An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the New World

1. An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the New World The Past in Perspective 13

2. The Flowering of Civilization in the New World • Mesoamerica • South America • Issues and Debates • Case Study Close-up • Summary

3. Mesoamerica • When Hernán Cortés entered the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán in central Mexico in A.D. 1519, he was astonished. • Modern estimates place the sixteenth century population of Tenochtitlán at about 200,000 (Adams 1991; Sabloff 1989). • Enormous pyramids and temples defined the architectural style of the city. • The city was surrounded by a huge expanse of raised agricultural fields called chinampas.

4. Mesoamerica • The Maya • Maya aboriginal culture evolved to the south and east of Tenochtitlán as much as 3,200 years before Cortés described the Aztecs. • By 2300 B.P. several villages had become local central places where the earliest evidence of public architecture has been found. • Monuments provided tangible evidence of the power of the elite. • The Maya derived a sophisticated system of writing and mathematics from the Olmec (Coe 1992; Harris and Stearns 1992). • Mayan writing focused on the culture’s history.

5. Mesoamerica • Teotihuacán • Teotihuacán was Mesoameica’s first urban civilization. • Between 3500 and 2600 B.P., the basin was lightly occupied. • Population increased dramatically after 2600 B.P., and local villages began to be drawn into broader politics. • By 2000 B.P. the city had a population of more than 60,000. • Its urban character was fully established in its broad avenues, huge residential complexes, expansive plazas, and impressive pyramids.

6. Mesoamerica • The Aztecs • The large population was made possible by an intensive and sophisticated agricultural technology that included substantial irrigation works. • Excavations at two rural villages suggested that agriculture was intense. • Commoners produced goods for sale or trade and obtained desired material in exchange. • Even the poorest of peasants possessed imported ceramics. • There does not appear to be the kind of grinding poverty that characterizes our modern state societies.

7. Mesoamerica Archeological sites in Mesoamerica where evidence of the evolution of chiefdom and early state-level societies has been found. Insert Figure 13.3 (old figure 15.3)

8. South America • Moche • About 1,700 years ago, on Peru’s northern coast, a culture called Moche developed. • Featured stepped pyramids, hilltop forts, unique pottery styles, and fabulous burials. • Beginning construction at their capital in about A.D. 100 and reaching their zenith at about 400 A.D., the Moche produced on the earliest kingdoms in South America.

9. South America • South American Empires: Tiwanaku • The capital of the Tiwanaku civilization, located in Bolivia, Titicaca was one the highest cities of the ancient world. • Beginning in about A.D. 200 and reaching a zenith by about 400 A.D., the builders and sculptors constructed a remarkable city filled with a series of palaces, temples, platforms, and massive monoliths. • The social and political order was reinforced by religious symbolism and monumental construction of palaces, temples, and monoliths.

10. South America • South American Empires: Wari • The Wari developed near the modern Peruvian city of Ayachucho. • It partly overlapped with Tiwanaku, but peaked after A.D. 600. • Much of the city seems to have been multistoried (Morris and von Hagen 1993). • Agriculture depended on an extensive system of irrigation works. • Religious iconography centered at Wari is found represented in textiles and pottery across a broad swath of western South America.

11. South America • South American Empires: Sicán and Chimu • After the Moche culture faded along the north coast of Peru after A.D. 700, it was replaced by the culture known as Sicán which peaked between A.D. 900 and 1100.

12. South America • South American Empires: Sicán and Chimu • Sicán pales in comparison to one of the largest empires seen in the ancient New World—the empire of Chimor, or the Chimu. • The capital at Chan Chan is a true city with neighborhoods divided, in part, according to which crafts were produced by the inhabitants (Topic 1990). • It was built beginning sometime before A.D. 900 and expanded at around 1200. • Irrigation was crucial and was the reason for its expansion across a huge territory.

13. South America • South American Empires: Sicán and Chimu • One of the largest empires seen in the ancient New World is the empire of Chimor, or the Chimu. • The capital at Chan Chan is a true city with neighborhoods divided, in part, according to which crafts were produced (Topic 1990). • It was built beginning sometime before A.D. 900 and expanded at around 1200. • Irrigation was crucial and was, perhaps, along with the desire of the elite to incorporate surrounding territories into its polity, the reason for its expansion across a huge territory.

14. South America • South American Empires: The Inka • Cuzzzco became their capital city when their military expansion began in the middle of 15th century A.D. • Many people in Cuzco’s population were the elite of Inka society, though there were substantial clusters of non-Inka people living there. • The Inika state grew through military conquest and the peaceable incorporation of smaller Andean states. • The Inka did not possess a written language, but they did develop a recording system that used knotted string call quipu.

15. South America Archeological sites in western South America where evidence of the evolution of chiefdom and early state-level societies has been found. Insert Figure 13.10 (old figure 15.9)

16. South America Extent of the Inka empire at its peak. Insert Figure 13.17 (old figure 15.15)

17. Issues and Debates • Why Do Civilizations Collapse? • The Cause of Collapse • Resource depletion • New resources • Catastrophes • Insufficient response to circumstances • Other complex societies • Intruders • Mismanagement • Economic explanations

18. Case Study Close-up • The royal cemeteries of the Moche elite are located in the village of Sipan. • The royalty buried at Sipan appear to represent a class of warrior-priests. • The ability to unify a large population, to control their behavior, and to exploit their labor and wealth were the factors that made possible such sumptuous splendor in death for the Moche lords.

19. Summary • In the New World some farming societies eventually developed the ability to produce a food surplus. • Through their concentration of wealth and power and as members of an elite social class in a stratified society, rulers were able to organize the labor of the many to produce spectacular monuments. • Like the civilizations of the Old World, the complex societies of the New eventually collapsed.