The World Before 1500: Societies of North America

1. The World Before 1500: Societies of North America

2. First People in North America • Early Americans arrived 12,000 years ago • Scientists believe they crossed a land bridge that joined Asia & North America—called Beringia • Others came by boat over thousands of years.

3. The Emergence of Civilizations • Culture-a way of life that people share—includes arts, beliefs, customs. • First people to live in North America were hunters/gatherers. • Domestication-the practice of breeding plants & taming animals to met human needs. • About 5,000 years ago humans began to domesticate plants & animals.

4. How Food Changed History • Stable food supply changed way of life • No longer had to travel to find food. • Built permanent villages • Focused on different activities • Slowly civilizations grew and became more complex

5. 5 Features of Civilization • Cities are centers of trade • Specialized jobs for different people • Organized forms of government & religion • A system of record keeping • Advanced tools

6. Mesoamerica • Region stretched from Central Mexico to present day Nicaragua • About 1200 B.C. advanced civilizations arose • Built large cities • Constructed earthen mounds and pyramids

7. Ancient Mesoamerica: Olmec

8. The First Signs • Prominent in South America as early as 1500 BC • Ended around 400 BC • Found on the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico

9. Cities were about 1000 people in density • The Olmec had an elite army and large system of trading

10. Olmec Center • The center of everyday life was the Ziggurat or temples built in the city • These started as mounds and slowly became full fledge pyramids • The cities were equipped with drainage systems in a U-Shaped form

13. OLMEC CAPITOL TEOTIHUACAN

14. Olmec Ruins

15. Games • The Olmec were not only named for their use of rubber but for what they made out of the rubber • The ancient Ball Game • discovery of several rubber balls at the Olmec site of El Manati, near San Lorenzo, confirms that the game was played by the Olmec • They were the first to play the ancient ball game

17. Language and Writing • Language -Mixed-Zoquean • Thought to be the first to develop writing systems • Hieroglyphs • Later known language is known as Epi-Olmec • Means post Olmec

19. Calendars and Mathematics • The used a true “Zero” • 'bar and dot' system of recording time. • A value of 5 is represented by a bar, and a value of 1 is represented by a dot, such that the three bars and single dot here stands for 16 • Maya would later adopt this counting system for their Long Count calendar.

20. Counting • Long Count • Zero Concept • The numerals 7.16.6.16.18 • translate to September 3, 32 BCE

21. Art- Colossal Heads • Over 17 unearthed in Latin America • Thought these statues with headgear could either be ball players or Kings • Some weigh as much as 40 tons

26. Religion • The center of the Olmec religion was Veracruz • Some gods- • Feathered Serpent • Man of crops • Rain spirit in the form of a child • Originally the Olmec were thought to only worship one god- The Rina god • New discovers suggest otherwise

27. Decline of the Olmec • Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers at both San Lorenzo and La Venta and then deserted the sites • Statues were broken and buried, monuments defaced, and capitals burned • No one knows why, but some speculate reasons involving civil conflicts or doubts about the effectiveness or legitimacy of the ruling classes • By about 400 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon eclipsed it

28. Ancient Mesoamerica: Mayans

29. 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”

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

32. Characteristics of a Civilization • Intensive agricultural techniques • Specialization of labor • Cities • A social hierarchy • Organized religion and education • Development of complex forms of economic exchange • Development of new technologies • Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.)

33. Agriculture • Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility • Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production • Raised maize, cotton, and cacao • Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money Cacao tree

34. Cities

35. Cities: Tikal • Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries • Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000 • The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

36. Tikal: Temple of the Jaguar • 154 feet high • Served as funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6th and early 7th centuries

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

38. Specialization • Astronomers • Mathematicians • Warriors • Architects and sculptors • Potters • Tool manufacturers • Textile makers

39. Religion: Importance of Agriculture • Mayan religion reflected the fundamental role of agriculture in their society • Popol Vuh, was the Mayan creation myth that taught that the gods had created human beings out of maize and water • Gods kept the world in order and maintained the agricultural cycle in exchange for honors and sacrifices

40. 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.

41. 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

42. Mayan Ball Court

43. Economic Exchange • Traveling merchants served not just as traders but also as ambassadors to neighboring lands and allied people • Traded mainly in exotic and luxury goods such as rare animal skins, cacao beans, and finely crafted works of art which rulers coveted as signs of special status • Cacao used as money

44. New Technologies Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol

45. 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

46. New Technologies: Calendar • Mayan priests developed the most elaborate calendar of the ancient Americas • 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 • Believed each day derived certain characteristics from its position on both the solar and ritual calendars and carefully studied the combinations • Lucky and unlucky days

47. Art and Writing Mayan writing

48. Writing • Expanded on Olmec tradition to create the most flexible and sophisticated of all early American systems of writing • Contained both ideographic elements and symbols for syllables • Used to write works of history, poetry, and myth and keep genealogical, administrative, and astronomical records

49. 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

50. The Nazca