting and gathering. large fortified towns nestled together, with few
La Florida of the conquering Spaniards of the uninhabited zones that commonly sepa-
embraced the southeast broadly conceived. It rated settled provinces elsewhere. Settlements
lay roughly in the Old South, which in the south of this section of the river valley appear
nineteenth century was to realize an agricul- to have been more dispersed, although two
tural potential that had been established nine major chieftaincies occupied the lower valley;
centuries earlier. The route that Soto took these were responsible for the expedition's final
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largely bracketed this territory. His quest for harassment on its journey homeward. North of
wealth led his band to the main seats of political the Memphis section settlement was sparse.
life. Along the way he met minor groups and West of the Mississippi Valley, settlements were
traversed long stretches of wilderness. The dispersed with populations thinning out in east
geography of settled life provided by his march, Texas. 8
coupled with our knowledge of the archaeology Along the way the expedition discovered peo-
of the early sixteenth century, gives us a rough ples speaking most of the major languages of
period of contact, when native traditions were idea of the principal features of the cultural the historic southeast: Timucuan, Muskogean,
more or less intact, the obscurity of native landscape. Iroquoisan (Cherokee), perhaps Siouan, and
southeastern life deprived the European chroni- From south to north the following picture Caddoan. In their wandering the Europeans
clers, who were in a position to record it, of a emerges. The Gulf Coast proper contained few traversed the domains of major provinces or
sense of native American lifeways. The evoca- people. The immediate interior held far more. chiefly polities. Although some of the peoples
tive objects displayed in this exhibition offer a These were organized mainly into small chiefly the Europeans encountered survived to develop
hint of these traditions, which have all too often societies divided into nobles and commoners into the major tribes of later times (Chickasaw),
been dismissed as derived from Mesoamerican and led by hereditary chiefs with limited others (Coosa, Cofitachequi) subsequently
culture and as a consequence having no bearing powers. At present day Tallahassee, Florida, dwindled in power and population to the point
on North American achievements. However, where he spent his first winter, Soto met the that they were forced to coalesce, to become the
archaeologists have amassed data that create a fierce Apalachee, a people who eventually lent Creeks.
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complicated and rich history of the southeast. their name to the mountain chain. To the Soto found evidence of town life concentrated
This is one in which the highly refined beliefs, north, populations of similar political organiza- within defensive walls as well as distributed
symbols, practices, and technology —of sup- tion were clustered along a number of the major over scattered hamlets. He found rulers (albeit
posedly Mexican derivation — are actually the rivers whose valleys held the soils essential for with limited power) over both small and large
result of developments in high culture that were farming. Within a broad, barren belt of south- communities. The greatest potentate was the
for the most part self-contained. Whatever con- eastern pine woods these river valleys were the paramount chief (or grand cacique) of the
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nections had existed between Mexico and the focus of settled life. Not all valleys were occu- Coosa, who commanded tributary relations over
southeast in the past, they only reinforced a pied; there was a notable vacancy in the Savan- a large area. Among all of the tribes, warfare
preexisting southeastern cultural pattern. 3 nah River Valley dividing present day Georgia was entrenched. The importance of this fact of
Contemporary expeditions were mounted by and South Carolina. In the Piedmont zone life had its impact on which personages were
Coronado in the southwest and the southern many more named provinces (the Spanish term represented in art and the manner in which
Great Plains and by Cartier in the Saint Law- for native tribal territories) were to be found. images were presented.
rence. Although, like Soto's, these helped bring Two among them stood out as particularly large, Even though the knowledge that archaeology
the main outlines of native culture to the atten- and were probably even in the process of expan- has provided is incomplete, certain outlines
tion of the Old World, detailed knowledge of sion at the time of the visit. The Cofitachequi have emerged to help provide a context for the
the interior of North America remained to be held sway in central South Carolina. At their Spanish narratives. This archaeological contri-
learned in the future. 4 Archaeology helps fill main town the Spanish looted a mortuary bution makes it possible to define a cultural
the gap in providing a conception of the range shrine of its pearls, the first and only occasion world of native North America at the time of
of North American cultural life in this period. of their finding significant wealth in European initial European encounter that cannot be con-
From a combination of sources it is clear that terms. The reports of silver that drew them to structed from the Spanish narratives alone,

530 CIRCA 1492