Ancient South American Tribes and Civilizations

This is a jug made by the Chavin Tribe. This jug that looks like a cat and may have been used to carry water. It has many details such as the swirls, the paws, claws and the head.

This is a weaving from the Paracas Tribe. The Paracas are famous for their weaving. This shows a man with a staff and "head" in hand.

This is a pitcher made by the Nazca. It is made in the shape of a crocodile and that may mean that they lived near a river.

These are Nazca "lines" or drawings in the ground. The largest group of them is 660 ft. across. Scientists believe that they may have religious meanings. They were made by scraping away the red pebbles on top and allowing the white sand underneath to show.

The Moche lived in the northern part of Peru. The yellow highlights where they lived and where the Moche had control.

This is a mask that the Chimu would have used for ceremonies.

These were probably used to store food, much like tupper-ware is used today. They may have also been of religious meaning.

This is Machu Picchu an ancient Incan city high in the Andes. Machu Picchu is located 8,000 ft above sea level. It is situated on a mountain 50 miles NW of Cuzco the capitol of the Inca.

A skull with anemia

Corn or Maize is a food that the Mayan's ate

My theory about how the ancient Mayan Civilization collapsed is that they all died out from iron deficiency anemia. This disease is caused by malnutrition and specifically lack of iron in the diet. The area around Copan is eroded because of too much planting. This may have been because they were getting less and less food out of the land and needed to plant more than usual. These factors may have led to decreased nutritional value of the food that they got, which led to malnutrition and iron deficiency anemia. Iron deficiency anemia is my theory for the collapse of the Mayan Civilization.

Anemic blood cells