What are the Characteristics of a Civilization?
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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 techniquesSpecialization 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
OlmecsEarliest 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 techniquesSpecialization 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
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 buildingsPeasants
Fed the entire societySlaves
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: BloodlettingA 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 matchObject 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 YucatanPossible 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
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