NEW WORLD PREHISTORY — WILLEY 569 



pre-Columbian, but its date of origin is difficult to determine because 

 there is a lack of adequate archeological chronologies [68]. 



In lowland South America town-and-temple communities also ante- 

 date the Conquest, and it seems likely that these communities were, 

 in part, the result of contact with and stimulus from the Nuclear 

 American axis [69]. In the southern Andes the tightly planned clus- 

 ters of rock and adobe buildings of the late archeological periods of 

 northwestern Argentina reflect town and city life in Peru (pi. 7, fig. 2) 

 and Bolivia [70]. Similarly, towns of the prehistoric southwestern 

 United States relate to the Nuclear American zone. Development of 

 these towns dates from sometime after A.D. 500, with an apogee in the 

 Pueblo III and IV periods and in the Classic Hohokam phases [71]. 



On the other great periphery of Nuclear America, eastern North 

 America, Middle American town life, with its temple mound-and- 

 plaza complex, entered the Mississippi Valley sometime between A.D. 

 500 and 1000 and climaxed in the Mississippian or Temple Mound cul- 

 tures shortly afterward [72]. Maize cultivation was an established 

 part of this complex. Thus, in a sense, the thresholds of village 

 farming and of the town-and-temple complex in the eastern wood- 

 lands, when these beginnings can be identified indisputably as of Nu- 

 clear American inspiration, are synchronous (fig. 3) . 



There remains, however, as in our consideration of the village-farm- 

 ing level, the puzzle of the Adena-Hopewell cultures. As we have 

 already noted, the Adena-IIopewell ceremonial mounds and earth- 

 works, built between 800 B.C. and A.D. 200, are of impressive size. 

 Some of them are comparable in dimensions, and in the amount of 

 coordinated manpower necessary to build them, with the contemporary 

 mounds of Middle America. Although the mounds of Middle 

 America were usually temple platforms wliile the Adena-Hopewell 

 tumuli were mounds heaped up to cover tombs and sacred buildings, 

 this dichotomy should not be overstressed. Some mounds of Middle 

 America also were tombs, or combined tombs and temples [73]. In 

 any event, it is safe to conclude that the Adena-Hopewell mounds w' ere 

 structures which memorialized social and religious traditions and 

 served as community nuclei, as the ceremonial building did in Middle 

 America. Was there a historical connection between Middle America 

 and the Eastern Woodlands at this time, and was Adena-Hopewell 

 ceremonial construction influenced by the emergence of the town-and- 

 temple concept of Middle America ? There is no satisfactory answer 

 at present, but the possibilities cannot be dismissed (see fig. 3). 



In Nuclear America the city developed from the town and temple, 

 and there is no sharp division between the two. Size is, assuredly, 

 one criterion but not the only one. These cities were the nerve centers 

 of civilizations. They were distinguished by great public buildings 



