Transcript Civilizations of Pre-Columbian Mexico

CIVILIZATIONS OF
PRE-COLUMBIAN MEXICO
Maya, Olmec, Teotihuacan (place), and Azteca
Classical…what?
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Pre-Classical Period
 2000
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Classical Period
 250
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BC - 250 AD
AD - 900 AD
Post-Classical Period
 900
- 1500 AD
Timeline
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Olmec
 1200BC-400BC
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Maya
 1800BC-1500AD
 Presence
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in Mexico beginning in ~1200BC
Teotihuacan
 150AD-750AD
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Azteca
 1200AD-mid
1520AD
The Olmec
Olmec
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“Rubber People” in Nahuatl
Mesoamerican formative years (1200 BC)
Lived in current day Tabasco/Veracruz
Olmec
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Practiced ritual bloodletting and sacrifice
Played ball
Contributions include:
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Number 0
Writing (in Western Hemisphere)
Mesoamerican calendar
Possibly a compass
Most known for their art
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Colossal Heads
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Rulers dressed as ball players
17 to-date
Striking and beautiful
San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan
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Olmec settling that lasted from 1200BC-900BC
Fertile soil that allowed for extensive agriculture
and therefore settlement
Around 900BC the city was abandoned and was
destroyed around 950BC
 Internal
uprising
 Foreign invasion
 Change in river path
La Venta
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900BC-400BC
Great Pyramid (no good pictures, sorry!)
A lot of offerings in the form of art
Olmec Religion
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Shaman and High Priests
No written record of their religious beliefs
Interpretation of artifacts shows a rain god and a
feathered serpent diety
Decline
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Between 400 and 350BC
Specifics are unknown, but theories include:
 Agricultural
issues: silting of rivers or some other
problem causing them to abandon settlements
 Volcanic activity: volcanic activity at the time of their
“disappearance” would have been high
 After the disappearance in that region, similar cultures
began popping up elsewhere
 This
may indicate a movement/migration
The Maya
Pre-Classical Mayan Civilization
Believed to have arrived to the area known as
present-day Mexico from Belize
 Sedentary civilization that settled in the lowland
area of the Yucatan Peninsula ~1200BC
 Known for their pottery and clay figurines
 Highly influenced by the Olmeca whom
were already settled in the Yucatan.
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Pre-Classical Mayan Sites
Pre-Classical Maya
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Sedentary due to agriculture
 Corn,
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beans, cacao and pumpkins
As population grew, developed hierarchy with
nobles and priests
Began developing first temples and the foundation
for future pyramids
Religion simple
 Based
on the belief of life after death
 Veneration for the dead
Tikal (Guatemala)
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Began construction in late 200s AD
Late pre-classical lowland Maya
 City?
 Place
for the dead?
Classical Maya
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Peak of construction and urbanism
Peak of monumental inscriptions
Significant intellectual and artistic development
Development of several independent city-states
Collapse of the
Southern Lowland Mayas
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During the 8th and 9th centuries the southern lowland
Mayan cities were abandoned
Two schools of thought
 Ecological:
disease, agricultural issues, climate change,
environmental disaster
 Non-Ecological: fall of trade, foreign invasion,
overpopulation, peasant revolt, etc…
Post Classical Maya
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From 10th-early 16th centuries, construction in the northern
regions persisted
Cities in the northern Yucatan flourished
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After a decline in the other ruling dynasties, Mayapan ruled
all of the northern region until a revolt in 1450
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Chichen Itza
Coba (Tulum),
Campeche (Edzna),
Uxmal
this is where the word “Maya” comes from
After the revolt, the civilization deteriorated to competing
city states until the Spanish took over the Yucatan
Post-Classical Structures
Spanish Conquest
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It took 170 years for the Spanish to take control of
the Mayan Yucatan because there was not just one
political center
In 1697 the Spanish gained control of the area
 Burned
Mayan documents and texts
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan
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The name came from the Nahuatl language
centuries after the city fell; “birth place of the
gods”
Mayan documents refer to it as “puh” which means
“place of reeds”
Mysterious origin of city
 Originally
possible
attributed to Toltec, “master builder”, but not
Teotihuacan
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Possibly due to volcanic activity during formative
period, many cultural groups had to move location
 Ended
up in Teotihuacan valley
 Multi-ethnic city
 Otomi,
Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya, Nahua
 Totonacs claim to have built it, but that has yet to be
established
Teotihuacan
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Religion: multiple gods including feathered serpent
and rain god
Over 2000 structures
At around 400-500 AD there was a population of
200,000
 Making
it the best city in the hemisphere if not the
whole world
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Pyramids of the Sun and Moon (as later called by
the Aztecs) stood on each end of the avenue
Teotihuacan
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Around 750 BC the culture just seemed to vanish
 Some
evidence of a fire
 Believed
to have been started by people invading the city
Please Click Here :)
Aztec
Aztec
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Technically “Aztec” refers to a large group of
people who speak the Nahuatl language
Typically people refer only to the people that lived
in Tenochtitlan
 which
is NOT the same as Teotihuacan
 These people called themselves Mexica Tonochca or
Colhua-Mexica
 Includes
Mexica, Acolhua, Tepanecs
In the beginning…
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The Mexica people who settled in Tenochtitlan believed
that they came from a place called “the land of seven
caves”
When they fled, it is said that their main diety
Huitzilopochtli forbid them from ever calling themselves
Azteca, because that is the name of the people they
were fleeing, so they became Mexica
Moon
 Name of leader
 A type of weedy plant
 Mexitl (secret “nickname” for Huitzilopochtli)
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Migration & Culture
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The Nahua people began migrating from Northern
Mexico because they were hunters and gatherers.
 Because
of this migration, they mixed with many of the
mesoamerican cultures in Mexico throughout the years
and that is how they accumulated their religious and
other cultural beliefs and behaviors
Aztec Empire
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Included many people from other city states,
including those named previously
Empire reached its height under Ahuizotl’s reign
(1486-1502)
Religion
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Initially the Mexica believed that Huitzilopochtli was
only a tribal god and there were other gods above
him
 Story
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of the moon and stars
Eventually, as the civilization grew, Huitzilopochtli
was raised up to share the same status as the other
gods: Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, and Quetzalcoatl
 He
essentially replaced Nanauatzin (sun god)
Tlaloc
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god of rain, fertility and water
Element of water
Benevolent
Feared for his ability to send hail, lightning and
thunder
Google eyes and fangs
Caves, springs, mountains
Demanded child sacrifices
Tezcatlipoca
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night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the
earth, obsidian, discord, temptation, jaguars,
sorcery, beauty, war and strife
Often seen as the rival of Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl
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Feathered serpent
Wind, Venus, dawn, merchants, arts, crafts, learning,
knowledge and patron of priesthood
Huitzilopochtli
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Was in constant struggle with darkness
Needed nourishment in the form of human blood at
least every 52 years
Replaced the former sun god (as mentioned earlier)
Montezuma
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Was ruler during the arrival of Hernan Cortes and
the Spanish conquest.
August 13, 1521 was the beginning of the seige
that ultimately caused the fall of the empire at
Tenochtitlan
 Cortes
was aided by other native groups
HOMEWORK!!! (Due Thursday, 9/17)
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Choose one of the following:
 Look
up Teotihuacan and describe the significance of
the layout of “The Avenue of the Dead”
 What types of sacrifices were carried out by the
people known as the Aztecs and why?
 What do you think happened to the Olmec civilization?
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500 words, complete ENGLISH sentences, hand
written