1. Central American Civilizations

2. Major Central American Cultures
OLMEC ca bce
ZAPOTEC ca. 500 bce ce
TEOTIHUACAN flourished ce
MAYAN
Preclassic bce-100 ce
Classic ce
Postclassic 900 ce-1500 ce
TOLTEC ce
AZTEC ce

3. Olmec ca bce
Olmec, Indian people who established the first major Mesoamerican civilization. They lived along the central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, just west of the Yucatán Peninsula in the swampy jungle river deltas of the present-day Mexican states of Vera Cruz and Tabasco. Over time, they extended their empire west through the central valley. The Olmec flourished between about 1500 and 200 bc. San Lorenzo, their oldest known center, was destroyed around 900 bc. It was replaced by La Venta, a city built in an axial pattern that influenced urban development in Central America for centuries. A mounded earthen pyramid about 30 m (100 ft) high, possibly the first in Mesoamerica, was the center of a complex of temples and plazas

4. Olmecs Established the first major Mesoamerican civilization.
Often regarded as the Mother Culture of later Middle American civilizations,the Olmec people called themselves Xi
First to use stone architecturally and sculpturally
Clever mathematicians and astronomers who made accurate calendars
Highly developed technical skills
magnetic compass
skill with iron ores
complex drainage system
First writing in North America
This large, monolithic stone carving from the Olmec ruin of La Venta has been relocated to Villa Hermosa
Olmec, Indian people who established the first major Mesoamerican civilization. They lived along the central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, just west of the Yucatán Peninsula in the swampy jungle river deltas of the present-day Mexican states of Vera Cruz and Tabasco. Over time, they extended their empire west through the central valley. The Olmec flourished between about 1500 and 200 bc. San Lorenzo, their oldest known center, was destroyed around 900 bc. It was replaced by La Venta, a city built in an axial pattern that influenced urban development in Central America for centuries. A mounded earthen pyramid about 30 m (100 ft) high, possibly the first in Mesoamerica, was the center of a complex of temples and plazas The Olmec were the first to use stone architecturally and sculpturally, even though it had to be quarried in the Tuxtla Mountains, some 97 km (60 mi) to the west of Tula. Their colossal stone heads, about 2.7 m (9 ft) high, can be seen today, along with other Olmec artifacts, in the city of Villahermosa, Mexico. They also developed the first form of writing in Mesoamerica, a numerical system that was later adapted by the Maya. The Olmec civilization established patterns of culture that influenced its successors for centuries to come.

5. Lord of the Two Scrolls
Monumental sculptures and ruins suggest a highly stratified society with rulers, administrators, engineers, foremen and a large peasantry
Destruction and burial of monuments and sculpture suggest the need to harness uncontrolled power
Carved from serpentine, with traces of cinnabar. Maybe a a portrait of an Olmec ruler. Two lne on his right cheek give him his name

6. Made of basalt, they range from 5 to 11 feet high
Olmec heads glorified the rulers when they were alive and commemorated them as revered ancestors after death
Made of basalt, they range from 5 to 11 feet high
Quarried stone needed to be transported 65 miles from Tuxtla Mts. via log rollers, wooden sleds and rafts

7. Olmec Religion
Olmecs recognized at least 10 gods including a jaguar god, a serpent god, a fire god, a rain god, a corn god, and the Feathered Serpent
Prodigious offerings were given in the form of mosaic pavements of jaguar masks, jade sculptures, and possibly human sacrifices
Four ceremonial sites uncovered:
San Lorenzo ca bce
Laguna de los Cerros ca bce
La Venta ca bce
Tres Zapotes ca. 300 bce

8. Shamanism
The most well-known aspect of shamanism in Mesoamerican religion - and in the whole of Native American shamanism - is the ability to assume the powers of animals associated with the shaman.
Such animals are called nahuales, and in Olmec art the most common of these is the jaguar.
The spirituality and intellect of man and the ferocity and strength of the jaguar are all combined in the shaman and his jaguar nahuale.
The Jaguar Child may exemplify this combination. This is a very common representation in Olmec art, and it often includes .slitted eyes and a curved mouth.
The Olmecs are believed to be one of the first tribes to engage in Shamanistic rituals. In the Olmec civilization the reoccurring motif of the ÔWere-jaguarÕ can be seen in many statuettes and carvings. It is believed that the Olmecs were a kind of "mother culture" which directly gave rise to all subsequent major civilisations and this is how Shamanism first spread. The Olmecs are said to have been ancestors of the Jaquar. The Olmec Tribe believed that the Jaquar was a rain deity and fertility diety. The Jaquar was chosen because the Olmecs believed it was the most powerful and feared animal. They also believed that the Jaquar was an Avatar of the living and the dead.
The men would sacrifice blood to the jaguar, wear masks, dance, and crack whips to imitate the sound of thunder. This ritual was done in May. The Olmec also made offerings of jade figures to the jaguar.

9. Olmec influence on Central-American Civilizations
Art
Religious symbolism
Hieroglyphic writing
Bar and dot numbering system
Calendar
Bloodletting ritual
Ball game
Olmec Glyph shows the World Tree sprouting out of Creation Mountain

10. Zapotecs ca. 500 bce-1000 ce Carried on traditions of Olmecs
Ruled by powerful aristocrats
Aggressive conquerors
Human sacrifice
Developed hieroglyphic script to record conquests
Fast and dangerous ball game
First great stone pyramid builders in Central America
Center of civilization at Monte Alban
Agriculture nurtured by extensive irrigation systems led to great population growth

11. Teotihuacan flourished 100-650 ce
Named by the Aztecs: place of the gods
Writing and language did not survive
Primary manufacturing center of Central America: obsidian
The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest of an immense array of pyramids in the Valley of Mexico, northeast of present-day Mexico City. This view is the westward side as seen from the ancienty city's central avenue, seen at the right
Teotihuacan was constructed by inhabitants of the Valle del Mexico between 150AD and 700AD. In the 6th century, the population of the city numbered some 200,000, and the city was the centre of what was probably the largest pre-Hispanic civilization in Mexico
Pyramids of the Sun and Moon

12. MAYANS
Although there was never such a thing as a Mayan Empire, the diverse peoples and politico-religious formations that in the past occupied Yucatán and modern day Belize, Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras, all had common cultural characteristics:
a highly developed calendar
a rich complex writing system, and sophisticated mathematics.
Archeologists and historians recognize several periods in the history of these cultures:
Preclassic bce-100ad
Classic ad
Postclassic 900 ad-1500 ad

13. Mayan Royal Audience Mayan Ball Game
One of the most common themes painted on Maya vases is the royal audience. The ahau, seated characteristically with legs folded, receives visitors. At times the names of the ahau and his visitors are given in glyphs. Most interesting are the details: clothing styles and decorative patterning, face painting, masks worn, gestures made and so forth. Many vases show vases as well as indicate the style of interior decor with its curtains, pillows, and thrones. Hats were of crucial importance to Maya social identity. Often the ahau receiving visitors wears a conical turban hat with a large flower in front of it and quetzal feathers behind; sometimes a hummingbird or fish is attached to the front of that large flower.

14. Mayan Hieroglyphics
The unit of the Maya writing system is the glyphic cartouche, which is equivalent to the words and sentences of a modern language.
Maya cartouches included at least three or four glyphs and as many as fifty.
There is no Maya alphabet.
Writing considered to be a sacred gift from the gods.
Knowledge of reading and writing was jealously guarded by a small elite class, who believed that they alone could interact directly with the gods
The unit of the Maya writing system is the glyphic cartouche, which is equivalent to the words and sentences of a modern language. Maya cartouches included at least three or four glyphs and as many as fifty. Each cartouche contained various glyphs, as well as prefixes and suffixes. There is no Maya alphabet. Maya writing is difficult to interpret for a number of reasons. First, glyphs do not represent just sounds or ideas, they can represent both, making it difficult to know how each glyph or cartouche should be read. In addition, many Maya glyphs can have more than one meaning, and many Maya concepts can be written in more than one way. Numbers, for example, can be written with Maya numerical symbols or with the picture of a god associated with that number, or a combination of the two. Some glyphs represent more than one phonetic sound, while also representing an idea. This means that a single idea can be written in many different ways. For example, the name of the Palenque ruler, Pacal, whose name literally means "Hand-shield", appears sometimes as a picture of a hand-shield, sometimes phonetically as pa-cal-la, and at other times as a combination of picture symbols and phonetics.
The Maya considered writing to be a sacred gift from the gods. Most ancient Maya could not read, because the knowledge of reading and writing was jealously guarded by a small elite class, who believed that they alone could interact directly with the gods and mediate between the gods and the common people

15. Glyphs representing, from left to right:
the sky, an ahau (king), a house, a child, and the city of Palenque.
The Maya wrote using 800 individual signs or glyphs, paired in columns that read together from left to right and top to bottom. Maya glyphs represented words or syllables that could be combined to form any word or concept in the Mayan language, including numbers, time periods, royal names, titles, dynastic events, and the names of gods, scribes, sculptors, objects, buildings, places, and food.
The Maya wrote using 800 individual signs or glyphs, paired in columns that read together from left to right and top to bottom. Maya glyphs represented words or syllables that could be combined to form any word or concept in the Mayan language, including numbers, time periods, royal names, titles, dynastic events, and the names of gods, scribes, sculptors, objects, buildings, places, and food. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were either carved in stone and wood on Maya monuments and architecture, or painted on paper, plaster walls and pottery.
Deciphering Maya texts has become easier with the aid of computers, drawings and the knowledge accumulated over a century of scientific investigation. The hieroglyphic writing of the Maya has not been completely deciphered, however, and can still only be interpreted, rather than read. To date nearly 85 percent of known Maya hieroglyphics have been decoded.
The Maya considered writing to be a sacred gift from the gods. Most ancient Maya could not read, because the knowledge of reading and writing was jealously guarded by a small elite class, who believed that they alone could interact directly with the gods and mediate between the gods and the common people.

16. Maya glyphs were also painted on codices made of either deer hide or bleached fig- tree paper that was then covered with a thin layer of plaster and folded accordion- style.
Record rituals, chronologies and important events.
Most were burned by the Spanish during the 16th c.
Codices
4 Extant Codices:
Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Grolier

17. Toltec ca ce
The Toltecs, a Nahuatl-speaking people, ruled much of Maya central Mexico from the 10th-12th centuries ad.
About AD 900 they sacked and burned the great city of Teotihuacan. They formed a number of small states of various ethnic origins into an empire later in the 10th century.
Last dominant Mesoamerican culture before the Aztecs, and inherited much from Maya civilization.
The Toltec capital was at Tula
The most impressive Toltec ruins are at Chichen Itza in Yucatan, where a branch of Toltec culture survived beyond the civilization's fall in central Mexico.
The Toltecs ruled much of Maya central Mexico from the tenth to twelfth centuries A.D. The Toltecs were the last dominant Mesoamerican culture before the Aztecs, and inherited much from Maya civilization. The Toltec capital was at Tula, 80 kilometres north of Mexico City. The most impressive Toltec ruins, however, are at Chichen Itza in Yucatan, where a branch of Toltec culture survived beyond the civilization's fall in central Mexico.
The Toltecs were Nahuatl-speaking people who held sway over what is now central Mexico from the 10th to the 12th century AD. Their name has many meanings: an "urbanite," a "cultured" person, and, literally, the "reed people," derived from their urban centre, Tollan ("Place of the Reeds"), near the modern town of Tula, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Mexico City. About AD they sacked and burned the great city of Teotihuacan under the leadership, according to tradition, of Mixcoatl ("Cloud Serpent"). Under his son, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, they formed a number of small states of various ethnic origins into an empire later in the 10th century.
Quetzalcoatl - 'Feathered Serpent' - god of civilization, identified with the wind and the planet Venus, Quetzalcoatl represented the forces of good and light. The name was adopted by the Aztec and linked to their chief god; their emperor Montezuma mistook the invading Spanish for the hosts of Quetzalcoatl returning (as promised in legend) from travels over the sea. The Maya Kulkulcan, also represented by a feathered serpent, probably derived from the same historical figure as Quetzalcoatl. The ruler Topiltzin introduced the cult of Quetzalc—atl, which name he adopted.

18. Chichen Itza: Chac-Mool
The advent of the Toltec marked the rise of militarism in Mesoamerica.
They were also noted as builders and craftsmen and have been credited with carved human and animal standard-bearers, and peculiar reclining Chac-Mool figures.
Beginning in the 12th century the invasion of the nomadic Chichimec: among the invaders were the Aztec, or Mexica, who destroyed Tula about the mid-12th century.
Tula:
Toltec Warriors
The history of the Toltec culture at Teotihuacan is shrouded in mystery. It is speculated that around the year 500 AD the Toltec Naguals and all their parties had learned how to transmute, to go through the Black Sun to the place of creation. The entire culture is believed to have transmuted leaving the pyramids of Teotihuacan in abandonment until they were uncovered 500 years later around 1000 AD by the Aztecs. The Aztec were ruthless warriors who in their time conquered much of Mexico. The Aztecs were attracted to the Pyramid and adopted them as their own. However, unlike the Toltecs, the Aztecs used their Power to control outside of themselves, instead of using Power to change ones own perception and action. They misunderstood the records of the Toltec teachings found at the pyramids and used them to glorify their violent ways.
They transformed the Toltec teachings into teachings of horror. The Toltecs taught of the giving of the open heart to the Sun. Taking the lesson literally the Aztecs performed human sacrifice. The teachings of the Toltecs of Teotihuacan reside in the place, in the stones. The ancient Naguals energetically fed teachings to the sacred places. We can perceive this energy and teachings when we are open to changing our perception out of the old dream. Some ascended Naguals chose to stay in this dream, in what can be perceived as an 'upper grid' above Teotihuacan. They witness, guide and support our renewed work at Teotihuacan.

19. Aztecs ce
Aztecs came into the Valley of Mexico during the 12th and 13th century A.D., and rose to be the greatest power in the Americas by the time the Spaniards arrived, in the 16th century.
According to myth, Huitzilopochtli told Tenoch to lead his people to a place of refuge on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco. When they reached their destination, they were to look for an eagle perched on a cactus.
At that location, they were to build their city and honor Huitzilopochtli with human sacrifices. The city they built was called Tenochtitlán: the city of Tenoch.
The story of the Aztecs' rise to power is awe inspiring one, and is one of the most remarkable stories in world history. They were a relatively unknown group of people who came into the Valley of Mexico during the 12th and 13th century A.D., and rose to be the greatest power in the Americas by the time the Spaniards arrived, in the 16th century. Little is known of the earliest Aztecs, they did not keep a written record. Their history was passed on by word of mouth from one generation to the next. Legend has it that they came from an Island called Aztlan, meaning White Place - Place of Herons.
In the Aztec codex Tira de la Peregrinacion, commonly called the Migration Scrolls. The scrolls have the Aztecs leaving Aztlan, which was described as an island in a lake with Chicomoztoc depicted as seven temples in the center of the island. The Aztecs felt they were the "chosen people" of Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs believed Huitzilopochtli their war god was their protector, how had them search for their promised land. Sometime during the 12th & 13th century the Aztecs straggled into the Valley of Mexico, led by their chieftain Tenoch. They were a poor, ragged people who survived on vermin, snakes, and stolen food. They were hatred and rejected by all the surrounding inhabitants of the valley, for their barbarous and uncultured habits. They were driven from one location to another. Early in the 14th century, Huitzilopochtli told Tenoch to lead his people to a place of refuge on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco. When they reached their destination, they were to look for an eagle perched on a cactus, growing from a rock or cave surrounded by water. At that location, they were to build their city and honor Huitzilopochtli with human sacrifices. The city they built was called Tenochtitlán, the city of Tenoch.
Aztec
Calendar Stone

20. Offerings to the Gods
Images of the gods Huehueteotl-Xiuhtecuhtli, together with Tlaloc, presided over most of the offerings found in the Templo Mayor.
Representing fire and water respectively, this pair of deities probably symbolized the concept of "burning water," a metaphor for warfare

21. Human Sacrifice
Human sacrifice was conducted on a sacrificial stone, a flint knife and a recipient to deposit heart offerings, called cuauhxicalli.
Invested with great importance because it was a way to insure that life follow death, mirroring nature
By way of human sacrifice, the most precious thing in life was offered, namely blood and life itself, so that by way of death arose life anew.