Ancient America

Over 3,000 years ago, two great civilizations grew up in ancient America – the Olmecs in western Mexico and the Chavin along the coast of northern Peru. Their ancestors had come from Asia across the Bering Strait ‘land bridge’ thousands of years before. At first, they lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers, but later they settled in farming communities.

The Olmec civilization is thought to have been the first to develop in North America. It started as a small group of villages dotted around the Gulf of Mexico. Gradually these villages merged to form towns, and by around 1200 BC the civilization was flourishing. One of the main centres of Olmec culture was the city of La Venta on an island off the Mexican coast. The people who lived there were fisherman and farmers. The Olmec built huge earth pyramids where religious ceremonies were held.

Many of their sculptures and carved masks depict a half-human, half-jaguar creature, possibly a powerful god. The system of writing developed by the Olmecs influenced many later cultures, such as the Maya.

The Chavin civilization began in peru in about 1200 BC and lasted for about 1,000 years. It is named after the great religious site of Chavin de Huantar which was built in around 850 BC. It consisted of a huge stone temple surrounded by a maze of rooms. At the heart of the temple was a great staute of the Smiling God, with a human body and a snarling face. The Chavin also worshipped jaguar spirits, eagles and snakes.