2: THE MESOAMERICAN TECHNOLOGY IN PRE-COLUMBIAN TIMES Flashcards
meaning of Meso
middle
Mesoamerica is the region that is now __ and __.
- Mexico
- Central America
Mesoamerica includes the Region in __ and __ through Belize, Guatemala , Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Northern Costa Rica
- North America
- Central Mexico
▪ Within the regions in north America and central Mexico,, pre Columbian societies flourished before the __ of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries where they caused mass genocide of the people there
▪ This region is home to the __, __, __ & __ civilization.
- Spanish colonization
- Olmec
- Maya
- Aztec
- Incan
First known civilization to form in Central and Latin America
Olmec (1200 B.C. – 600 A.D)
Developed in what is now called the Yucatan Peninsula
Maya (250 A.D. – 900 A.D.)
Built their capital on what is now Mexico City.
Aztec (1200 A.D. – 1521 A.D.)
Developed in the Andes Mountains in what is now Peru.
Inca (1438 A.D. – 1533 A.D.)
Mesoamerican Contribution to Science and Technology
▪ Calendars
▪ Mathematics
▪ Architectural Wonders
▪ Agriculture
▪ Engineering/Hydrology
▪ Chocolates
▪ Medicine
__ lived along the Gulf Coast of modern-day Mexico in tropical rain forests and lowlands from around 1200 BCE to 400 BCE.
The Olmecs
are known for the immense stone heads they carved from a volcanic rock called basalt.
The Olmecs
Archaeological evidence also suggests that they originated the Mesoamerican practices of the __—a popular game in the pre-Columbian Americas played with balls made from solid rubber—and that they may have practiced ritual bloodletting.
The Olmecs
- Mesoamerican Ballgame
Olmec prosperity was initially based on exploiting the fertile and well-watered coastal areas of the __ to grow such crops as __ and __ (often twice-yearly) which allowed for an agricultural surplus.
- Gulf of Mexico
- corn; beans
Where was the first pyramid in Mesoamerica was constructed.
La Venta
Olmec religion: depicted as a harpy eagle associated with rulership
Bird Master
Olmec religion: with flame eyebrows, a bulbous nose, and bifurcated tongue
Olmec Dragon
Seventeen monumental stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders have been unearthed in the region to date. The heads date from at least before 900 BCE and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization. All portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses, and slightly crossed eyes. However, none of the heads are alike, and each boasts a unique headdress, which suggests they represent specific individuals.
Olmec Colossal Heads
The Olmec are considered a “__” by historians.
cultural hearth
lived in modern-day southern Mexico and Central America.Including the areas that are today Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The Maya
They were an agriculture-based society. They grow corn, beans, and squash, and practice many of the same crafts, such as weaving and pottery.
The Maya
built a large and complex system of roads to stay connected with other cities and people. These roads were used for trading goods inside and outside the their empire.
The Maya
Mayan civilization left behind important architectural wonders which includes the ruins of huge __ and __ used by astronomers
- ziggurat
- observatories
excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar- making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork.
The Maya
Mayan Contributions to Science and Technology: Two parts
- Solar calendar with 365 days, divided into 18 months with 20 days each with 5 extra days at the end
- Lunar calendar and a Calendar based on the movement of the Planet Venus. This was a sacred calendar with 260 days and 13 weeks of 20 days each.
The Mayan units of time are as follows:
a. __ - equate to one day and were numbered 0-19
b. __ - equate to 20 a or days and were numbered 0-17
c. __ - equate to 18 b of one Earth year (365 days) and were numbered 0 - 19
a. Kin figures
b. Uinal
c. Tun
used math and were the first people to use the zero
The Maya
The Mayan and other Mesoamerican cultures used a __ number system based on base 20 (and, to some extent, base 5)
vigesimal
built towering temples, pyramids, plazas and palaces around the empire.
The Maya
The pyramid at __ in Mexico, for example, is situated according to the sun’s location during the spring and fall equinoxes.
Chichén Itzá
one of the oldest palaces in Maya history. The palace is a three-story building with each story set back from the one below. Instead of stacking the rooms one above the other, they were built side by side. The whole palace was made from stone and concrete in the Puuc architectural style. The building known as El Mirador on the site is believed to have been used as an observatory.
Sayil Palace
the largest stepped pyramid in the region, situated in the heart of Palenque. It was built to commemorate the ruler K’inich Janaab’ Pakal. It is one of the best sources of archeological information of the Maya civilization with the inscriptions on its walls telling us much about this great civilization.
Temple of the Inscriptions
were used to play traditional Mesoamerican ball games. The games had their own rules and regulations where two teams tried to bounce a rubber ball through a ring without using their arms and legs
Ball courts
- At the top of Maya society were the kings, or “__” (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession.
- They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture were they practice human sacrifice.
kuhul ajaw
The Maya cut slits in the bark of the rubber tree and collected its sap. They used the dried sap to make __ and __. and also __
- water-resistant shoes; clothing
- balls
The Maya were particularly skilled at dentistry and used __ as tooth fillings.
iron pyrite
noted for its near monomolecular edge whose use, when compared to other materials, can accelerate healing and reduce scarring. It is still in use today by some surgeons performing specialist operations.
obsidian
settled in the Valley of Mexico and what is now Mexico City
Aztec people
The capital city of Aztec empire
Tenochtitlan
Aztec: There are approximately __ people living in the entire empire.
30 million
Aztec was known also as __ and thus some would refer the Aztec empire as __. They were fierce warriors who used military power to build a huge empire and starts to collect taxes from the people they conquered which mounted the wealth of the empire
- Toltec
- Toltec empire
Aztec god: god of war and of the sun
Huitzilopochtli
Aztec god: “Feathered
Serpent”
Quetzalcoatl
__ in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the rain god.
The Great Temple or Templo Mayor
The Aztecs were the first to develop artificial islands that were created by interweaving reeds with stakes beneath the lake’s surface, creating underwater fences. A buildup of soil and aquatic vegetation would be piled into these “fences” until the top layer of soil was visible on the water’s surface.
“floating gardens” or “chinampas”
Aztecs has developed special boats called __ which made transportation through streams and rivers easier. This mode of transportation was thus extensively used throughout the Aztec Empire. They dug many small canals for the transportation of this.
canoes
followed similar principles to other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, including, the use of a grid system in city building and the construction of large temples in the shape of apyramid.
Aztec architecture
The __ are some of the largest of their kind in the Americas. Ancient Teotihuacanos constructed the __ and the __ in the year 100 C.E., centuries before the Aztec had arrived in Teotihuacan. These marvels still stand at an incredible height of around 65 meters (213 feet) and 43 meters (141 feet)
- Teotihuacan pyramids
- Pyramid of the Sun
- Pyramid of the Moon
The __, a very famous calendar, weighs 24 tons and is 13 feet in diameter. It contains information on the days that begin and end months as well as the gods related to the days. The center of the stone contains a god called Tonatiuh. Surrounding it are four squares containing symbols that represent the ages preceding the time of the Aztecs (tiger, water, wind, rain). Lastly, around the squares, there is a ring that possesses 20 segments for the 20 days of the month. Each day has it’s own unique symbol and god.
- Aztec sunstone
The Aztecs language was called __ and it wasn’t written as an alphabet but as a series of glyphs. Each symbol represented only one sound. The language of the Aztecs were eventually developed into an alphabet, yet they used to simply be a series of pictures used in three different ways
Classical Nahuatl
Aztec hieroglyphs: series of pictures used in three different way
- pictograms
- ideograms
- phonograms
Aztec math and number system: Their standard unit of linear measurement was called __, equivalent to 2.5 meters.
land rod
Aztec education
- compulsory universal education
- Aztec education: From age 12 to 15, kids attended a type of school called __, also known as house of song. This was a place where they learned ceremonial songs and the cosmology of their people.
- Most girls ended their education there
however boys went to a type called __ from ages 15 to20.
- cuicalli
- telpochalli
Aztec: __ taught of a variety of subjects as well as trained them for the military as the school offered opportunities for a government position
Calmécac
one of the most desired foods of Mesoamerica and was consumed by the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations, amongst others.
Chocolates
Aztecs Invented a ball game termed as “__”
Tlachtli
Invaders led by the Spanish conquistador __ overthrew the Aztec Empire by force and captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica’s last great native civilization.
Hernán Cortés
flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE, and their empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south, making it the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time
The Inca Civilization
conquered people and exploited landscapes in such diverse settings as plains, mountains, deserts, and tropical jungle.
The Incas
adaptation of natural landscapes with terracing, highways, and mountaintop settlements continues to impress modern visitors at such world famous sites as __
The Incas, Machu Picchu
The Inca government was called the __ . It was a monarchy ruled by a single leader called the __.
- Tawantinsuyu
- Sapa Inca
The emperor or king of the Inca Empire was called the __ ,which means “__”. He was the most powerful person in the land. His principal wife, the queen, was called __
- Sapa Inca
- sole ruler
- thecoya
As there was no currency in the Inca world, taxes were paid in kind - usually foodstuffs, precious metals, textiles, exotic feathers, dyes, and spondylus shell - but also in labourers who could be shifted about the empire to be used where they were most needed, known as __
mit’a service
To keep track of all these statistics, the Inca used the __, a sophisticated assembly of knots and strings which was also highly transportable and could record decimals up to 10,000.
quipu
Inca: used for storing grain and other foodstuffs.
Inca qollqa (storehouses)
built by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui(1438-71 CE). Fortress, sanctuary, and once home to around 1,000 residents, the site is perched in the high Andes above the river Urubamba.
Machu Picchu
- The Inca Empire fell to the Spanish conquistadores under __ in 1533 CE, but it had been in decline already for sometime.
- Rebellions throughout the empire were already ongoing by the time he arrived in the region and the diseases (especially smallpox) brought by __ had already destroyed large swaths of the population (up to 90%).
- Francisco Pizarro
- Europeans
