agriculture and the rise of meso -america
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Agriculture and the Rise of Meso -America. Essential Question: (groups) How did agriculture change the lives of early people?. AGRICULTURE. 8000 B.C. 1500 B.C. 600 B.C. 1200 A.D. 1325 A.D. TIMELINE OF MESOAMERICA. 1521 A.D. ACCOMPLISHMENTS. OLMEC. MAYA. AZTEC. INCA - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Agriculture and the Rise of Meso-America
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Essential Question: (groups)
How did agriculture change the lives of early people?
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AGRICULTURE
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8000 B.C.
1500 B.C.
600 B.C.
1200 A.D.
1325 A.D.
1521 A.D.TIMELINE OF
MESOAMERICA
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS
OLMEC MAYA AZTEC INCA(South America)
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Characteristics of a Civilization* Intensive agricultural techniques
* Specialization of labor
* Cities* A social hierarchy* Organized religion and education* Complex forms of economic exchange* New technologies* Development of the arts (to include writing)
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Spotlight Video
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Olmecs and Mayans
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Appeared near modern day Veracruz around 1200 B.C.
“Olmec” was not what the people called themselvesIt means “rubber people” and
comes from the rubber trees that flourish in the region
Olmecs
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Agricultural techniques 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 ZapotesA social hierarchy
Society was probably authoritarian (one leader) Common people provided labor and gave tribute to the
elite (important, rich or powerful people)
Characteristics of Olmec Civilization
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Religion and educationCeremonial centers, priests, temples, altars,
and human sacrificeEconomic exchange
Imported jade and obsidian and exported small jade, basalt, and ceramic works of art
New technologiesExcellent astronomers and mathematicians
who developed a calendarDevelopment of the arts. (This can include
writing.) Created colossal human heads sculpted from
basalt rock
Characteristics of Olmec Civilization
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Olmec Head at La Venta
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Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers at both San Lorenzo and La Venta and then deserted the sitesStatues were broken and buried, monuments
defaced, and capitals burnedNo one knows why, but some speculate
reasons involving civil conflicts or mutiny against the ruling classes
By about 300 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon eclipsed it.
Decline of the Olmec
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The Mayan Civilization
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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”
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Olmec Influence on the Mayans
• Maize• Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids• Calendar based on the Olmec one• Ball games• Rituals involving human sacrifice
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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
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Social Hierarchy
• King and ruling family• Priests• Hereditary nobility (from which came the
merchant class)• Warriors• Professionals and artisans• Peasants• Slaves
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Social Hierarchy
A Mayan PriestA Mayan Warrior
I’m a primary source
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Social Hierarchy - explained 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
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Social Hierarchy - explained 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
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Social Hierarchy - explained 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
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Specialization
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Specialization
• Astronomers• Mathematicians• Warriors• Architects and sculptors• Potters• Tool manufacturers• Textile makers
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Religion and Education
Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Ritual
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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Mayan Ball Court
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Economic Exchange
Mayan symbol for movement
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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
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol
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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
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES: CALENDAR Mayan priests developed the most elaborate
calendar of the ancient Americas Interwove two kinds of year
A solar year of 365 days governed the agricultural cycle
A ritual year of 260 days governed daily affairs by organizing time into twenty “months” of thirteen days each
Believed each day derived certain characteristics from its position on both the solar and ritual calendars and carefully studied the combinations Lucky and unlucky days
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol
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ART AND WRITING
Mayan writing
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WRITING Expanded on Olmec tradition to create
the most flexible and sophisticated of all early American systems of writing
Contained both ideographic elements (glyphs) and symbols for syllables
Used to write works of history, poetry, and myth and keep genealogical, administrative, and astronomical records
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Mayan Decline
• By about 900, most Mayan populations had begun to desert their cities– Full scale decline followed everywhere but in the northern
Yucatan• Possible causes include foreign invasion, internal
dissension and civil war, failure of the water control system leading to agricultural disaster, ecological problems caused by destruction of the forests, epidemic diseases, and natural disasters
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