What are the Characteristics

of a Civilization?

Think about the other civilizations we have studied. How did this look in Greece? Rome? China?

Intensive agricultural techniques

Specialization of laborCitiesA 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.)

Olmecs and Mayans

Olmecs

Earliest known ceremonial centers of the ancient Americas appeared near modern day Veracruz around 1200 B.C.

These served as the nerve center for the first complex society of the Americas, the Olmecs

“Olmec” was not what the people called themselves

It means “rubber people” and comes from the rubber trees that flourish in the region

Characteristics of Olmec Civilization

A social hierarchySociety was probably authoritarianCommon subjects provided labor and tribute to the elite

Intensive agricultural techniquesArea received abundant rainfall so extensive irrigation systems were unnecessaryStill the Olmecs built elaborate drainage systems to divert waters that might otherwise have caused floodsSpecialization of laborJade craftsmen

CitiesBuilt around ceremonial centers at San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes

Characteristics of Olmec CivilizationOrganized religion and education

Ceremonial centers, priests, temples, altars, and human sacrifice

Development of complex forms of economic exchange

Imported jade and obsidian and exported small jade, basalt, and ceramic works of artDevelopment of new technologiesExcellent astronomers and mathematicians who developed a calendar

Advanced development of the arts. Created colossal human heads sculpted from basalt rock

Olmec Head at La Venta

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

What are the Characteristics of a

Civilization

Think about the other civilizations we have studied. How did this look in Greece? Rome? China?

Intensive agricultural techniques

Specialization of laborCitiesA 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.)

The Mysterious Mayans

To this day, nobody knows where the Maya people came from before they arrived in the Yucatan Peninsula, and nobody knows why they left or where they went when most of the Maya people abandoned their cities and disappeared from the Yucatan Peninsula. That's why the Maya are sometimes referred to as "the mysterious Mayas". 

MayansThe Mayans began to develop around 300 A.D. in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador

They are known as “The People of the Jaguar”

Olmec Civilization Influences on the Mayans

Maize (corn)

Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids

Calendar based on the Olmec calendar

Ball games

Rituals involving human sacrifice

Agriculture

Maize Cacao

AgricultureSoil 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

Cities

Cities: Tikal

From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers All had pyramids, palaces, and temples

Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities The most important was Tikal Small city-kingdoms served as the means of

Mayan political organization

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

Social Hierarchy

King and ruling family

Priests

Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)

Warriors

Professionals and artisans

Peasants

Slaves

Social Hierarchy King and ruling family

Ruled from the city-kingdoms such as Tikal

Ruled by semi-divine right and believed their connection with the gods was maintained by ritual human sacrifice

Often had names associated with the jaguar

Priests Maintained an

elaborate calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing, astronomy, and mathematics

A Mayan King

Social Hierarchy

A Mayan PriestA Mayan Warrior

Social HierarchyHereditary nobility (from which came

the merchant class) Owned most of the land and cooperated

with the kings and priests by organizing military forces and participating in religious rituals

Warriors 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

Social Hierarchy

Professionals and artisans Architects and sculptors supervised construction

of the large monuments and public buildings

Peasants Fed the entire society

Slaves Provided physical labor for the construction of

cities and monuments Often had been captured in battle

SpecializationAstronomersMathematiciansWarriorsArchitects and

sculptorsPottersTool

manufacturersTextile makers

Specialization

Religion and Education

Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Ritual

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

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 royalsMayan queen holds a bowl filled with strips of paper used to collect blood.

Religion: Bloodletting

A popular bloodletting ritual was for a Mayan to pierce his own tongue and thread a thin rope through the hole, thus letting the blood run down the rope

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

Mayan Ball Court

Economic Exchange

Mayan symbol for movement

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

New Technologies

Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol

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

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

Art and Writing

Mayan writing

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

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