Transcript Early Mesoamerican Civilizations

•The area extending from central Mexico to Honduras
•Several large, complex civilizations existed here before
Spanish arrived
 Olmec 1200 B.C. -400
B.C.
 Zapotec 1000 B.C. –
600 A.D.
 The Maya A.D. 300 900
 The Aztecs A.D. 12001521
 Civilization began in
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Mesoamerica around
1200 BC (to 400 BC)
Mesoamerica
Central Mexico to
northern Honduras
Mother Culture of
Mesoamerica
People who create
earliest civilization in
southern Mexico
 Located along coast of Gulf of
Mexico
 Hot, humid & covered w/ swamps &
jungle
 La Venta w/ 100 ft. pyramid
 May have worshiped the jaguar
 Some believe it represented the rain
god
 Archeologists discovered colossal
sculpted heads
 May have represented Olmec rulers
or their gods
 Used no metal tools
 Influence the Maya in their art
styles, jaguar motif, & urban design
 Directed a large and
prosperous trading
network throughout
Mesoamerica
 Trade spreads Olmec
influence to the north
and south; In return for
the products they made,
they received iron ore
and different kinds of
stone.
 Reasons for Olmec
collapse by 400 BC is
unknown
 Geography
 Located in
Mountainous region in
southern Mexico;
fertile soil and mild
climate in valleys;
(Oaxaca Valley)
 1000 BC-600 AD
 Planned cities with
stone pyramids,
temples, and palaces
built around a giant
plaza (influenced by
Olmecs)
 500 BC - First city in
America
 25,000 people
 Combined religion and
daily life.
 Pyramids, temples, and
palaces surrounded a
giant plaza paved with
stones
 Hieroglyphic writing
system
 Declined shortly after
600 AD for unknown
reasons
 Nazca-culture on dry,
southern coast of Peru
 Flourished from 200 BC
to 600 AD
 Built irrigation systems
and made beautiful
pottery and textiles
 Nazca Lines
 Huge drawings depicting
plants, animals
 Can only be seen from air
 1,000 puzzling designs on
land—images of animals,
geometric shapes and
mythological beings
 1. Please the gods?
 2. Lines indicated where
surface water entered the
plain and marked elevated
land between ancient
riverbeds?
 3. A map that marks the
course of underground
aquifers?
 4. Straight lines may have
led to ceremonial sites?
 One of the driest regions
on earth
 Ground is flat and stony
 Wind rarely carries away
the soil
 Minimal erosion
 In ceramic and textile
design, Nazca artisans
depict the taking of
human heads.
 What does this say
about Nazca culture?
 A.D. 100- 700
 Near Pacific coast south of
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Ecuadorian border
Built irrigation systems to
water crops from the rivers
that flowed from Andes to
Pacific
Grew crops such as maize,
peanuts, potatoes, cotton
No written language
Pottery depicting everyday
life: warfare
No written language