Mesoamerican Archaeology
Olmec
Maya
Teotihuacan
Toltec
Aztec
Olmec
1939 Matthew Stirling was sent by the
Smithsonian and National Geographic to
investigate giant stone carvings.
 Olmec means “dweller in the land of
rubber”, refers to people who lived along
Gulf of Mexico, southern Veracruz, and
western Tabasco.
 Olmec lived in this area between 1500
B.C. and 100 A.D.
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Olmec Area
Characteristic Traits
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Building of clay pyramids and temple mounds
Particular sculptural style
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weeping or snarling jaguar/human infant
were-jaguar
colossal heads
basalt monuments
Fine jade carving
Basic Mesoamerican civilization
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Artifacts with Olmec traits found in preclassic horizons
throughout Mesoamerica.
“Cult of the Jaguar” considered a basic Olmec trait.
Were-Jaguar
Colossal Heads
Important sites
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Tres Zapotes
Cerro de las Mesas
San Lorenzo, Veracruz
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Oldest Olmec site
Occupied by 1500 B.C.
Pottery found from earliest period
La Venta, Tabasco
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Contemporaneous to later phases of San Lorenzo
Oriented on a n-s axis on an island in the Rio Tonala
Includes mounds, plazas, tombs, basalt slab enclosures, and
pyramid.
Buried stone offerings
jade and serpentine celts
Basalt Altars-La Venta
Maya
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Slow, gradual change.
Did not develop overnight.
 Due to several factors resource concentration,
population growth, beginnings of cultural
variability, development of ideologies,
migration of ideas from other cultures
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Small Kingdoms, No centralized state.
succession of regional centers
 not really dominant over neighbors
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Regions
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Pacific Coastal Plain
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Southeast Periphery
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Copan-evidence of interaction with western areas of MesoAm
during the preclassic (700-500 B.C.).
Southeastern Highlands
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Izapa-elaborate stone carvings
Monte Alto-collosal heads (contact with Olmec), also pot belly
boulders.
Chalcuapa-one of the important highland centers,important for
trade in pottery.
Tikal investigations in the 1950s, national park around the site,
300 B.C. to 300 A.D. developed into a huge city.
Uaxactun basic chronological sequence of pottery for area.
Yucatan Peninsula and Belize
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Cerros-exploited marine resources, adopted kingship by 50B.C.
Mayan
Regions
Palenque
Uaxactun
Uxmal
Tikal
Mayan Writing
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Maya codices
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most elaborate of writing medium, must have existed
in the thousands, but only a few left.
made out of bark paper, or deer skin.
prepared from the inner bark of trees, fibers soaked in
lime and then beaten smooth.
once dry it was white-washed with a thin coat of
limestoneor gypsum paste.
Stelae
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Stone carvings
Most common today
Mayan
Hieroglyphs
Calendar System
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Calender Round
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260-day cycle (Maya:Tzokin, Aztec:Tonalpohualli)
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primarily religious and divinatory
guidance of daily affairs
20 named days, combined with numbers 1-13, in which the exact
combination of name and number would recur every 260 days.
not based on natural phenomenon.
365-day cycle (Maya:Haab, Aztec:Xihuitl)
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basic unit was a day, not broken down further.
two recurring cycles of time 260-day and 365-day ran
simultaneously making up a period of 52 years.
18 named months of 20 days each, plus 5 additional days of
apprehension and bad luck at the end of the year.
Days numbered from 0-19, and to return to any given date, 52
years would have to pass.
Prophesy that “this world” will end in 2012.
Converting the Mayan Calendar
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http://www.pauahtun.org/cgi-bin/mayagreg.py
Agriculture Patterns
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Localized intensive agriculture
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Expansive Cultivation (900 B.C.)
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gardening took place in zones of good moisture.
shifting cultivation
corn farming with swidden or slash/burn, family of five
needs 3,000 pounds of corn per year.
Wetland cultivation (Extensive-Intensive)
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being increasingly pressed by population.
Chinampas-swamps were being drained and
drainage canals built., located with radar imagery.
the largest cities are located on the edges of these
swamps.
Floating Gardens
Settlement Patterns and Population Sizes
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No direct evidence for census material, so use
indirect means.
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Counting house mounds
Volumetric assessments of the masses of formal
architecture in the civic centers.
House Structures
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small platforms of clay, earth and stone.
Thatched roofs, wattle and daub.
Lowlands areas seem that peak population was Late
Classic (A.D. 1000)
The Mesoamerican Ballgame
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Called tlachtli by the Aztecs, game played with
hard rubber ball.
Spanish document stone rings as goals, but
those dating before 700 A.D. do not have them.
Typically i-shaped courts, balls weighing up to 5
pounds.
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ball had to be kept in motion
could not be hit with hands or feet
associated with fertility, death, militarism and sacrifice.
sacrifice of defeated team members docmented in
late accounts.
Ballcourt
Watch a Ballgame
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http://www.ballgame.org/sub_section.asp?
section=3&sub_section=1
Basin of Mexico-Teotihuacan
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Teotihuacan
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Investigated archaeologically first in 1800s, but disastrous resultsdesturction of monuments.
In 1960s began the Teotihuacan Project.
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Founding of the City
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Valley settled as early as 900 B.C., but no large settlement until 300
B.C.
Populated by people from mountains to the east (Tlaxcala).
Several reasons for population move:
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caves which are related to religion and mythology.
humans, sun and moon came from center of the earth.
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explore and reconstruct ceremonial centers.
also Basin of Mexico survey project.
entrance to the Underworld.
network of caves and tunnels under the
Pyramids of the sun and the moon.
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close obsidian resources.
nearby springs for irrigation.
Teotihuacan
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Size and Construction
At its height, around 125,000 people and
covering 22 sq kilometers.
More ceremonial centers than any other
prehispanic site.
Planned and laid out along a rectilinear network
of roads and paths.
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Avenue of the Dead-major north to south axis.
East and West Avenues divided the city into
quadrants.
The “citadel” was at their center.
In front of this was the great compound.
Temples and Pyramids
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Constructed with Talud-tablero architecture
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5000 known structures.
Pyramid of the Sun
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212 ft high, 700 ft wide, 35,000,000 cu ft of fill
(equivalent to 10 modern oil tankers).
cave located underneath with sacred objects in it.
Pyramid of the Moon
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cut stone facing
Framed panels (tablero)
sloping basal elements (talud)
located at the north end of the avenue of the dead.
Temple of the Feathered Serpent (at the Citadel)
Residential structures
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apartment compounds
Pyramid of the Sun
Temple of Quetzalcoatl
Avenue of the Dead
Decline of Teotihuacan
During the period from 600-900 A.D.
 Site not abandoned, but population
decreased.
 Some buildings burned between 600-700
A.D.
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may be symbolic as in the case of the Olmec
destroying heads, associated with the loss of
power.
Tula and the Toltecs
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A.D. 900-1200
Development of city north of Teotihuacan after
its collapse in 900 A.D.
located on the Tula river and near the Lerma
rivers for easy communication with others.
this new capital was closer to the northern limits
of agriculture.
Toltec history embellished by Aztecs, Spaniards
and others after their collapse in 1200 A.D.
Tula Grande
Was occupied during the prime phase of
Tula 950-1150 A.D.
 13 km in area, with a population of 3060,000 residents.
 craftspeople, tradespeople, religious
leaders, but not farmers.
 workshops included manos and metates
makers. toolmakers.
 city laid out on n-s axis.
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Tula
Atlantids
Rise of the Aztec
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From A.D. 1200 to A.D. 1370 the Basin of
Mexico was occupied by various central Mexican
peoples.
Chichimec people settled in the area from the
North and gradually overcame the people living
there at that time.
primarily due to Xolotl, who ruled a somewhat
barbaric horde.
Technically squatted in the area of Tenochtitlan
and were know as the Mixeca but today Aztecs
is more common.
Basin of Mexico
Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlan Reconstruction
Moctezuma II
Human Sacrifice
Skull Rack
Spanish Arrival: Cortes
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Spanish arrive in A.D. 1519 at Vera Cruz.
March inland to Tenochtitlan
 Received by Moctezuma II, who was then
held captive by Cortes and his men.
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Moctezuma II dies, replaced by nephew
(dies almost immediately from small pox),
replaced by another nephew: Cuahtemoc.
Mexico Revolts
The siege began on May 21, 1521 and
lasted for 85 days.
 Finally ended when the Spanish captured
the northeast section of the city and
eventually conquered the remaining Aztecs.
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 Cuauhtemoc
sets our from the city and
surrenders to Cortes sometime around
August 14, 1521.