Looks like no one added any tags here yet for you.
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