CHARACTERISTICS
OF
EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
CITIES
PUBLIC WORKS
(ROADS, BRIDGES)
CENTRAL
GOVERNMENTS
ORGANIZED
RELIGION
ART &
ARCHITECTURE
SYSTEM OF
WRITING
TRADITIONAL
ECONOMY
SPECIALIZED
JOBS
SOCIAL CLASSES
OLMEC EMPIRE1200 BC – 400 BC
Southern Mexico El Salvador
• formed the first truly complex Mesoamerica culture established civicceremonial centers at San Lorenzo and La Venta, with temples, palaces
built towns with clay building platforms and stone pavements and
drainage systems traded in aw materials such as jade created large
stone jade sculptures of human heads developed rudimentary
hieroglyphic writing
MAYAN EMPIRE50 BC – 1400
AD Southern Mexico Yucatan
Guatemala Central America
• invented writing system which mixed script with
ideographs and phonetics wrote historic records on pots,
stone stele (upright inscribed slabs), and palace walls
cultivated corn as staple crop produced a complex
astronomical calendar established religious rituals which
included human sacrifices, mythology, and ancestral
worship created a monarchy that united small settlements
into larger states built flat-topped pyramids as temples and
rulers’ tombs built palaces, shrines, large ball courts for
ceremonial sport and astronomical observatories invented
math system, included zero base
AZTEC ORIGINS
• Because of their antagonistic behavior they were driven
from one place to another.
• Around 700 years ago the Aztec peoples left their homes in
Atzlan in North West Mexico.
• Their chieftan Tenoch led them to the Valley of Mexico
named Anahuac.
• The Aztecs were a poor, ragged people who ate rats,
snakes, and stole food.
According to legend,
they had been told by the gods to build their city in the spot
where an eagle, perched on a cactus,
would be seen eating a snake.
The Aztecs founded the great city of Tenochtitlan.
Today this place is called Mexico City.
AZTEC CITIES
• Tenochtitlan was built about
1325 on an island in a lake.
• Great stone temples and
pyramids stood in the center of
the city.
• Stone bridges connected the
city with the mainland.
• By 1376 they chose a man
named Acamapichtli as their
first emperor. He ruled until
1395
• By the late 1400’s more than
60,000 people in Tenochtitlan.
• The Aztecs used irrigation to grow crops throughout the
year.
• They made ‘chinampas’ or floating gardens by filling
shallow areas of the lake and anchoring the soil with trees.
• The canals formed part of their defense system.
ORGANIZED RELIGION
• As their city grew stronger the Aztec warriors
extended their powers over neighboring territories,
gaining tribute payments and most importantly,
human hearts for sacrifice.
Huitzilopochtli
god of war
Aztec wall of skulls
• They believed it was necessary to feed the gods with
human hearts to ensure the sun would rise every day.
• It was important in battle to seize as many live
prisoners as possible, these unfortunate victims would
then be held captive until they were required for
sacrifice.
Aztec sacrificial
mask
• Spanish accounts describe Aztec human sacrifice in detail.
...the men or women who were to be sacrificed to their
gods were thrown on their backs and of their own accord
remained perfectly still. A priest then came out with a
stone knife...and with his knife he opened the part where
the heart is and took out the heart, without the person who
was being sacrificed uttering a word...
ART
Aztec Chacmool
Chacmools were vessels made of basalt, and were used to
contain sacrificial offerings to the gods. As such, they were
the intermediaries between gods and men and were placed
outside temples.
SOCIAL CLASSES
• The Aztecs did have two clearly differentiated social
classes.
• At the bottom were the macehualles, or
"commoners“.
• At the top the pilli, or nobility.
• These were not clearly differentiated by birth, for
one could rise into the pilli by virtue of great skill
and bravery in war.
SPECIALIZED JOBS
• The city itself consisted of a large number of priests and
craftspeople.
• The bulk of the economy rested on extensive trade of both
necessary and luxury items.
• Some occupations included rope-making and pot-making.
LANGUAGE &WRITING
• The Aztec language was called N'ahuatl.
• It was a system of pictures which they used as sort of an
alphabet.
• They used hundreds of different symbols in their
vocabulary.
• Nouns were easy to draw - they drew a cat as a cat and
drew a fish as a fish and so on.
• They joined them together to form sentences, and used
them to write down stories and keep records.
LAW
• Aztec laws were simple and harsh.
• Almost every crime, from adultery to stealing, was
punished by death
• Other offenses usually involved severe corporal
punishment or mutilation (the penalty for slander, for
instance, was the loss of one's lips).
EDUCATION
The Aztec children had to go to school too!
• Children of the noble class attended a calmecac, a
school for noble children that was attached to the
temples.
• Girls and boys went to separate calmecac schools.
BOYS
• At fifteen (15), boys attended either a calmecac or a
cuicacalli.
• The calmecac was run by priests who taught religious and
administrative subjects.
• Calmecac pupils also had extra religious duties, as well as
lessons in history, astronomy, poetry, and writing.
• The cuicacalli was more of a military school. All boys
were trained in war and there was great rivalry between the
schools, often leading to fights.
GIRLS
• Aztec girls were mainly taught at home and began
spinning at four (4) and cooking at twelve (12).
• Their education was basically a training for
marriage.
• Noble girls spent a year at twelve (12) or thirteen
(13) helping in the temple, and some became
professional priestesses.
Aim: Were the Aztecs civilized or savages?
• Civilized
• Tenochtitlan was built on a lake. Large pyramids and
temples stood at the center of the city. Bridges connected
the city with the mainland.
• The Aztecs made objects out of gold, silver, and precious
stones. They wove fine cloth and used a system of writing.
The Aztecs created artistic stone figures.
• The Aztecs had a calendar.
• In conducting human sacrifice the Aztecs believed they
were preserving humanity, saving it from the wrath of the
gods.
Civilized
• The Aztecs had two different social classes.
• The Aztecs had specialized jobs.
• The Aztecs had a language and a pictograph form of
writing.
• The Aztecs had a system of law.
• Both boys and girls received an education.
Aim: Were the Aztecs civilized or savages?
• Savages
• The Aztecs waged war with the purpose of capturing
prisoners for human sacrifice.
• Human sacrifice was conducted by cutting victims open
and removing their hearts.
• The Aztecs were hated by their neighbors whom they
raided for the purpose of ritual sacrifice. The Spanish
conquistador Hernando Cortes vehemently objected to this
practice as well.
INCA EMPIRE
1200 AD – 1535 AD
Andes Mountains
(Peru, Ecuador, parts of Chile, Bolivia & Argentina)
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established largest empire of the Americas – at its height in the 16th century, the Inca
Empire controlled 12 million people, over 100 cultures with 20 different languages
formed a strong monarch ruled from Cuzco by using strategic resettlement of loyal
“colonists” among rebellious groups
believed emperors descended from the Sun god and worshipped them as divine beings
adapted an intricate 12,000 mile road system for traveling messengers and services for
traveling bureaucratic officials
created agricultural terracing and irrigation systems
adapted various “vertical climates” of the Andes’ elevations for a variety of crops
built elaborate fortress cities such as Machu Picchu
developed refined spoken language (Quechua)
instituted quipu (knot-cord) record keeping system
developed a religion centered on the worship of the Sun
minded gold for use by the elite for decorative and ritual purposes