New Library of Congress portal with interesting stuff about the Americas.

The American Library of Congress has teamed up with Microsoft to develop a fairly cool experience of many heretofore difficult to access materials from its collections.

The main link is:

http://myloc.gov/Pages/default.aspx

Here's the link to the Early Americas part of the site:

http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/EarlyAmericas/Pages/default.aspx

Or:

http://tinyurl.com/4bbmpn

This from the intro to the "Pre-Contact America" pages:

"To learn about the indigenous peoples of the Americas, scholars draw on the rare texts that survived the European encounter, as well as objects used by indigenous peoples. The richest source of Pre-Columbian historical information comes from the ancient Maya, who developed the most sophisticated writing system in the Americas. The Maya and other native cultures often embellished their texts with illustrations, recording or carving them on objects of stone, ceramic, wood, and other surfaces. This section of the exhibition draws on select artifacts in the Kislak Collection and presents them as objects that, like books or documents, provide us with information about ceremonies, wars, court life, alliances, astronomy, calendars, and the reigns of kings. Reflecting the strengths of the Kislak Collection, this area deals principally with the pre-contact cultures of Mesoamerica, a territory that includes most of the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador."

As you might expect, the web site focuses on history, not archaeology. But there is, of course, a fair amount of overlap, especially in Mesoamerica.

One element I found particularly interesting was the Huexotzinco Codex, a Nahua document that was part of a 1531 petition to the government of Cortes, and eventually an appeal to the Spanish throne, regarding the over-taxation of the Nahua (an ally of Cortes' against the Aztecs) by colonial governors. The case was successful, in Mexico and in Spain, giving relief to the Nahua (something like 2/3 of the stuff taken from them was returned).

The entire codex is shown, about 6-8 pages. There is also a glossary showing some of the Nahua counting system, which seems clearly to be pre-Conquest.

http://myloc.gov/Education/ExhibitObjects/codex.aspx

(Note: you may have to register to see the codex and glossary.)

There are also a number of maps, including the 1507 Waldseemüller world map.
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Arabs in Americas before Spanish
    ... Arab seamen might well have reached the Americas before the Spaniards ... One of these is a collection of coins found off the coast ... pre-Columbian contacts are quite suspect. ... been presented for the presence of maize in Asia in pre-Columbian times ...
    (soc.history.medieval)
  • Re: Arabs in Americas before Spanish
    ... Arab seamen might well have reached the Americas before the Spaniards ... One of these is a collection of coins found off the coast ... pre-Columbian contacts are quite suspect. ... been presented for the presence of maize in Asia in pre-Columbian times ...
    (soc.history.medieval)
  • Re: Origin of Ogam
    ... Vikings were Pre-Columbian. ... I know of no clear, competently provenanced archaeological evidence that shows any one of the many suggested Old World cultures actually showed up here before Columbus, except the Norse and perhaps Basques and some other fishermen. ... Of course, until relatively recently, no humans lived in the Americas. ... I am curious as to why you aren't pursuing this issue, and instead are focusing on the woo-woo-infested question of who might have come from recognizably recent Old World cultures? ...
    (sci.archaeology)