“Nya b’a’n tu’n t-xi tca’yin
muj ku’n nlayx b’et tak’in.
It is not good to look at the clouds or your work will not progress.”
Mayan proverb
Collected and translated into
Spanish by Feliciano P.
Eberardo
English translations from
Spanish by Carl Rubino
Mayan king Pacal

C IVILIZATIONS OF M ESOAMERICA
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The Atlantic and Pacific oceans ensured that the cultures of the Western Hemisphere had long operated in a world apart from their Afro-
Eurasian counterparts
Nor were the cultures of the Americas stimulated by the kind of fruitful interaction among their own civilizations that played a vital role in the
Eastern Hemisphere due to geographic barriers
Achievements occurred without large domesticated animals or iron-working technologies that were important in the Eastern
Hemisphere

Mesoamerica, stretching from central Mexico to northern Central America, was geographically diverse (rain forests, highland plateaus, mountains, and valleys) and had substantial linguistic and ethnic diversity.

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But shared an intensive agricultural technology
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-Maize, beans, chili peppers, squash
Also shared economies based on market exchanges, polytheistic religions, belief in a cosmic cycle of creation and destruction, human sacrifice, monumental ceremonial centers, a common ritual calendar of 260 days, and hieroglyphic writing
During the first millennium BCE, Olmec civilization (a “mother civilization” of
Mesoamerica) engaged in trade thereby leading to the diffusion of aspects of its culture throughout Mesoamerica

T HE M AYA
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Major classical civilization of Mesoamerica
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Scholars trace beginnings to ceremonial centers constructed as early as 2000 BCE in present-day
Guatemala and the Yucatán region of Mexico
But it was the during the classical phase of Maya civilization, between 250 and 900 CE, that their most notable achievements occurred
-Mathematical system with concept of zero
-Place notations in math, capable of complex calculations
-Careful observation of night skies to plot the cycle of the plants

-Maya could predict eclipses of the sun and moon
-Constructed elaborate calendars
-Calculated accurately the solar year
-Creation of the most elaborate writing system in the Americas
-Temples, pyramids, palaces, and public plazas abounded
-By 600 CE, the Maya drained swamps, terraced hillsides, flattened ridge tops, and constructed an elaborate water management system
-Supported a rapidly growing and dense population by 750 CE
-Highly fragmented political system of city-states, local lords, and regional kingdoms with no central authority

The Maya engaged in frequent warfare with the extensive capture and sacrifice of prisoners.

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Densely populated urban and ceremonial centers ruled by powerful kings who were divine rulers mediating between humankind and the supernatural
One Maya city, Tikal, contained around 50,000 people with another 50,000 or so in the surrounding countryside by 750 CE
But no Maya city-state succeeded in creating a unified Maya empire
More closely resembled the competing city-states of ancient Mesopotamia or classical Greece than the imperial structures of Rome, Persia, or China
Collapsed with completeness rare in world history
Drought in 840 CE led to drop in population

A drought in 840 led to a drop of 85% or more of the population in the low-lying southern heartland of the Maya. The great cities were deserted.

T EOTIHUACÁN
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At roughly the same time of as the Maya flourished, the giant city of Teotihuacán, to the north in the Valley of Mexico, thrived
Begun around 150 BCE and built to a plan
A population between 100,000 and 200,000
Largest urban complex in Americas
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Much is unknown about the city
But broad avenues, spacious plazas, huge marketplaces, temples, palaces, apartment complexes, slums, waterways, reservoirs, drainage systems, and colorful murals

Along the main north/south boulevard, now known as the Street of the Dead, were the grand homes of the elite, the headquarters of state authorities, many temples, and two giant pyramids.

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Off the main avenues, the streets are in a gridlike pattern
But the art of Teotihuacán, unlike that of the
Maya, has revealed few images of self-glorifying rulers or individuals
The city did not have a tradition of written public inscriptions as the Maya did but a number of glyphs or characters suggest at least a limited form of writing
The city cast a huge shadow over Mesoamerica, particularly from 300 to 600 CE
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A core region of perhaps 10,000 square miles was administered directly from the city itself, while tribute was exacted from other areas
At least one Maya city was completely taken over

Another center of civilization in the Americas lay in the Andes.

C HAVÍN
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Around 900 BCE, located in the Andean highlands at a village called Chavín de Huántar
-High in the Andes
-Situated on trade routes to both the coastal region to the west and the Amazon rain forest to the east
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An elaborate temple complex
Major deities were represented as jaguars, crocodiles, and snakes
Shamans made use of the San Pedro cactus and its hallucinogenic properties to penetrate the supernatural world

Chavín became a pilgrimage site and possibly a training center for initiates from distant centers.
Much of the spread of Chavín religious imagery and practice paralleled the trade routes and while a widespread religious cult provided a measure of integration, there was no Chavín empire.

M OCHE
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Dominating a 250-mile stretch of Peru’s northern coast, Moche civilization flourished between about 100 and 800 CE
Economy rooted in a complex irrigation system
Governed by warrior-priests, some of whom lived atop huge pyramids
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Moche culture was one of war, ritual, and diplomacy
However, fragile environmental foundations, subject to periodic drought, earthquakes, and occasional torrential rains associated with El
Niño episodes

In these circumstances, the Moche were vulnerable to aggressive neighbors and possibly social tensions as well. But the Chavín and Moche civilizations were but two of the many that grew up in the Andes region before the Incas consolidated the entire area into a single empire.

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The peoples of the Americas in the pre-
Columbian era might be divided into three large groups
-Most prominent and well-known are those of the
Mesoamerican and Andean regions, where cities, states, and dense populations created civilizations broadly similar to classical Eurasia
-Elsewhere, gathering and hunting peoples carried on ancient human adaptations to the environment
-Semi-sedentary people in the eastern woodlands of the United States, Central America, the
Amazon basin, and the Caribbean islands engaged in agriculture but less intensive and supporting smaller populations

In Chaco canyon in what is now northwestern New
Mexico, between 860 and 1130 CE, five major pueblos emerged.

Unlike the Chaco region in the southwest, the eastern woodlands of North America and especially the Mississippi River valley hosted an independent Agricultural Revolution. By 2000
BCE, domesticated local plant species but these few plants were not sufficient to support a fully settled agricultural village life. Gathering and hunting was needed to supplement diets.

QUESTIONS
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With what Eurasian civilizations might the Maya be compared?
In what ways did Teotihuacán shape the history of Mesoamerica?
What kind of influence did Chavín exert in the
Andes region?
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What supports scholars' contention that Moche represented a regional civilization in the Andes?