PP Notes Olmec, Ancient America

North America
Stone age tribes around 9500 BCE
By 800 BCE small farming in Ohio River valley (evidence of copper)
Bow and arrow replaced the spear by 400 BCE
By 300 BCE settled villages in British Columbia, Ohio and Illinois

North American Nations

Anasazi “ancient ones” located near the four corners, most influential in the southwest. (began taking form 100 BCE)
“Mound People” – worshipped their gods – located near the Mississippi
More than 200 different languages among North American tribes
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica stretches from Mexico’s central plain to Costa Rica
Beginnings of civilization around 12000 BCE (300-400 yrs. after Shang)
Depended on corn, beans and wild turkey –used only digging sticks

Olmecs (2000 – 400 BCE)

Olmecs – first civilization located in southern Mexico (until 100 CE) -preclassic
Pottery, jade carvings, sculptures
Polytheistic, had writing and mathematics
Considered the founder of most other Mesoamerican tribes

Teotihuacan (450 – 750 BCE)

Teotihuacan (now Mexico city) Classic
By 500 CE Teotihuacan was the most populated city in the world (150,000 to 200,000)
Obsidian, ceramic figures
Culture spread north into the U.S. and south into Guatemala



Writing/numbering system
Formalized religion came with the formation of an empire
Numerous temples and two pyramids dedicated to the sun and moon

Polytheistic: Quetzalcoatl was the main god – feathered snake god of fertility
Stone carvings of people at play, in song, in gardens, near streams and mountains depicted heaven
Toltecs 950 – 1150 CE Post-classic




Mesoamerican region
Lived in a tropical rain forest in Guatemala and Belize
Agricultural community: beans, maize, chili peppers and squash
Made clay, cloth, rope, nets, string
Around 900 BCE migrated into Yucatan Peninsula

By first century, traded with Teotihuacan
Complex family units, cities, temples: class division, private property
Built with limestone, coral, and plaster
Had writing and numbering system (including zero)

Religion

Trances/Visions: dancing, blood letting, hallucinogenic enemas, used the mushroom: psilocybim, flowers, toads, etc.
Sacred written texts
Popol Vuh was sacred mythology
Xibalba was the under world





Hunaphu and Ixbalanque – hero twins – played ball game in Xibalba and won. Most important thing you can be is a trickster, could outwit the gods. Really appreciated witty individuals. (Moon has a trickster)

All movements in the story of the twins represents solar movement, i.e. descending into Xibalba represents retrograde motion of Venus (disappears), mnemonic devices to plot movements of the universe
“Popol Vuh” – people of the mat.
Michael Coe wrote “Breaking the Maya Code” – took a Russian, Uri Knorosov, during the cold war, with outdated equipment (there was no Rosetta Stone until De Landa’s letters regarding Chi’s )


The Aztec Calendar

Aztecs 1345 – 1521 CE

In the Mesoamerican region
Came to Mexico from a Southwestern region in the United States
Capital was called Tenochtitlan (no comparison in 16th century Europe, when Cortes landed). 250,000 inhabitants
The plaza on the island represented the Mesoamerican universe. Pyramids, large buildings, temples and homes.
Transportation was mainly canoes, much like in Venice.
The Sport of Life and Death
Played a sacred ball game for 3000 years: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
More than 1560 courts have been discovered. Use of a heavy rubber ball, and a ring. Teams of two to seven, wore yokes, shoulder pads, hip covers and helmets – losers were sacrificed. Ball represents trajectory of a planet and set in ground – near underworld, supernatural.
Wagering was an important part of the games.

Religion
Human sacrifice
Complex calendaring
Polytheism
Human sacrifice
South America
Hunting-gathering tribes as early as 9000 BCE
By 2500 BCE people in the Andes (Peru) were raising Llama, growing plants, corn and potatoes
By 500 BCE complex societies on southern coast of Ecuador, southern highlands of Columbia