Good morning we are continuing to explore 1491: Before Columbus. This time we are going to look at the history of science and medicine. The run time for this documentary is 48:04.
Indigenous people developed a complex writing system, an advanced calendar, and a calculating system. Plants were used for medicine. Brain surgery and the number “0” were concepts unheard of at the time. The first section discusses traditional medicine. Thousands of species of plants were used for a variety of purposes including sedatives, pain relief, and healing. They had a botanical repertoire at their fingertips. The indigenous people had a deep knowledge of how different plants interacted with each other. Each plant had different properties and could be used for different purposes. The Yarro Plant was good for healing and is good for blood clotting. Sweet grasses were used in ceremonies. Many modern pharmaceuticals can trace their development to Indigenous medicine. Salic acid comes from willow bark and it is used to treat headaches. A manuscript talks about the plants that were used by the Aztecs for healing. The indigenous people practice brain surgery. Thousands of skulls have been found with evidence of treatment. The operations were highly successful. Over 10,000 skulls were found and the evidence was clear that over 70% of the people survived. The skulls show evidence of healing, particularly from blunt force trauma. The Inka Emperor had six physicians carry his litter. They were all trained in skull surgery. The Aztecs performed surgery on compound fractures. How was this accomplished? The indigenous people used the skies to time their hunts. They had a great deal of knowledge of stars and the night sky. Lunar calendars were devised. There is a good discussion on how the indigenous people used the skies to plan out their year. They could travel and navigate their world by the stars. Star lore was created which gave the indigenous people a warning as to when not to travel. The Inuit people studied the stars carefully to determine day from night, this was important during periods when there was no sun. The Mayans developed the most advanced calendars. It first originated with the Olmecs and the Mayans refined it. They were able to calculate the number of days within a year to 365.2 days. They also had the Venus-based calendar, the sacred almanac, and the solar year. Each system was calibrated carefully. Venus played an important role in the Mayan culture. It was known as the “Wasp Star,” and was associated with war. The Mayans were also the first civilization to use the number 0. The 0 allowed them to create numbers that extended beyond the millions and into the billions. The Aztecs developed their dual calendar, there the lunar calendar and the solar calendar. These calendars determined when to plant for the people. The Indigenous people were able to plan for the future using these calendars. The Mayans had developed a writing system and it was recorded using different hieroglyphs. The North American indigenous people recorded their history verbally and passed it down through the generations. Mayan writing was written down on bark paper. They talked about battles, conquests, and day-to-day life. The Mayans wanted to preserve their history for future generations. It took time, but the Mayan hieroglyphs have finally been translated. In South America, a system of record-keeping was developed. The recording method was a combination of knots on a string. The Inka Empire used this system. An empire as big as the Inka would have needed to keep track of the population and production numbers of the empire. So what else was developed by the indigenous people? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. The first little blip talks about traditional medicines. The first country discussed is China and there is a discussion on herbal medicines used in treatment. South Africa talked about traditional healing as well. Plants and trees were used in North America. The second little blip talks about the development of writing systems. The Chinese, Egyptians, and the civilizations in Mesopotamia developed their own writing systems. This is still an excellent documentary series and would be something I would show in the classroom. So far the downside of this series is that there were too few episodes.
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