Pre-Columbian Civilizations In the Americas

1. Pre-Columbian Civilizations In the Americas Unit 2, Chapter 11

2. Early Human Migrations

3. Major Pre-Columbian Civilizations

4. MesoAmerica

5. Classic Era – 600-900 • People of Teotihuacan • Maya Post-Classic Era – 900-1500 • Toltecs • Aztecs

6. Teotihuacan • Pre-Aztec • Largest city in Americas • Polytheistic • Human sacrifice • Dependence on agriculture • Chinampas • No clear evidence of rulers • Probably elite families • Collapsed about 650

7. The Mayans

8. Lands of the Mayans The Yucatan Peninsula

9. Overview • Never politically united • Individual city-states with rulers • Shared culture • Shifting agriculture • No use of wheels, pulleys, carts, or metal tools

10. Astrology • Cosmos divided into 3 layers connected on a vertical axis • Earth in between the heavens and the underworld • Sacred tree rose through the 3 layers • Roots in underworld • Branches reached into the heavens • Priests communicated with gods throughbloodletting & use of hallucinogens • Human sacrifice

11. Society • Patrilineal • Evidence of female roles in political and religious arena • Focus on war • Definite Class structure

12. Achievements • Development of calendar • Each day had 3 dating systems • Ritual cycle • Solar cycle • Long calendar • Mathematics • Concept of 0 • Place value • Heiroglyphics

13. Mayan Decline • Between 800 and 900 • Cities abandoned or destroyed • Theories • Epidemic disease • Disruption of trade because of decline of Tenochtitlan • Population expansion led to environmental destruction and food shortages provoking warfare

14. Chichen-Itza - Pyramid

15. Chichen-Itza - Observatory

16. Mayan Cultivation of Maize Chac, God of Rain -->

17. Mayan Underground Granaries: Chultunes

18. Overview of Tikal (Guatemala) Temple of the Masks

19. Tikal - Main Court

20. Tikal: Temple of the Masks

21. Tikal - Wall Mask of the Rain God

22. Mayan Glyphs sky king house child city Mayan Mathematics

23. Mayan Glyphs

24. Pakal: The Maya Astronaut

25. Quetzalcoatl:The God of Wisdom & Learning

26. The Aztecs

27. Overview • Northern peoples who pushed into centralMexico after the collapse of Tula • Beginning – clan based • Adapted to the local political & social practices • Around 1325 built capital at Tenochtitlan(old site of Teotichuacan)

28. Political • Monarchy • Not absolute or hereditary • Aristocratic families had much say • Sometimes war provided political legitimacy • Tribute system

29. Society • Very focused on class distinction • Commoners – monogamous • Nobles – polygamous • Prisoners of war used for labor • Class of merchants • Used bartering system

30. Achievements • Dikes • Chinampas • Canals • Writing system

31. Rituals • Polytheism • Dual natured gods • Cult of Huitzilopochtli • Demanded diet of human hearts to bring sun’s warmth to the world

32. Lands of the Aztecs

33. Aztec View of Tenochtitlan

34. Ruins of the City Center, Tenochtitlan

35. The Codex Mendoza :The FoundingofTenochtitlan

36. Tenochtitlan: The “Venice” of the Americas

37. Aztec Chinampa or Floating Garden:15ft. to 30ft. wide

38. Tenochtitlan - Chinampas

39. Aztec Writing Aztec Math

40. Aztec Sun Stone -- Calendar

41. Aztec Sun Motifs

42. Aztec Codex(15c Manuscript)

43. The Aztecs WereFierce Warriors

44. Aztecs Sacrifice Neighboring Tribes to the Sun God

45. Heart Sacrificeon an Aztec Temple Pyramid

46. Wall of Skulls, Tenochtitlan

47. Sacrificial Statue, Tenochtitlan

48. Aztec Gold

49. Andean Civilizations600 – 1500 • Moche – northern coast of Peru • Tiwanaku & Wari – Peruvian coast • Inca – Chile & Ecuador, along Pacific coast, along Andes Mountains, into Amazon, and south into Argentina

50. Introduction to all Andean Civilizations • Fisheries • Maize fields • Herds of llamas and alpaca • Terraced farming • “refrigeration” • Khipus – record keeping ropes • Roads • Ayllu – communal land • Mit’a – labor draft