604 inventions: The Americas As textile artists, ancient Americans were great innovators Peruvians and Bolivians began using looms for weaving sometime in the second or third millennium b.c.e and pioneered a staggering range of textile techniques, including simple warp-and-weft weaves, scaffold weaving (discontinuous warp-weft), single-needle knitting, and a host of other demanding ways of weaving and decorating cloth These 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 The 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-fledged 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 They invented three separate calendars to trace and regulate the lives, agricultural activities, dynasties, and mythic sagas of their civilization The first was a 365-day haab, or solar year (much like our modern calendar), made up of 18 months There was also a 260-day tzolk’in, or cycle of religious ceremonies and festivals, with each day assigned its own name and ritual significance Finally, a great era or Calendar Round was celebrated every 52 years at the coincidence of the other two calendars The Calendar Round, functioning much like the Gregorian century, was a large period used by historians and some religious leaders to mark ages, the return of rare celestial events, dynastic changes, cultural 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 basketball, which was a ceremonial game played by religious devotees in eastern Mexico from about 1000 b.c.e The very possibility of the bouncing ball originated in another Mesoamerican invention, that of vulcanized rubber Both the rubber and sapodilla trees of eastern Mexico produce latex The Mesoamericans were the first to put latex to use as a sealant and sculpture material The 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 Thus, the ancient Olmec civilization contributed one of the most important materials to the development of the modern world There is evidence that soccer and football also existed in early versions among the ancient Mesoamericans as ritual games played at religious ceremonies Both field 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 The 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 courtyards, and pyramidal temples The adobe pyramids at Caral and El Aspero in Peru were built around 3000 b.c.e., several centuries before the stone ones in Egypt The ancient Olmec employed outdoor and indoor plumbing to conduct water through their cities They installed carved canal blocks in three- to five-foot lengths to create aqueducts centuries before the Romans or Maya employed similar concepts in their urban centers The so-called New Temple at Chavín de Huantar in Peru also shows knowledge of aqueduct technology The Chavín culture of the first millennium b.c.e employed conduits for air as well as water in a fully functioning hydraulic system that drew both substances into the New Temple This 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 first or second millennium b.c.e In their use of durable, carved basalt aqueducts, the Olmec showed a mastery of stonemasonry, which they seem to have developed to a fine point by 1000 b.c.e Later civilizations 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 engineering was developed in several places independently The 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 The early Maya also developed a softer 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 fluted arrow points from the Clovis culture allowed whalers and hunters to fire at their prey and then get out of the animal’s way as it rampaged The weapons were carefully recovered from the dead animal by the fisherman or hunter By sea, river, and estuary, ancient Americans also became master fishers in their canoes, kayaks, or reed or skin boats, all invented in ancient times Combining efficient weapons and watercraft with woven fishing nets and waterproof garments, ancient Americans invented an almost modern ensemble of fishing 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 fields to desert, swamp, and jungle plantations 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 The ancient Americans exhibited some of the world’s