Topic 4: Pre-Columbian Americas

1. Topic 4: Pre-Columbian Americas

2. 2. What common assumptions did Americans share?

3. Incredibly diverse Created complex societies, spectacular cities, complex understandings of the world, complicated writing systems, religious rituals But DIDN’T Domesticate large animals Develop iron Develop a wheel Pre-Columbian Americas

4. Geography and the Americas • isolated, “biological sameness” • one continent, no physical separations • open to arrivals, good harbors, rivers • hospitable climate • diversity of lifestyles, from hunter gatherers to complex empires

5. North America • Most sparsely populated region of Americas • Hundreds of tribes or nations which historians have grouped into “cultural areas” • Many were predominately hunter-gatherers though many groups also engaged in agriculture full- or part-time • Maize introduced from Mesoamerica after 1000 BCE

6. Cultural zones of North America

8. Mesoamerica • “Meso” = middle • Earliest agriculture and complex societies in the Americas • 8000-7000 BCE cultivated beans • 4000 BCE maize • 2000 BCE agriculture spread throughout Mesoamerica

9. Creation myth of the Mayans in the Popol Vuh “… They sought and discovered what was needed for human flesh… Broken Place, Bitter Water Place is the name: the yellow corn, white corn came from there… And these were the ingredients for the flesh of the human work, the human design, and the water was for the blood… It was staples alone that made up their flesh.”

10. Chronology of Mesoamerica Early complex society • 1200-100 BCE  Olmec society “Rubber People” “Classical” societies • 200 BCE-750 CE  Teotihuacan society • 300-1100 CE  Maya society “Post-classical” societies • 950-1150 CE  Toltec society • 1345-1500 CE  Aztec / Mexica society

12. Zones of Mayan and Aztec influence

13. The Olmecs “The inhabitants of rubber country” Built complex ceremonial centers at San Lorenzo, La Venta, Tres Zapotes Best known for huge stone heads

14. 15 heads have been found Between 5-10 feet tall The heaviest is 20 tons!

15. Olmecs: The “mother culture” of later Mesoamerican societies Cultivation of maize Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids Calendar Sacrificial bloodletting rituals Ball games

16. Sacrificial bloodletting Shedding blood honored the gods who watered crops; it was believed essential to the survival of agricultural society From rulers and priests to prisoners Bloodletting extended to human sacrifice Stone relief depicting Mayan Princess shedding blood from her tongue.

17. Mayan artwork also depicting bloodletting through tongues

18. The “ball game” 3600 years old Played from Arizona to Paraguay Played on an I-shaped court with a rubber ball Played one-on-one or in teams Had religious significance Mayan statue of a ball player

20. Ball court and goal at Chichen Itza

21. Teotihuacan Emerged as a village 500 BCE A major city-state for over a thousand years High point: 200,000 people, 8 square miles

22. Pyramid of the Moon Pyramid of the Sun Avenue of the Dead

26. The Maya A series of “city-kingdoms” 300-900 CE: built 80 large ceremonial centers Pyramids at Tikal

29. The Maya Calendar Maintained by priests Built upon Olmec calendar Combined solar and ritual calendars Solar calendar very accurate Could predict eclipses and equinoxes

30. The Ritual Calendar Meshed with the solar calendar of 365 days 19,000 permutations It took 52 years to complete a cycle Within the ritual calendar, the numbers 1 – 13 were matched up with a sequence of 20 day names

31. Maya numerals  ZERO

32. Maya writing Over 800 symbols Most writings were destroyed by the Spanish—stone inscriptions and four codices survived Only 85% deciphered

33. Codices were fold-up books written on tree bark. All but four were destroyed by the Spanish The Dresden Codex

34. Andean Civilizations The mountainous environment made agriculture and political organization difficult “stacked” agriculture The ayllu

35. 1000 BCE – 700 CE

36. Chapter 5: The Americas and Oceania • Early Societies of Oceania • Early Societies in Australia and New Guinea Insert map on page 120