Early Mexican culture
As we have learned the people in Americas gathered seeds and plats for food bu did no farming. The earliest villages where crops were grown have been found in Mexico along the Gulf Coast. These crops were gourds, chili peppers, and pumpkins. Later kidney beans, sweet and white potatoes, and peanuts were also harvested. It was in Mexico that a small vegetable no bigger than a kidney bean was first planted. Cross-bred with similar wild plants this vegetable became the New world's most important crop-corn. Corn is one plant that will not grow wild. The art of planting corn has been passed from culture to culture across both North and South America. By 2000 B.C. farming was a way of life and villages became more common. Early farmers used the "slash-and-burn" technique Every few years they cleared off an area by burning down the trees and vegetation Crops were grown there until the soil became exhausted of its minerals Then the land was left alone and a new area was cleared off. The earliest farmers lived in "pit" houses with floors below ground level. Later simple "wattle-and daub" houses were built. These homes were made of framework of poles interwoven with cane or brush and plastered with clay. The thatched roofs were mad of grass palm leaves or other similar materials In the early Mexican sites thousands of tiny female figures 4-5 inches have been found by archaeologists. These figures were so abundant that even today farmers' plows frequently dislodge them from the ground. Nobody is really sure why the cay statues were sculpted by they have been helpful in dating civilizations.
Huaca Prieta
About 1,000 B.C. several hundred people formed the village of Huaca Prieta along the Pacific coast of Peru in South America. They lived in pit houses that had one or two rooms and whale bones and wooded beam roofs. These people made their living by net-fishing and farming. Their main crops were lima beans and squash instead of pottery they used gourds which were decorated with figures carved into their sides. The people of Huaca Prieta were artistic weavers. They learned to day yarn many different colors. They wove figures of men, sea, creatures, and animals into cloth with multicolored yarn. They also wove beautifully decorated baskets.