1. Cult of the Jaguar continued
Mayan Civilization
Cult of the Jaguar continued

2. Map

3. Political Systems City states united in a loose confederacy
Ruled by powerful semi-divine kings called halach uinic ("True Man") and his lesser nobles
Nobles own most of the land and are the important merchants
Priests
Maintained an elaborate calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing, astronomy, and mathematics
Population largely rural used cities for primarily relgious centers

4. War
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

5. Tikal

6. Temple of Jaguar

7. Temple of the Jaguar
Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries
Meeting place for all Mayan city states on important astronomical/religious dates
40,000 people lived here

8. Economic Systems Agricultural society Terrace farming
Shifting cultivation
Maize, cacao
Architects, sculptors, Potters
Cacao used as money
Merchants traded in luxury goods like jade, fancy textiles and animal pelts

9. Religion Polytheistic; gods made people out of maize and water
Human Blood Sacrifice and ceremony keep the gods happy so they keep the world going and agriculture good

10. Mayan Ball Game
Winners live losers sacrificed to the gods

11. Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Rituals
Bloodletting involved both war captives and Mayan royals
Bloodletting involved pircing the tongue and/or genitals and dripping the blood down a rope into a bowl before offering it to the gods

12. Religious Ritual
Killing animals, slaves, children, and prisoners of war were important parts of their culture
occurred on important dates, when priests demanded it, or as punishment for crimes.
Burned copal resin along with the sacrifice, creating more smoke and a sweet smell.
Offerings to the spirits were to insure agricultural success.

14. Priests –
responsible for keeping calendar, holding ceremonies to the gods and Human sacrifice
Most important Priest called Ah Kin Mai ("The Highest One of the Sun")
ruled over priests below him (called Ah Kin , "The Ones of the Sun").
There were two special priestly functions involved in human sacrifice: the chacs, who were elderly men that held down the victim, and the nacon, who cut the living heart from the victim.

15. After life
The Mayas believed in an elaborate afterlife, but heaven was reserved for those who had been hanged, sacrificed, or died in childbirth. Everyone else went to xibal, or hell, which was ruled over by the Lords of Death.

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

17. Mayan beauty prized a long, backward sloping forehead
infants would have their skulls bound with boards.
Crossed-eyes favored
infants would have objects dangled in front of their eyes in order to permanently cross their eyes (this is still practiced today).

18. Intellectual Developments
astronomy, calendrical systems, hieroglyphic writing, ceremonial architecture, and masonry without metal tools
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
calculated the length of the solar year at days– about 17 seconds shorter than the figure reached by modern

19. Maya Number System

20. Mayan Calendar 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

21. Art

23. Writing ideographic elements and symbols for syllables
Used to write works of history, poetry, and myth and keep genealogical, administrative, and astronomical records

24. 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

25. A Continuation of the Olmec and Maya cultures
Aztecs – c
A Continuation of the
Olmec and Maya cultures

26. Location / Geography Central Mexico (not the Yucatan)
Capital at Tenochtitlan (island)‏ 500,000 people
Total Pop: million

27. Politics Theocracy led by divine king/Priest
Military – nearly constant brutal wars for conquest, collect tribute, captives for slaves and sacrifice

28. Economics Agriculturally based
merchants are limited by what they can carry since they don’t have large pack animals
Chinampas – huge floating islands for agriculture
The great market – daily trade in the merchant section of large cities

29. Chinampa

30. Religion Polytheistic
Many Temples based on astronomy for worship, agricultural planning and sacrifice
Each holiday included ceremonies involving human sacrifice/cannibalis m
Fatalistic and cyclical view of the world

31. Social Large gap between upper/lower classes
Role of Women – decide fate of prisoners, domestic chores (grinding maize), can inherit land
Common people in constant fear of war/sacrifice/slavery

32. Intellectual
calendar, numbers and pictorial writing similar but not identical to Maya
Capital built on an island required great planning and coordination

33. Art
Temples
Gold objects
Sculpture
Skull racks

34. Conquered by Spanish
Spanish conquistadors led by Cortes crush the Aztecs during the 1530s
More on that later

45. Inca c – 1550

46. Geography Western coast of S. America Total Pop: 10 million
Capital at Cuzco, religious center Machu Pichu
4000 miles in length
Made up of hundreds of tribes loosely ruled by the Inca
Empire included deserts along the coast, jungle and high mountain villages

47. Politics Loose confederation of tribes
Smart captives were trained/brainwashed in Cuzco to rule for Inca and then sent back home to be Incan governors
Maintain authority by trading supplies to “good” regions and not to “bad” regions
Constant need to expand in order to support the trade/bribery with other regions

48. Divine Kings Emperor and principle wife seen as gods
Inca nobility dominate the bureaucracy

49. Macchu Picchu

51. Economy Agriculturally based – terraced farming,
different crops based on location and altitude
Lots of labor/workers necessary for transport of goods
Excellent Roads/infrastructure for transfer of goods from coastal desert to jungle to mountain villages
Trade from different regions provided lots of different food to eat
Domesticated and bred hundreds of varieties of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers

54. Draw Bridge for Security

55. Religion Religious tolerance but must worship Incan gods
Polytheistic, sun god is most important‏
Human sacrifice rare
Great Inca – emperor, descendant of the sun god

56. Social Life Diverse geography = diverse population Social hierarchy
Kings/nobles
Merchants/rich
Farmers
slaves
land/money split to several heirs kept people more equal in wealth
“Mita” – obligation to the empire (military service/public works)‏
women have almost no rights but work hard farming and run the home

57. Intellectual life and Art
No writing!
Incan Knots (Quipu) used to keep records of taxes, population, trade and names
Mummies are common
Nazca lines in the desert sand form animal shapes (possibly festival dancing patterns?)

58. Quipus (FYI only) Quipu means "to tie".
A quipu was composed of a rope to which a collection of counting-threads, each about 60 centimeters long, were tied.
Information was recorded on the threads using different materials, colors, ties and placement. The most important information was placed on the leftmost thread. Yellow, white, and red represented gold, silver, and soldiers, respectively.
In a population census, men and women were counted on separate quipus, in which the:
1st thread recorded persons over the age of 60
2nd thread recorded persons between 50 and 60 years ...
8th thread recorded babies, 0-1 years.
When an event was to be recorded, a Quipu was used to store facts. The story itself had to be memorized and could be retold using the Quipu's recorded facts. Interpretation of a Quipu was complicated because every counter, Quipucamayo , used his own system of ties and retold information from the Quipu orally