ARC Mesoamerican

Who were the Olmecs

• Earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization

• 3800 to 2600 years ago

  • Well into the Bronze Age

  • Situated in in lowlands

• Mother cultures of mesoamerica

  • Some of these characteristics continue across mesoamerican indigenous cultures

• Didn’t practice human sacrifice unlike later sites

• Peak of settlement hierarchy

  • Arranged around river systemsCharacteristics of Olmec Civilizations

Characteristics of Olmec Civilizations

• Settlements hierarchy organized around regal ritual centers or cities

  • Palaces, royal tombs, administration buildings, temples, writing systems, and art

• Elite Maintain their authority through control of ritual and trade and control of agricultural surplus

  • Elites often living in one area of these centers

• Had writing systems

  • Track commerece

• Big heads found at important centers (La Venta, San Lorenzo)San Lorenzo - Olmeco

San Lorenzo - Olmec

• Olmec  Site

• Near good Farmland

• First and ritual and  political center in mesoamerica

  • Earliest Olmec regal ritual center

  • 7-8k population

• Colossal heads depictions of rulers

• Different sectors for elites and commones

• Elites organize labour

• Elites in Acropolis includes palace, admin, temples

  • Stone sculpture workshops

  • Obsidian blade productions

  • Dye is used to paint walls (ochre)

• Other monumental building

  • Massive causeways and embankments

La Venta: (Olmec)

• Template for Mesoamerican cities

• Near coast and River

• Access to SALT and FISH

• Largely a center for elites not much indication of commoners

  • Displays enormous amount of variability

• Gains political control after San Lorenzo seems to wane

• Civic and ceremonial center for a large area

• Pyramid in front of a massive plaza

• Sacred precinct

  • Organization adopted by later Mesoamerican societies

Teothihuacan

• Ca 1.8-2 KYA

  • 80K ppl at height

  • One of 10 largest cities in the world

• Powerful ritual political center

• Unlike what we see with the Olmec, the artwork that we see is about other things

  • Does Not emphasize individuals

• Elite control of religion, obsidian manufacture and trade, warfare

  • Important for elites to maintain their power

• Notable shift to highland region of Mexico/Mexico Basin

• Power base in religion, warfare, and control of trade

• Central precinct surrounded by many well-planned neighbourhoods

• Sacred Precinct

  • Large pyramids

  • Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon

  • Smaller sanctuaries

• Elites orchestrating the building and maintaining of these structure

  • Abandoned by 550 AD

Classic Mayan (peak Mayan)

• Densely populated urban centers

• Pyramids made with stones

• Central precinct used for Religion, palaces, administration

• Ruled by semi-divine king

  • Documented through hieroglyphs

    • Record dates, bombast (achievements)

  • Calendars

    • 4 calendars

    • Government sacred and secular lives of Mayans

      • Based around movements of the planet Venus

        • Went back to Day 1 (how long the planet had existed)

Caral

• Southern Coast

• Residential settlement

  • Ceremonial precinct

• Wide range of domesticated plants

  • Cotton Preceramic

    • Farming and living in sizeable communities with farming but do not make pottery

      • Shows Pottery is not necessarily the part of origins of

Nazca and Moche

• Nazca and Moche

  • Formed 2-1 KYA in the ANdes

  • Moche on the north coast

  • Nazca on the south coast

  • Both are names of rivers

    • Ranked lineage competing for power

Nazca Lines

• Patterns/glyphs that depict humans/animals

• Kilometers long

• Created by removing rocks from the surface of the desert and control between the surface rocks and rocks underneath makes this pattern

• Oriented away from city centers

  • Use drones and ai for more nazca lines

Nazca Settlements

• Large, constructed around pyramid complexes

• Residential and 40 mounds/enclosures

• Cahuachi

  • Large pyramid and associated plaza area

  • Excavations indicate ceremonies

  • Some degree of social inequality

Moche

• Religious and political center

• Massive pyramids

  • Huaca del Sol

  • Huaca de la Luna

    • Standardizations of bricks, coordinated labour

    • 100 different brick making area

• Important religious and political center

• Depictions of warfare and captive-taking

  • Doesn’t really have administrative buildings

Moche Warfare

• Not only on the buildings but also on the pottery and other stuff made with clay

• Warriors depicted or images of warfare depicted

  • Social hierarchy is important

Cuzco

• Geographical, political and cosmological center of empire

• Urban zone of palaces, state buildings and temples

  • Semi-divine kingship

• Elites lived within the walls

  • Massive state-run storehouse

  • Commoners and lesser nobles lived in the suburbs

How was status gained in Inca

• Each new sovereign had to acquire own wealth, including palace

  • Expansion of empire

  • Palace= mausoleum at death

    • Panaqa (lineage)

    • Managed properties of decreased kings

      • Managed mummified body of the king

How did the Inca manage its empire?

• Owned natural resources and storehouses

• Taxes (agriculture surplur and labour)

  • Farmers work temple and state lands

• Laws

  • Resettlement programs

What are some characteristics of Newark Earthwork in relation to agriculture?

• 100 BCE to 400 CE

• Smaller settlements Built by people were farming EAC

• A lot of hunting-gathering

• Settlement patterns is that they lived in dispersed homestead

• Degree of mobility still

Adena-Hopewell (3-1.5 KYA)

• Native american societies sharing burial complexes and ceremonial systems

• A religious movement that many different groups of people participated in

What are characteristics of Ancestral Wendat Farming villages and towns?

• Large palisaded settlements (hundreds to 1-2k people)

• Increasing in size through time

  • Moved every 20-40 years

  • Longhouses: Matrilines

• Maize-beans squash agriculture

  • 70% of diet-maize

What are some characteristics of Cahokia?

• Thatched roof houses

• Material culture

• Algonquian Urban center

• Confluence of Missisipi and Missouri rivers

  • Missisipian archaeological cultures

    • Maize beans squash farmers which helped them propel them to their peak

    • Many mounds

      • Plazas, poles

    • Shared cosmology, material culture

    • Regional variation

  • Organized neighbourhood
    

• Population 5000-10k people

  • Riveled that of London at the time