1491
New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann · first published 2005
68% recommend32% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Readable survey of recent archaeology showing pre-Columbian Americas were far more populated, complex and ecologically managed than commonly taught; suits anyone curious about history beyond Greece and Rome.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus's landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last thirty years proving these a
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Amazonian earthworks such as these are discussed quite a bit in Charles Mann's 1491, mostly in the context of dual hypotheses that the Amazon (and much of N. and S. America) was both far more heavily populated, and far more ecologically managed, than previously thought. It's a great…
on “Amazon rainforest was transformed over 2,000 years ago by mysterious earthworks” ↗1491 by Michael Mann is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in the Americas before European arrival. It’s a fantastic book that will change how you think about indigenous cultures in the Americas…
on “‘Mind blowing’ ancient settlements uncovered in the Amazon” ↗1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C Mann is a great book about the Americas before Columbus (who arrived in 1492). One of the things it covers (with evidence), is the disease…
on “The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe (2005)” ↗…America[1]. Anything that touches its bark (bird, insect, human) is ferociously attacked by colonies of venom squirting red ants. Learned about this fascinating tree in the equally fascinating book "1491" by Charles Mann[2]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplaris_americana [2]http://amzn.to/2hKn6Ly
on “Do Not Eat, Touch, or Even Inhale the Air Around the Manchineel Tree” ↗For some thought-provoking insights into the scale of the changes ancient American civilizations brought on the landscape, see the book 1491 by Charles Mann. Maybe the most intriguing idea in the entire book is that the Americas were ten times more populated at the time of European contact than they ended up becoming in the 1500's (when most…
on “New species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines: Homo luzonensis” ↗1491 and 1493 are two great books by the same author, delving deep into those topics. I enjoyed every line, and there was a lot of them :-) https://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Colu...…
on “Native Intelligence” ↗Anyone curious about how the Amazon evolved as a worked landscape (like the grain fields of Europe), should read Charles C Mann's books 1491 and 1493. What the developed world sees as an untouched wilderness threatened by development was actually, in many places, a place where large indigenous communities found ways to make the jungle bear…
on “10,800 Years Ago, Early Humans Planted Forest Islands in Amazonia's Grasslands” ↗…hardly acted like saints, but it's still true that orders of magnitude more natives - perhaps as many as 90% - were killed by disease than by direct action of the colonists. I highly recommend the book 1491 by Charles Mann which talks about this (and much else). He explains how scientific estimates of the pre-Colombian population of the Americas keep getting revised upwards as we discover more evidence of…
on “Killer Whales: 'Transient' Orcas Are Thriving” ↗The book _1491_ is a great read to learn more about what the Americas were like before the European arrival. Recent archaeology is finding that the societies in the Americas were way more complex and interconnected…
on “The greatest mystery of the Inca Empire was its strange economy (2012)” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Principles-Pathways-beyon... http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Forest-Gardens-2-set/dp/1890132... http://www.amazon.com/One-Straw-Revolution-Introduction-Natu... http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Colum... http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/03... http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Succeed-Revi... http://www.newsociety.com/Books/D/Decline-and-Fall…
on “What can a technologist do about climate change?” ↗There's a lot of compelling theories in the book, 1491 [0] about how forests were modified in ways in which I elude to, and how the population of the Americas was much, much higher than just 50 million, and how the were civilization much earlier than what…
on “Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood (2009)” ↗…the estimated population of London at the same time, as well as bigger than any city in Spain or any of the other Hapsburg lands (which is something that the Spanish themselves noted). Charles Mann's 1491 is a really good read on this general topic by the way, for anyone interested in reading more. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities_through...
on “Finding North America’s lost medieval city” ↗Recommended reading: 1491 by Charles C. Mann. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
on “The myth of the pristine Amazon rainforest” ↗If this is interesting to you, I recommend the book 1491 by Charles Mann [1]. I found it from a recommendation in a comment on HN so now's my turn. It is an informative survey of the current knowledge about pre-Columbian humanity in the Americas, including…
on “New study adds evidence to debate over the only known Clovis burial” ↗May I recommend https://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Colu...
on “Poland was shockingly liberal during the 1400s” ↗