Extra Pack Finalization Project, parts 1-4 compiled

[godinex]

And the first city in south america is Caral and is about 4000 years old... so its the first incan City... I have the info if You e\want I will puit in here... but i in spanish

[Wernazuma III]

No te preocupes, lo voy a entender perfectamente.

[Beren]

I really think the Arab leader should be Prophet Mohammed. I know somebody said it would be insult to the Islam, but I am not sure about that. I read something about it and Mohammed was not sacred or holy. He was just a man who happened to be chosen by God to spread the word.

[godinex]

Gracias a Dios! Por que no tenemos un foro en español de Civ3?

Thanx to God! Why the latin american and the spanish people do not have our own forum?

[godinex]

Here is the info... in english

For Immediate Release
Contact: Greg Borzo
(312) 665-7100

Anthropologists Establish Date and Importance of the Americas’ Oldest City


Thursday, April 26, 2001

CHICAGO – New radiocarbon dates indicate that the site of Caral (120 miles north of Lima, Peru) was home to the earliest known urban settlement – with monumental corporate architecture and irrigation agriculture – in the New World. The surprising evidence pushes the development of these important advances in the Americas back to as early as 2627 B.C. – a time when the pyramids were being built in Egypt.

In a report published in the April 27, 2001 issue of Science, Dr. Ruth Shady Solis of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima and her colleagues, Jonathan Haas, Chicago’s Field Museum, and Winifred Creamer, of Northern Illinois University and Field Museum Adjunct Curator, describe the results of the testing of plant fibers taken from excavations conducted by Dr. Shady at Caral.

Sitting on a dry desert terrace above the green valley floor, Caral is one of 18 large contemporary sites in the Supe Valley on the Pacific Coast of Peru. Together, the sites indicate a remarkably advanced civilization for this period – despite a lack of ceramics that has puzzled anthropologists for years.

This lack of ceramics contributed to the Supe Valley sites being largely overlooked ever since they were first noted almost 100 years ago. But this new research has established that Caral thrived some 4,600 years ago – even before the introduction of ceramics in Peru – and played a pivotal role in the social, political and economic development of civilization in South America.

"The location offers an opportunity to investigate one of the fundamental questions of Western archeology and social science, namely, what is the origin of complex, centralized, highly organized society in the Americas?" Dr. Haas said. "This is a project that comes along once in a generation and offers opportunities rarely glimpsed in the field of archeology."

The radiocarbon samples from Caral were taken in connection with the on-going research being undertaken by Dr. Shady and her team of students from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. These Excavations at the site are focused on assessing the range and function of architectural features and determining the sequence and construction methods of the site’s monumental mounds.

Pyramids dominate landscape

Caral is dominated by a central zone containing six large platform mounds arranged around a huge public plaza area. The largest of these mounds, "Piramide Mayor," is truly remarkable: 60-feet high and 450-by-500 feet at the base. Research indicates that all six central mounds were built in only one or two phases, indicating the presence of complex planning, centralized decision-making, and mobilization of large labor forces.

The terraced mounds were used for administrative purposes. Stairs, rooms, courtyards and other structures were constructed on top of the pyramids as well as on the side terraces. Excavations will determine whether there were rooms, passageways or even tombs inside the mounds.

Other architecture at the site indicates a high level of cultural complexity. The varied styles and quality of Caral’s housing point to a richly stratified society. And three sunken circular plazas at the site testify to the emergence of a well-organized religion with open, public ceremonies. The largest of these sunken plazas is 150 feet in diameter. Such plazas are an architectural form that continued throughout the Andes for several thousand years.

Ultimately, the social, political and religious system founded in the Supe Valley provided ancestral roots for the great civilization of the Incas, who ruled the Andes some 4,000 years later when the first Europeans arrived in the 16th century A.D.

Other villages in Peru were occupied before 2600 B.C., and some of them even had small-scale public platforms or stone rings. However, all of the sites in the Americas occupied in the 3rd millennium B.C. are dwarfed by the 200-acre size of Caral and its huge monuments. Of the 18 recorded preceramic sites in the Supe Valley, 10 are more than 60 acres in size. Any one of these ten, if taken alone, would probably be the largest settlement in the New World during the 3rd millennium B.C. Collectively, this concentration of urban settlements – all with monumental architecture and all based on irrigation – is simply unparalleled in any period.

Caral’s location some 14 miles inland from the Pacific is also important. Because the Peruvian coast is extremely arid, the only source of water for fields is the Supe River, and the only way to get the river water to arable land is by way of irrigation canals Thus, as Dr. Creamer noted, "the farmers at Caral may have been the Americas’ first pioneers to build canals and open the vast potential of channeling river water to rich desert lands surrounding a river’s valley bottom."

Caral’s domesticated plants included squash, beans and cotton. No corn has been found, and its absence establishes for the first time that this starchy staple was not necessary to the development of a complex society in South America.

In sum, this research shows that Caral and the Supe Valley is exceptional because of:



its early date for an urban center
its large size
the presence of irrigation agriculture
its huge, monumental architecture
its pristine, relatively unexplored condition
the existence of nearby contemporary
sites of comparable magnitude.


This research was funded by the National Geographic Society; Peru’s National Institute of Culture; Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima; the National Museum of Natural History; and the Northern Illinois University Foundation.

[godinex]

Originally posted by Beren
I really think the Arab leader should be Prophet Mohammed. I know somebody said it would be insult to the Islam, but I am not sure about that. I read something about it and Mohammed was not sacred or holy. He was just a man who happened to be chosen by God to spread the word.

I´m with You. But Saladin is best!

[dunk]

Originally posted by godinex
This research was funded by the National Geographic Society; Peru’s National Institute of Culture; Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima; the National Museum of Natural History; and the Northern Illinois University Foundation.

Great info... why the frowny face?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Beren
I really think the Arab leader should be Prophet Mohammed. I know somebody said it would be insult to the Islam, but I am not sure about that. I read something about it and Mohammed was not sacred or holy. He was just a man who happened to be chosen by God to spread the word.

It goes against Muslim beliefs to depict the Prophet- even in Persian and Turkish miniatures and paintings, and Mogul Paintings, the Prophet's face is never shown. Muhammad himself denied any 'quasi-divine' status. Nonetheless, this would be like having Abraham as leader of the Jews. A more avowedly secular leader (such as Haroun al Rashid, or Omar) is better.

[godinex]

Originally posted by dunk999


Great info... why the frowny face?

Because the info is in english... I love Spanish... and Moly Bloom is correct. It could be very offensive if we think in that way.
And I have a question: Why Simon Bolivar is not a great leader of the Incans? ... just think the posibilyty.

[Eli]

Arafat as an Arab leader? Are you out of your minds?

He's a leader of a small very young Arab nation. He's in the headlines today, but he's definetely not an "Arab leader".


As for the Hebrews. I say we should call the people Hebrews and the nation should be called Israel.
I have no problems with Saul as a great leader, but I prefer to spell Merkava with a K and without an H.

[Tiberius]

Turks question

I'm sure it was discussed before, but for my own curiosity:

Why is the turk leader Mehmet (I guess Mehmet II, the Conqueror, right ?) and not Suleyman (The Magnificent) ?

Also, somebody said it before that the janissaries should be more offensive; I agree with that. They used them all the time in attacking Europe. But probably the AI won't use it anyway as an offensive unit.

[Wernazuma III]

That's a tough one, becauase both of them make excellent rulers, both conquered big areas for the Ottomans. I think Mehmet was prefered because he conquered Constantinople. This conquest - although predictable marks the entry of the Turks as a "constant factor" in European history. But whether Mehmet or Suleyman was never a "hard discussion", IMHO almost everyone here can live with either choice.
About the Janissary: The french Musketeer already has 3/4/1 and I try not to have identical UUs. The additional movement on the other hand is actually also an offensive bonus that should not be underestimated.

[Tiberius]

I'm sorry, I missed the extra movement point. That's very good, but I'd still give them an attack of 3.

About tle leader: I think Suleyman was "bigger" but because Mehmet started the whole Ottoman expansion, so I can live with it.

Btw. the name:It was the "Ottoman Empire" for about 600 years, and it is "Turkey" for only 100 years. Nevertheless, I can uderstand this choice.

[JamesJKirk]

What's up with the Poles, Koreans and Khmer all shunning Communism, I understand that today it's not very popular with the people there, but all 3 of those places were ruled by Communist regimes. The favored/shunned choice shouldn't be what people of a nation like and hate the most, but it should be what they were most likely to be ruled under. I mean the Khmer Rouge were quite infamous, Poland was Communist about 5 times longer than it's been a democracy (And happens to now have the former Communists in charge) and half of Korea is still Communist.

That being said, everything looks great! (except maybe for the aforementioned special-warrior dominated Americas, and an insanely packed Europe vs. other parts of the world which will be relatively empty, but perhaps I'm now nitpicking

[Wernazuma III]

If it were only about which regime was the longest, probably all civs would favor Monarchy. Anyway, I understand your point.
Some notes on the specific cases:

Poland: 34 years Democracy vs. 44 years Communism, which btw. were not chosen by Poles themselves, is no clear statement for Communism. I guess Poles shunning Communism was primarily chosen because of the close friendship between French and Poles since the French revolution, ideas which the Poles favored much.

Korea: I think you're right in this. Probably we should not make Communism favored either, what do you think Koreans should shun?

Khmer: As a leftist I have severe problems to call Cambodjan Communism really "Communism" (just like in Korea). Anyhow, you got a point in this too. Thinking about it, they probably should shun Democracy, but I'm not sure. Ideas?