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Ancient Civilizations of the Americas

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  1. Chapter 11 The Americas

  2. The Peoples of North America • People from Asia crossed the Bering Strait to get to North America • 3000 BC the Inuit moved into N.A. from Asia • skilled hunters, had specific skills to survive the cold and harsh environment

  3. People of North America • Eastern Woodlands • Hopewell • Ohio Valley river • Mound Builders, built large earth mounds used as tombs and ceremonies • Farming villages but also gathered wild plants

  4. People of North America • Northeast of Mississippi • Iroquois • villages of longhouses • men hunted deer, bear, caribou and small animals • women gathered wild plants and grew crops • corn, beans, squash • war was common between Iroquois groups • alliance was created • Iroquois League - five groups

  5. People of North America • Plains Indians • West of Mississippi River • Hunted buffalo (important animal) • Lived in tepees

  6. People of North America • Southwest • Anasazi • farming society • used canals and earthen dams to turn the desert into fertile gardens • lived in pueblos • center of their civilization at Chaco Canyon was Pueblo Bonito • over 50 year drought, they abandon the center • moved to community in Mesa Verde • eventually abandoned region from long period of drought

  7. Mesoamerica • Olmec culture (oldest society) • 1st known civilization around 1200 BC • farmed along riverbanks – trade with other mesoamericans • large cities - religion rituals - oldest city San Lorenzo • skilled workers of stone- around 400 BC civilization collapsed • Olmec played a ceremonial game on a stone ball court • Maya culture would continue many of the Olmec fascination and adopt the calendar and numerical system

  8. Mesoamerica • Major city Teotihuacan • capital of early kingdom around 250 BC – 800 • had temples and palaces • most people were farmers • center of trade • for unknown reasons it collapsed and the city was destroyed and abandoned

  9. Mesoamerica • Maya civilization 300 - 900 AD • East on the Yucatan Peninsula • built temples and pyramids, complicated calendars • farming people - centered their culture in city-states • Maya cities were built around a central pyramid topped by a shrine to the gods • city-states were governed by a ruler, may wars between towns • people - rulers, nobles, townspeople, peasants • crucial to Maya civilization was its spiritual perspective

  10. Mesoamerica • Believed in Gods and had human sacrifice to appease them • created writing system based on hieroglyphs • calendar was written from the hieroglyphs • called Long Count • based on a belief in cycles of creation and destruction • Solar and sacred calendar

  11. Mesoamerica • they recorded important events in Mayan history • civilization declined and eventually disappear, researchers believe people overused the land and crops stopped growing

  12. Mesoamerica Toltec AD 950-1150 Center of empire was at Tula Aztec later plundered the city and destroyed much historical evidence

  13. people irrigated their fields - grew beans, maize and peppers • warlike people • constructed pyramids and palaces • two important gods - Quetzalocatl (took two different forms) • Empire to decline AD 125 from fighting among different groups Toltec

  14. Mesoamerica Aztecs not sure of their origins established a capital at Tenochtitlan ruled until Spanish conquest

  15. Mesoamerica • When arrived in the Valley of Mexico they were told by their god when they saw an eagle perched on a cactus growing out of a rock, their journey would end • they would be driven by attackers to islands of Lake Texcoco where on one island they saw the eagle • Next 100 years the Aztec built temples, houses, public buildings. • They built roadways of stone across Lake Texcoco linking the island to the mainland

  16. Aztec • state was authoritarian • people - ruler - nobles - commoners - workers – slaves • men in noble families were sent to military school • trade of merchants was big cause of canals built • believed in gods – Ometeotl • with help of two other city-states, Tenochtitlan formed a Triple Alliance - this enabled Aztec to dominate an empire

  17. Early Civilizations in South America • Inca • late 1300s, Cuzco in the mountains of Peru • Ruler Pachacuti launch a campaign of conquest • empire included about 12 million people • Inca state was built on war, all young men were required to serve in army

  18. Inca • Pachacuti divided empire into four quarters each ruled by a governor • forced labor - important feature of the state • people lived by farming, watered by irrigation systems, houses built of stone • great builders • roadways over mountains and tunnels through them, bridges and aqueducts • famous city Machu Picchu • no writing system, recorded using a system of knotted strings call quipu

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