America before people arrive

Prehistoric America

The First Americans

Native American Origins Arose from Multiple Bering Sea Migrations

http://drarchaeology.com/culthist/origins.htm

Megafauna of the America’s extinction

Clovis Point

N. American Arrow heads http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-indian-weapons-tools/arrowheads.htm

Early North American Cultures Anasazi – Lived in impressive cliff dwellings called pueblos made of sun baked clay bricks

Mound Builders – 700BC to 1500s AD Hopwell, Adean and Mississippian Mounds had various purposes Culture came to an end due to European diseases

Cultural connections of the North American Religion was similar Nature spirits and The Great Spirit above others Respect for the land Land should be changed as little as possible Land could not be bought or sold Women often held great power and the family name in many tribes passed through the women

The Game Changer for Humans What was the plant that created civilization in Mesopotamia and Nile Valley? Yellow River? (China) In what is now central Mexico?

Domesticated plants native to the Americas

Zapotec Develop 3 very important things Calendar based on the movement of the sun Hieroglyphic Writing System First planned cities mixing residential and religious buildings

What is this a picture of?

Zapotec, Olmecs and Mayans

Olmecs Earliest known ceremonial centers of the ancient Americas appeared near modern day Veracruz around 1200 B.C. “Olmec” means “Rubber People” Agricultural Drainage Cities A social hierarchy

Decline of the Olmec Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers Statues were broken and buried, monuments defaced, and capitals burned No one knows why By about 400 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon eclipsed it

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

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”

Agriculture Maize Cacao

Agriculture Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility Mayans built terraces Raised maize, beans, squash, gourds and cacao Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money Cacao tree

Cities

Social Hierarchy A Mayan Warrior A Mayan Priest

Religion and Education Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Ritual

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.

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

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

Mayan Ball Court

Observatory at El Caracol New Technologies Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol

Mayan numerical system 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

Art and Writing Mayan writing

Mayan Decline By about 800, 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

The End of prehistory in America What causes prehistory to come to an end? These are the large scale Native American societies when Columbus bumps into America.

What does this have to do with the Aztecs?

The Aztec Empire Mexico’s Flag The Aztec Empire is part of Mexico today. According to Aztec legend, the gods told the nomadic people who had entered the Valley of Mexico to search for an eagle peached on the top of a cactus. The eagle would be holding a snake in its beak. When they saw the sign on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco they established the city of Tenochtitlan Mexico’s Flag

Tenochititlan Tenochititlan was linked to the mainland with causeways. It had an aqueduct to ensure a fresh water supply and sewers carried waste materials away.

Tenochititlan Over the years Tenochititlan grew into a great city with open plazas and market places.

Tenochititlan  "The city has many squares where markets are held and trading is carried on.There is one square where there are daily more than 60,000 souls, buying and selling, and where are found all the kinds of merchandise produced  in these countries, including food products, jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, zinc, bones, shells, and feathers

Food and work The Aztec used a lot of herb and prayer in their medicine. The Aztec also developed a writing system with pictographs that gave a image of the story. Aztecs ate corn and beans. Tortillas grilled and dipped in tomatoes. They also ate pancakes stuffed with tadpoles.

Montezuma Montezuma was the Emperor of the Aztecs in the Sixteenth Century. He was a conquering king who often went to war with his neighbors. He kept the gods on his side by making human sacrifices to the gods.

Human Sacrifices Tens of thousands of prisoners were sacrificed at a time. Each had to be individually killed. The usual method of sacrifice was to open the victims chest, pull out his heart while he was still alive and then knock the victim down the temple stairs. The temple stairs were covered in blood.

The Aztec Temple

Why Sacrifice? Huitzlopochtli, the sun and war god battled the forces of darkness each night and was re-born each morning. There was no guarantee the sun would win, so human sacrifices were made to help him.

Incas

Inca

Inca By the 13th Century, the Inca had established domination over the regional states in Andean South America In 1438, Pachacuti launched a series of military campaigns that greatly expanded Inca authority By the late 15th Century, the Inca empire covered more than 2,500 miles, embracing almost all of modern Peru, most of Ecuador, much of Bolivia, and parts of Chile and Argentina

Agriculture Llamas Terraced farm land

Agriculture Intensive agricultural techniques Inca empire spanned many types of environments and required terraces to make farmland out of the mountainous terrain Chief crop was the potato Herded llamas and alpacas for meat, wool, hides, and dung (used as fuel)

Social Hierarchy Chief ruler was a god-king who theoretically owned everything and was an absolute and infallible ruler Dead rulers retained their prestige even after death Remains were mummified and state deliberations often took place in their presence in order to benefit from their counsel Were seen as intermediaries with the gods Intensive agricultural techniques, such as the use of animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation. This enables farmers to produce a surplus of food that will not be needed for their own subsistence. A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food. They can go into other occupations and trade for the food they need. This is called "specialization of labor." It is possible because of the food surplus described above. The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements, called cities. A social hierarchy. This can be a chiefdom, in which the chieftain of one noble family or clan rules the people; or a state society, in which the ruling class is supported by a government or bureaucracy. Political power is concentrated in the cities. The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education, as opposed to the less formal traditions of other societies. Development of complex forms of economic exchange. This includes the expansion of trade and may lead to the creation of money and markets. The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies. Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food. In many early civilizations, metallurgy was an important advancement. Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

Social Hierarchy Aristocrats lived privileged lives including fine foods, embroidered clothes, and large ears spools Spanish called them “big ears” Inca ear spools

Cities

Cities: Cuzco Inca capital at Cuzco served as the administrative, religious, and ceremonial center of the empire May have supported 300,000 residents at the height of the Inca empire in the late 15th Century Tremendous system of roads emanated from Cuzco

Major Roads of the Inca Empire New Technologies Major Roads of the Inca Empire

Economic Exchange Inca gold “Sweat of the gods”

Arrival of Francisco Pizarro in South America Economic Exchange Gold, the Inca’s most valuable commodity, proved to be their undoing when Spanish conquistadors destroyed much of the empire in the early 1500s in search of gold The Spanish melted down almost all the gold so few works of art remain Arrival of Francisco Pizarro in South America

Religion and Education Inti Raymi, the feast of the sun

Art and Writing 586 on a quipu The Inca had no writing Instead they kept records using a quipu A array of small cords of various colors and lengths, all suspended from a thick cord By tying knots in the small cords, Inca could record statistical information 586 on a quipu

Art and Writing Quipu

The End of the Incan Empire Civil War over who would the Incan King Atahualpa wins the war but weakens the empire Francisco Pizarro shows up right after (Spain)