568 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



Asiatic derivation and which added to the richness of the Ardiaic con- 

 tinuum. But the sudden burst of social and cultural energy which 

 marks the Adena culture cannot be interpreted easily without addmg 

 other factors to the equation, and perhaps these missing factors are 

 maize agriculture and other stimuli from Middle America (see fig. 3). 

 Village life is, of course, present in native America in the non- 

 Nuclear areas under conditions where plant cultivation may be ruled 

 out entirely. Settled villages developed on the northwest coast of 

 North America, with population supported by the intensive food- 

 collecting economy of the coast and rivers. The same is also true for 

 the coast and mterior valleys of California. It is significant, how- 

 ever, that m neither of these areas did aboriginal cultivation ever make 

 much headway, wliile in eastern North America it became a staple of 

 life in the later pre-Columbian centuries. 



TEMPLES, TOWNS, AND QTIES 



In Nuclear America the town and eventually the city had beginnings 

 in the settled farmmg village. A centralizmg factor in this develop- 

 ment was midoubtedly the temple. This earliest form of permanent 

 structure usually had a flat-topped pyramidal momid of earth or rock 

 as a base, and these mound bases of temples are found associated with 

 some, but not all, of the village-farming cultures in Middle America 

 [66]. At first, the importance of such a mound, and of the temple 

 that stood on it, was probably limited to the immediate village. 

 Sometimes these villages were small, concentrated clusters of dwell- 

 ings; in other instances the settlement pattern was a dispersed one, 

 with a number of small, hamletlike units scattered at varying distances 

 from the temple center. Later on, the temple, or temple and palace 

 structures, became the focal point of what might be called a town [67] 

 (pi. 6 and pi. 7, fig. 1). 



In Nuclear America the towns, like their antecedent villages, were 

 either concentrated or dispersed. The former pattern developed in 

 parts of Middle America, such as the Valley of Mexico or the Guate- 

 malan Highlands, and in Peru; the latter was characteristic of the 

 Veracruz-Tabasco lowlands or the Peten- Yucatan jungles of Middle 

 America. In the towns the temple or ceremonial precinct was devoted 

 to religious and governmental matters and to the housing of priests 

 and of rulers and their retainers. The surrounding settlement zone, 

 either scattered or concentrated, grew with increase in the numbers of 

 farmers, artisans, or both. Trade was an important function of these 

 towns. 



In Nuclear America the town-and-temple community dates back to 

 800 B.C., a date that is applicable both to IMiddle America and to Peru. 

 In the Intermediate area, between these two, town life was certainly 



