Origins and Characteristics of Olmec and Mayan Societies

1. Chapter 6 Early Societies in the Americas and Oceania

2. Origins of Mesoamerican Societies • Migration across Bering land bridge? • Probably 13,000 BCE, perhaps earlier • By sea from Asia? • By 9500 BCE reached southernmost part of South America • Hunter/Gatherer societies • evolve into agricultural societies

3. Early Mesoamerican societies, 1200 B.C.E.-1100 C.E.

4. Olmecs and Mayans

5. Olmecs • 1200-100 BCE • The “Rubber People” • Called that by others • Ceremonial Centers • San Lorenzo, La Venta, Tres Zapotes • Olmec Heads • Up to 10 ft tall, 20 tons • Transported by dragging, rolling on logs • 1000/workers per head

6. Characteristics of Olmec Civilization • Intensive agricultural techniques • Area received abundant rainfall so extensive irrigation systems were unnecessary • Still the Olmecs built elaborate drainage systems to divert waters that might otherwise have caused floods • Specialization of labor • Jade craftsmen • Cities • Built around ceremonial centers at San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes • A social hierarchy • Society was probably authoritarian • Common subjects provided labor and tribute to the elite

7. Characteristics of Olmec Civilization • Organized religion and education • Ceremonial centers, priests, temples, altars, and human sacrifice • Development of complex forms of economic exchange • Imported jade and obsidian and exported small jade, basalt, and ceramic works of art • Development of new technologies • Excellent astronomers and mathematicians who developed a calendar • Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.) • Created colossal human heads sculpted from basalt rock

8. Agriculture and Herding • Staple: maize • Herding: turkeys, barkless dogs • Both food • No draft animals • No development of wheeled vehicles

9. Olmec Society • Probably authoritarian in nature • Large class of conscripted laborers to construct ceremonial sites • Also tombs for rulers, temples, pyramids, drainage systems

10. Olmecs • Earliest known ceremonial centers of the ancient Americas appeared near modern day Veracruz around 1200 B.C. • Served as the nerve center for the first complex society of the Americas, the Olmecs • “Olmec” was not what the people called themselves • It means “rubber people” and comes from the rubber trees that flourish in the region

11. Olmec Head at La Venta

12. Decline of the Olmec • Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers at both San Lorenzo and La Venta and then deserted the sites • Statues were broken and buried, monuments defaced, and capitals burned • No one knows why, but some speculate reasons involving civil conflicts or doubts about the effectiveness or legitimacy of the ruling classes • By about 400 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon eclipsed it

13. Mysterious Decline of Olmecs • Ceremonial centers destroyed • No evidence of warfare • Revolution? • Civil war?

14. Mayans • Began to develop around 300 A.D. in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador • Known as “The People of the Jaguar”

16. Olmec Influence on the Mayans • Maize • Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids • Calendar based on the Olmec one • Ball games • Rituals involving human sacrifice

17. Characteristics of a Civilization • Intensive agricultural techniques • Specialization of labor • Cities • A social hierarchy • Organized religion and education • Development of complex forms of economic exchange • Development of new technologies • Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.)

18. Agriculture Cacao Maize

19. Agriculture • Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility • Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production • Raised maize, cotton, and cacao • Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money

21. Maya • huge cities discovered in 19th c. • 300 BCE-900 CE • Terrace Farming • Cacao beans • hot chocolate • Currency • Major ceremonial center at Tikal

22. THE MAYA II. The Maya - between A.D. 300 and 900 A. located in modern-day Guatemala, Belize and Southern Mexico B. cities were religious centers built around enormous stepped temple-pyramids C. they were astronomers and mathematicians 1. this knowledge was used to schedule religious rituals, plant, and harvest D. played a game called pok-a-tok E. their disappearance is a mystery, however evidence found in 2002 suggests that possibly a massive series of civil wars is responsible

23. Cities

24. Cities: Tikal • From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers • All had pyramids, palaces, and temples • Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities • The most important was Tikal • Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political organization

25. Cities: Tikal • Most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries • Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000 • The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

26. Tikal

28. Tikal: Temple of the Jaguar • 154 feet high • Served as funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6th and early 7th centuries

29. El Castillo

30. Temple at Copan

31. Palenque

32. Social Hierarchy A Mayan Warrior A Mayan Priest

33. Social Hierarchy • King and ruling family • Priests • Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class) • Warriors • Professionals and artisans • Peasants • Slaves

34. Social Hierarchy • King and ruling family • Ruled from the city-kingdoms such as Tikal • Ruled by semi-divine right and believed their connection with the gods was maintained by ritual human sacrifice • Often had names associated with the jaguar • Priests • Maintained an elaborate calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing, astronomy, and mathematics A Mayan King

35. Social Hierarchy • Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class) • Owned most of the land and cooperated with the kings and priests by organizing military forces and participating in religious rituals • Warriors • Mayan kingdoms fought constantly with each other and warriors won tremendous prestige by capturing high-ranking enemies • Captives were usually made slaves, humiliated, tortured, and ritually sacrificed

36. Social Hierarchy • Professionals and artisans • Architects and sculptors supervised construction of the large monuments and public buildings • Peasants • Fed the entire society • Slaves • Provided physical labor for the construction of cities and monuments • Often had been captured in battle

37. Specialization

38. Specialization • Astronomers • Mathematicians • Warriors • Architects and sculptors • Potters • Tool manufacturers • Textile makers

39. Religion and Education Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Ritual

40. Religion: Importance of Agriculture • Mayan religion reflected the fundamental role of agriculture in their society • Popol Vuh, was the Mayan creation myth that taught that the gods had created human beings out of maize and water • Gods kept the world in order and maintained the agricultural cycle in exchange for honors and sacrifices

41. Religion: Bloodletting Rituals • Mayans believed the shedding of human blood would prompt the gods to send rain to water the maize • Bloodletting involved both war captives and Mayan royals Mayan queen holds a bowl filled with strips of paper used to collect blood.

42. Religion: Bloodletting • A popular bloodletting ritual was for a Mayan to pierce his own tongue and thread a thin rope through the hole, thus letting the blood run down the rope

43. Religion: The Ball Game • Mayans inherited a ball game from the Olmecs that was an important part of Mayan political and religious festivals • High-ranking captives were forced to play the game for their very lives • The losers became sacrificial victims and faced torture and execution immediately following the match • Object of the game was to propel an 8 inch ball of solid baked rubber through a ring or onto a marker without using your hands

44. Mayan Ball Court

45. Ball Court at Copan

46. Hoop on a Maya ball court

47. Economic Exchange Mayan symbol for movement

48. Economic Exchange • Traveling merchants served not just as traders but also as ambassadors to neighboring lands and allied people • Traded mainly in exotic and luxury goods such as rare animal skins, cacao beans, and finely crafted works of art which rulers coveted as signs of special status • Cacao used as money

49. New Technologies Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol

50. New Technologies • Excelled in astronomy and mathematics • Could plot planetary cycles and predict eclipses of the sun and moon • Invented the concept of zero and used a symbol to represent zero mathematically, which facilitated the manipulation of large numbers • By combining astronomy and mathematics, calculated the length of the solar year at 365.242 days– about 17 seconds shorter than the figure reached by modern astronomers Mayan numerical system