The cultures and civilizations of the Americas€¢Olmec •Teotihuacan •Maya •Toltec •Aztec ....
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Transcript of The cultures and civilizations of the Americas€¢Olmec •Teotihuacan •Maya •Toltec •Aztec ....
The cultures and civilizations of the “Americas”
Where did the Native Americans come from?
Who was in Meso-America? (“Middle America”)
• Olmec • Teotihuacan • Maya • Toltec • Aztec
Teotihuacan • Temples
• Quetzalcoatl
• Chinampas
• Apartment housing for commoners
• Obsidian tools
• Aristocratic govt
•Military protected long distance trade
• Decline – violence…
Pyramid of the Sun
Pyramid of the Moon
Teotihuacan
Maya
MAYA • Yucatan Peninsula
• City States; hereditary
• Swidden agriculture; no metal tools
• Complex religion - 3 layers (heavens, now and underworld); trances
• Elite, tatoos, human sacrifice (elite capt)
• Writing, ball playing (pok-a-tok), astronomy,
• Calendar (365) math system (zero)
• Elite women – high; women important
• demise - war, drought, infighting
**Mayan math
computa`tion
Mayan Calendar
• first date is actually written 13.0.0.0.0.
• three possible equivalences:
• 13.0.0.0.0 = 13 Aug 3114 BCE (Gregorian) 13.0.0.0.0 = 11 Aug 3114 BCE (Gregorian) 13.0.0.0.0 = 15 Oct 3374 BC (Gregorian)
• Assuming one of the first two equivalences, the Long Count will again reach 13.0.0.0.0 on 21 or 23 December AD 2012
• 13.0.0.0.0 may have been the Mayas' idea of the date of the creation of the world.
Ritual “divine” cycle calendar
Solar “civil” calendar
“long count” calendar
Mayan Corn God, Yum
Mayan Corn god & Rain god - From ancient
Mayan religious texts
Maya / Aztec Calendar
Palenque
Mayan Temples
Toltec •Transmitted Teotihuacan & Mayan
culture to the Aztecs
•Conquest state; military power
•Violent culture
•Rivalries
•Tula art -----
•Decline & invasion by the Aztecs
Capital: Tula
Aztecs
plundered
site for
building
materials
Toltec art
The Toltec Empire and leaders created an unmatched mystique in the minds of the Central American people. The Toltec leaders were
thought of as being alongside deities. Later cultures often revered them and copied their legends, art, buildings and religion. Many future
rulers of other cultures, including Mayan leaders and Aztec emperors, claimed to be descended from the Toltecs.
The Toltecs sported the familiar ball game played by many central American cultures and may have sacrificed of the losers. Toltecs are
known for their somewhat rougher form of architecture, a form that would later inspire the Aztec builders. Toltec art is characterized by
walls covered with snakes and skulls, images of a reclining Chak-mool (red jaguar), and the colossal statues of the Atlantes, men carved
from great columns.
The Aztecs
AZTECS • Nomads; settled on islands
• in Lake Texcoco
• Adopted agriculture; gradually grew into an independent power, then empire
• Capital city - Tenochtitlan –
• Ruler chosen by nobility
• War – religious significance (of course) – legitimized the ruler
• War also increased holdings of nobles
• War to get captives for human sacrifice
• Society - hierarchy with Aztec ruler & nobility at top & slaves/criminals/debtors at bottom; women had rights
• Tremendous inequalities - nobility vs commoners
• Elaborate ritual; Huitzilopochtli; war/sun
• Human sacrifice
• Political tribute system; pd in food; goods
• Economic: chinampas; barter
• Dike in lake: salt/fresh water
Pyramids of Tenochtitlán
Huitzilopochtli god of war & sun
needed human
hearts
Tlaloc God of Rain
Tenochtitlan
Quetzalcoatl god of wind &
knowledge
Canoe moving
about the
chinampas
Aztec Society in Transition • Increasingly hierarchical
•Conflict between nobles and growing “middle”
•Violence
•Discontent tribute tribes; sacrifice!
•Empire under Montezuma II conquered by Spaniards (Cortes)
Andean Societies
environmental challenges…
Moche
Andean Cultures •Background:
•Early – small coastal & foothills villages
• by 2600 BCE cf - Old Kingdom Egypt
Chavin (900-250 BCE)
• Trade routes; controlled; linked regions
•Maize <----> quinoa, potatoes, llamas
•Adobe & stone; 1st metals; jaguar-man
• Social stratification: priests, elite, etc.
Technologies to meet the needs Environmental
challenges:
• Altitude
• Frosts
• Arid / drought
•Only llamas!
Compensations:
• Calendar
•New varieties
potatoes & grains
• Terraced farming
• Freeze-dried
vegetables & meat
• Llama & alpaca wool
Andean culture •Khipus
•Ayllu
•Hereditary aristocracy & kings
•Mit’a
•Coca (not cacao)
•Colonists
khipus
Moche • Ca. 600 CE
•Maize, quinoa, beans, manioc,
sweet potatoes
• Irrigation, canals, aqueducts
•Alpacas & llamas
• Textiles
• Stratified society; theocratic
•Women weavers
Moche ceramic sculpture
The Inca
• huge empire & strong central gov’t
• extending length of South America
• Large professional military
• Built paved roads & suspension bridges - used
running messengers; quipus
• Pastoralists; men and women
• Capital Cuzco; sun god; royal family
• Local rulers/chiefdoms; control by hostage
taking
INCA
Inca terraces; Machu Picchu
Machu Pichu
suspension bridge
Northern Peoples Southwestern desert
•Aztec influence incl. maize,
squash, beans
•Hohokam irrigation canals
•Anasazi – kivas; cliff dwellings &
canyon “appts”, pottery, weaving
•Chaco canyon; Mesa Verde
Anasazi cliff dwellings
Mississippian culture •Oldest mounds – 3000’s BCE
• “mound-builders”
• Chiefdoms
• Towns – central plaza surrounded by mounds; burial mounds, temple mounds
• Social stratification; trade
• (not accepted as product of the Native Americans until late 1800’s!)
How Mississippian towns might have looked
Cahokia mounds city; Illinois
Had more inhabitants than Paris at that time (1150)
Etowah Indian Mound- in your very own North Georgia