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The Cities of Mesoamerica

The Cities of Mesoamerica. The rise of Major Mesoamerican . Objectives:. What societies emerged in Mesoamerica that took on proportions that warrant their designation as genuine urban centers

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The Cities of Mesoamerica

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  1. The Cities of Mesoamerica The rise of Major Mesoamerican

  2. Objectives: • What societies emerged in Mesoamerica that took on proportions that warrant their designation as genuine urban centers • What were some of the major communities that emerged during the Classic period from 500 BCE to approximately 500CE

  3. Monte Alban • Founded by the Zapotec around 500 BCE, at the center of the three pronged Valley of Oaxaca, dominated their surrounding areas for over 100 years. • Archaeologists have theorized that Monte Alban owed its existence to the deliberate decision of valley settlements to establish a capital on a neutral site. • By 250 BCE the city’s population reached 15,000, at its height in the 6th century CE it had 25,000.

  4. Monte Alban • Estimated that there are over 15 different subdivisions at Monte Alban, many of the situated on carefully created terraces on the sides of mountains. • Main ceremonial structures were atop artificially flattened mountain that towered over 1300 feet above the Valley of Oaxaca. This included a pyramid with an internal staircase leading to the top, • Sacrificial alters • Ball court • Palaces that housed priestly elite

  5. Monte Alban • Monte Alban collected tribute in the form of food and other supplies from many smaller communities in Oaxaca • Hieroglyphics adorning the palaces refer to specific locations under its dominion. • One of its most famous structures, dating from between 500-250 BCE, is the Palacio De los Danzantes (Palace of the dancers). • Named after the 150 bas-reliefs of contorted male figures on its exterior wall – archaeologists now believe that these images represent not dancers but rather prisoners captured in battle, perhaps being tortured, or the corpses of sacrificial victims.

  6. Monte Alban • Archaeologists have explored nearly 200 Zapotec tombs at Monte Alban. • Highly decorated entranceways with hieroglyphics. • Frescos found on some of the interior walls. • Zapotec God of Maize pictured wearing elaborate headdress of serpents and feathers. • Olmec influence or cultural kinship is evident • Facial features of the “dancers” depicted resemble Olmec styles • People of Monte Alban used a form of glyphs, probably associated with calandrical signs and the 260 day ritual calendar (reminiscent of the Olmec)

  7. Monte Alban • Site know as San Jose Mogote flourished in the northern branch of the Valley of Oaxaca between 1350-500 BCE. • Monte Alban decline set in after 600 CE as it lost access to merchandise coming from the great central Mexican city of Teotihuacan and the Zapotec rulers could no longer use these commodities to buy the loyalty of chiefs from other valley communities. • By 700 CE the population of Monte Alban had shrunk to about 4000 and the political unity of the valley fragmented.

  8. Teotihuacan • Urban center that arouse in the Valley of Mexico, close to modern Mexico City. Cuicuilco, at the southwestern edge of the valley, grew in population to more than 10,000 by 300 BCE and continued development until 50 BCE. • 50BCE volcanic eruption destroys agricultural lands creating the lava beds that residents of Mexico city called the PEDREGAL. • This led the way for the city that the Aztecs would call Teotihuacan.

  9. Teotihuacan • By 100 BCE the population was 40,000, 600 years later it was well over 100,000, some accounts of 200,000 residents, making it one of the largest cities anywhere in the world at the time. • Its ethnically diverse population included a colony of Oazacans and another of people from Veracruz. At least 1/3 of the city’s residents worked at pursuits other than farming

  10. Teotihuacan • The City’s territorial expanse covered about 12 square miles, and everything about it was monumental proportions. • It had about 600 pyramids, including the massive Pyramid of the Sun, more than 215 ft high and measuring half a million square feet at its base. • Pyramid of the Moon • Central Promenade 150 ft wide, 2 miles long • Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were once covered with bright stucco designs

  11. Teotihuacan • City of Teotihuacan • Temple of Quetzalcoatl, bears images of feathered serpent deity, and the Rain god. • Pilgrims visited to participate at rituals • Haven of artists and mercantile activity, huge market complex • Est. that 2000 apartment complexes, laid out out on a grid pattern dating from the 4th century CE, house the city’s working population • Apartments give insights into the lives of everyday people.

  12. Teotihuacan’s Golden Age • Use of Military force to extend influence • First Soldiers of Mesoamerica known to use use a type of quilted cotton body armor – 2-3 inches thick – similar to what the Aztec warriors wore when they met the Spanish in the 16th century • Enemies captured in battle became: 1. sacrificial victims; 2. or slaves if they were lucky • Cultural and Economic influence spread further than military reach, due to its monopoly of OBSIDIAN

  13. Teotihuacan’s Golden Age • Extensive trade networks • Influence at Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala, buildings dating from the early 6th century resemble structures at Teotihuacan • Art at Monte Alban also shows influence of Teotihuacan • By the 6th century It began to decline in population and suffered a fate similar to Monte Alban • Decline affected other cultures of Mesoamerica

  14. Teotihuacan’s Golden Age • Large portions of population dispersed throughout central Mexico. As many as 30,000 residents remained in place of years to come, the days of glory had passed. • Several hundreds of years later, the Aztecs believed that a race of sun gods had lived there, and that it had been the birthplace of the Fifth Sun, the universe as they knew it.

  15. Mayan Civilization in the Classic Era • Situated in the lowland rainforest’s of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize. • Peaked between 3rd century BCE to about 700 CE • Cultural Achievements • True system of writing, Phonetic, Advantage • Archaeologists and art historians have deciphered close to 90% of the Mayan glyphs • Reconstruction of biographies, genealogies, Lord Palenque in southern Mexico

  16. Mayan Civilization in the Classic Era • Mayan religion, script reveals the religious truths and the lives of warriors, as well as artisans, kings, and queens • Mayan Civilization Construction • No single dominant center like Monte Alban or Teotihuacan. • 50 politically autonomous, city-states, drawing tribute from a hinterland. • Tikal In Guatemala, population of 50,000, largest & most powerful of Mayan cities, • It boasted of several artificial lakes and the tallest known Classic Mayan structure, at 230 feet. • Mayan ruling Dynasty was est. 219. CE Copan in Honduras may have been a sphere of influence comparable to Tikal • Glyphs referring to Tikal were found at Copan.

  17. Mayan Civilization in the Classic Era • Political/ Social System • Separate Polities had a AHAU, King, nobility, upper classes • Summer 2000, archaeologists discovered the palace at Cancuen in Guatemala, covering an area of approx. 2 football fields • Inscriptions of the palace from the reign of King Tah ak Chaan, who ruled at Cancuen from 740-790 CE. • Relationships among cities: not necessarily harmony • Recent research shows that Tikal and the city of Calakmul, 60 miles to the north, engaged in a protracted conflict. • Colored murals at Bonampak in Chiapas, Mexico, show captives taken in battle undergoing torture. • Evidence consists of small scale raids of one community against another, for the jungle terrain of lowland Mesoamerica prohibited the movement of large armies fielded by highland centers such as Teotihuacan.

  18. Mayan Civilization in the Classic Era • Dispersal of Mayan Communities • Trade not as important/ did engage with Teotihuacan. Obsidian from central Mexico and Teotihuacan type potter have been found at numerous Mayan site. • Cancuen derived a significant portion of their wealth by serving as intermediaries in the obsidian trade • Mayan influence in Education • Mathematics, using a system of units based on 20. • First people to develop the concept of Zero – Hindus began employing zero in their calculations in the 5th century CE, Europeans learned it from Arabs some 800 years later

  19. Mayan Civilization in the Classic Era • Mayan Influence in Education • Mayans had a 365 day calendar with 260 day ceremonial calendar. • They estimated time in millions of years. • Astronomy considerably ahead of Europeans at the time. • Craft specialists, jewelers, feather workers, painters, carvers, and sculptors found in large centers. • Volcanic eruption in 600 CE near Careen in present day El Salvador left a Mayan village buried in ash. • Excavations: homes, uncovered homes, a steam both, civic center, giving archaeologists a rare glimpse of how ordinary people live and worked in classic times.

  20. Mayan Civilization in the Classic Era • Mayan Influence in Education • Ceren: Nuclear families. gardens, implements for grinding maize, obsidian. • Collapse • Around 800 CE building of temples and carving of stelae halted, Construction ceased at tikal as well after 830 BCE, the last carved date at Palenque is 799. • Ceremonial cores of many cities were abandoned to squatters, the population of major sites such as Tikal shrank by ss much as 90% • Factors: Acceleration in population, food shortages, compeition for scarce resources in turn exacerbated conflicts among city states between Tikal and Calakmul seems to have contributed to the collapse of Mayan centers.

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