Maya, aztec, 2015
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The document summarizes key aspects of Maya and Aztec civilizations, including their social hierarchies, economies, technologies, and empires. The Maya had a "seed society" with inequality and a scribe class, while power for the Aztecs was measured by the number of people and labor controlled. Both civilizations engaged in regional trade of goods like cocoa, cotton, jade, and feathers. They developed advanced calendars, astronomy, mathematics, and writing systems. The Aztec Empire rose to prominence through military conquest and extracting tribute, ruling through provincial governors until being defeated by Cortes and tributary states in 1521.
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Maya, aztec, 2015
- 1. MAYA & AZTEC Janet Pareja, Signature School, Evansville, IN AP World History
- 5. Scribe Class
- 6. - NOT TERRITORY - The measure of power as number of People over which one ruled & work that could be done: - Agriculture - Architecture
- 8. • Ground Sensing Radar • GPS • Archaeology/ Excavation • Historical Imagination, Extrapolation • Looting = Problem!! Richard D. Hansen, Idaho State University – Head of Mirador Basin Project in Guatemala
- 10. • Palaces • Royal Acropolis • Temples • Meeting Rooms • Pyramids • Squares (Plazas) • Observatories • Ball Courts
- 11. Regional Trade Currency = Cocoa Beans Salt Jade Cotton Obsidian Ceramics Feathers Tools Animal hides Honey Quetzel Feathers Vanilla Basalt Cocoa
- 16. 7,500 people at peak
- 17. Classical mural from Bonampak
- 20. Lime White washing At the beginning of Each dynasty Redecorated
- 22. Base 20 Concept of ZERO as Placeholder.
- 23. Sky glyph Sky Watcher Venus Milky Way Lunar Eclipses Moon Phases Equinox Solstice Solar Year Constellations
- 24. Written Language – Glyphs… written on paper with ink! Also on buildings in stone and paint.
- 25. Maize & Water Creation, Stories of Gods interactions w& Man
- 26. Pacal as Maize God
- 27. Ritual & Solar Calendar Years Marriage of Math, Astronomy, Writing. 52-Year Convergence 365-Day Solar Year
- 30. Vision Serpent Appears to Lady Xoc
- 31. Hummingbird beaks, stingray stingers, jade needles….
- 35. Ridged Field System Hieroglyphs Rubber Paper & Ink – early 400’s CE Astronomy & Building technologies Mathematics Accurate CalendarNO WHEEL
- 36. Cultural Diffusion • Ball Game • Religion • Calendar • Agricultural Products
- 37. AZTEC EMPIRE
- 39. Spread: Trade Military Conquest Three City States 1427 Triple Alliance Tribute Dependence on Central Power For Luxury Goods 1519 High Point 1521 - Cortez allied with Tributary states To Defeat Aztec Mexica migrated from North: 1325 Swampy Island in Lake Texcoco. Tenochtitlan
- 40. Before, and Same time as Aztec Unaffiliated
- 41. Central Rule Governors of Provinces Persian Model No Bureaucracy Professional Army- best of everything Heavy Taxation: Service Agricultural Goods Luxury Goods Tribute Products Sacrificial Victims
- 45. Cochineal
- 47. Nahuatl – written language & paper from Maya
- 53. Atlatl easier to throw A spear No Iron or Bronze No Wheel Aqueducts Latecomers to Metallurgy Rubber Chinampa Writing on Paper Calendar Aztec Roads
Editor's Notes
- Olmec (1500 BCE – 400 BCE) = Seed Society, and Co-existed with the Maya
- Organization: City States, under one Great King. Here, Pakal the Great receives Tribute from the city states.
- What were the duties of the lowest classes? The next level? How can you tell which is the most elite level? Where were the Scribes? Artisans? Merchants? Weavers/Makers of clothing? Fine clothing was difficult to produce, and hard to come by, so it went to the Elite. Peasants and slaves did not have much in the way of clothing or style. Where are the women?
- Difficulty of farming and performing duties of daily life. Slaves were a necessity, especially for royals and nobility. They were also rewards for service: laborers, concubines.
- Layers of buildings still being excavated, contribute to the historical record. Problem: don’t want to destroy historical buildings to learn about the people who came before! Earthquake in Mexico City as OPPORTUNITY about 25 years ago- ruined Cathedrals and modern buildings and roads, underneath of which were fantastic Aztec buildings and EARLIER buildings and artifacts!
- Corn, Beans, Squash – Ridged Field System. Maize and Cotton very important!
- City States, growing in number and splendor and population over time. Began as central Temple structures, and periodic gathering places. Over time, people lived in and right outside these ceremonial and political centers year round.
- Careful Directional Orientation – Maya engineers PLANNED THEIR CITIES to line up with Moon, Venus… Solstice, Equinox
- Regional Trade! The Merchant class was of rising importance as trade became more widespread and more important.
- Decorates the side of a Mayan ceramic cup – King appears to decline another cup of delicious chocolate beverage. Note cocoa-covered tamales in dish in front of him.
- Cocoa beans, cotton cloth – dyed for elite. Jade, Obsidian.
- Regional capital, and very cosmopolitan and wealthy city of six square miles. Human sacrifice was practiced there, due to Toltec influence.
- Wall – Surfaces were not wasted, but were decorated…
- 603 – 683 CE Pacal of Palenque – Promised to continue to guard his people from the Underworld, and claimed he would return after death. Lovingly interred with a Jade mask, jewelry so that he would be recognized and ready to lead upon his return. Shows himself at the base of the tree of life, and part of the tree.
- Standing ruler, clay. Sitting ruler, painted in “maya blue” from classical period. Individuals, not just symbols.
- Mural Painters Extraordinaire – Early, colors were earthy, themes ethereal. Notice the bondage of the individual to the right, asking to be set free. The Tall Person is a king or even a god, and the Corn god is whispering into his ear.
- Classical period mural – Bonampak – Theme is earthly, glorifying the king and nobility with a parade. In the center, the Celestial Constellations affect the goings-on, and bear witness.
- Close-up of Classical Mayan mural at Bonampak – shows the attire, jewelry, symbols of office, and entreaty of captives.
- Maya Zodiac rules over the Maya king and his court, richly dressed in Jaguar Skins and with headwear that demonstrates their status and duties at court. On the steps below, captives are presented by Maya and other soldiers – their fate will be agricultural slavery or worse.
- Demonstrates the white washing that was done to all edifices during the Maya reign. Each new King white washed and re-decorated major Maya buildings, and some built bigger and grander buildings on top of older, smaller buildings.
- Ball court at Chichen Itza – HUGE!
- In some locations skeletons and skulls were collected to demonstrate the number of victims, but in Chichen Itza sculpture at the entrance to the ball court was perhaps an advertizement or a score card. Maybe it was a warning?
- Base 20 and concept of zero as place holder
- Studied Astronomy, trying to find the role of the ever-changing cosmos in the occurrences on earth.
- Sacred book of the Maya – includes creation narrative and fact that people were made of maize and water. Polytheistic world. Story of the XAN.
- God L (Bolon Yookte' K'uh), was a prince of Xibalbá, as well as a wealthy god of commerce and trade. He is an old god, sometimes with the ear of a jaguar. He’s prosperous, and smokes a cigar. He is the God of War…
- Maya believed that the gods created the world and kept it working in an orderly manner. They made man out of corn and water, and man needed to give back on a regular basis to keep the world from ending. Their calendar systems were very complicated, and involved a ritual and a solar year, which co-incided once every 52 years.
- Feathered Serpent god who brought visions to rulers and sometimes priests had gone into sunrise- but would someday return when his people needed him most, probably in a 52-year convergence. Cortez arrived with a feathered headress, from the East on a huge ship, riding a horse – they could not tell where the man let off and the horse began. Quetzacoatl!!
- All must be kept in its rightful place for the world to continue… through proper ritual & sacrifice, performed by the highest ranking people possible. Mayan Kings and Queens, captured high ranking dignitaries of conquered nations.
- Shield Jaguar holds a torch over Lady Xoc as she bleeds her tongue. From her blood she conjures up from the Underworld the Great Serpent through which one of her ancestors rises. Courtesy of the Trustees of The British Museum. Photos © J. Korr
- Hummingbird beaks and stingray stingers were common implements and symbols for bloodletting.
- Vision serpent – looks very much like Quetzalcoatl.
- Royal women had different duties than peasant women. Bloodletting, assisting their husbands rule. Most women were mothers, weavers, agricultural workers, took care of their families.
- Concubine? Young wife and old man? Notice the tenderness with which the king treats his wife, the queen who is bringing him a ceremonial mask of a Jaguar to wear for a ritual.
- We can use Cultural diffusion to discover which cultures were in touch with each other, since merchants share more than just the merchandise they are selling or buying…
- Aztec vis-à-vis the Maya
- 30 miles north of Mexico City today… Tenochtitlan then.
- Merchants should be right below Warriors.
- CHINAMPA – floating islands of muck and human excrement
- Rooted to floor of the lake in the volcanic crater over time – kept them in place.
- Professional Merchants engaged in Long Distance Trade.
- Pochteca sold their merchandise in open air plazas and on boats.
- Calendar based on the Maya who based theirs on the Olmec’s!
- Human Sacrifice – pretty gruesome, too. Trying to keep the world from falling apart!! And as climate changed, became warmer, it also became drier there so they escalated their sacrifice to please the gods in hopes they would send rain and help the crops.
- The Ball Game!!
- Large populations. Estimates range from 5-6 million to 12 million in the empire at its height.
- Parallelism in Gender – women with own religious cults and observances, social hierarchies – “Separate but Equal,” right? Sort of. They MAY HAVE practiced this gender model.