ARKY 345 - Midterm 1

According to Kirchoff (1943) what are the characteristics of mesoamerica

• economic traits:

  • maize, beans and squash

  • obsidian tools

  • plaster in architecture

  • market exchange

• political charatersitics

  • large monumental centres

  • the mesoamerican ball game

• religious practices:

  • shared pantheon of Gods

  • Ritual importance of Blood sacrifice

  • the number 13

  • common ritual calendar

  • ritual importance of cyclical astronomic events

what is Carmack’s definition of mesoamerica?

• a particular historical tradition of indigenous cultures, or ‘civilizations’

• constantly undergoing change

• a complex mixture of regional and local cultures

• a cohesive legacy of cultural tradition

• never politically or linguistically unified

was mesoamerica ever politically unified?

No

even the aztec empire, the Tarascan empire, and the Mayapan confederacy never controlled the whole region

what were the 3 largest political entities prior to european contact?

1. Aztec Empire

2. Tarascan Empire

3. Mayapan confederacy

During the colonial period, the region was partially unified under “_____ _____”

New Spain

what were the vice-royalties that “New Spain” was sub-divided into?

• New Spain

• Soconusco

• Guatemala

• Yucatan

When was the modern country of mexico mostly formed?

at the end of the mexican war of independence in 1821

what are the mesoamerican environments?

• lowlands

• highlands

• coldlands

characteristics of the lowlands

• hot, humid

• tropical rain forest

• 0-1000 masl

• (tierra caliente)

characteristic of the highlands

• temperate, arid

• 1000-2000 masl

• (tierra templada)

characteristics of the coldlands

• cold

• > 2000masl

• (Tierra Fria)

what region could grow more food?

the lowlands → often supplied food to the highlands

what does climate affect?

the length of the growing season and the types of crops that you can grow

what region had specialized mineral resources, pine, oak timber, and maguey (agave) plants?

the highlands

why was volcanic ash good for pottery?

it was a good temper → ensured they wouldn’t explode when heated

where could you find salt and marine shell?

coastal areas and natural springs

what are the “three sisters”

corn, beans, squash

what is milpa farming?

multicropping

where was terrace farming done?

the highlands

where was raised-field agriculture performed?

coastal lowlands/rivers

what other crops did the highlands have?

maguey, amaranth, nopal cactus

what other crops did the lowlands have?

fruit trees, ramon (breadnut)

why is cacao only grown in select areas?

has particular growing needs → has to be grown in really hot and humid climates

where is the only source of Jade?

matagua river valley in guatemala

does mesomaerica have a lot of copper?

not really

according to Sanders and Price how are the highlands and lowlands described?

the highlands = the good place (more advanced)

the lowlands = the bad place

characteristics of the Northern Highlands

• Central Mexico, including the Basin of Mexico, highland Oaxaca and Guerrero

• Lies between the Sierra Madre Occidental (W) and Oriental (E)

• volcanoes, highland plateaus, lakes and basins

• supported many large cities form the Classic period onward

• arid highland climate

• terrace farming

• highland fauna

  • deer, dogs, turkeys, rabbits, pumas , lake resources

characteristics of Northern Mexico Dry Lands

• northern mexico between the sierra madre and occidental (W) and Oriental (E)

• high desert basins with daytime-nighttime temperature swings

• important transportation corridor between Mesoamerica and Puebloan peoples

characteristics of Gulf Coast Lowlands

• hot, humid, tropical grasslands, tropical forests, lots of rivers

• lagoons and tidal swamps

• hardwood, palm, rubber, fruit trees

• cacao and vanilla → sometimes used as currency

• tropic forest and coastal fauna

  • monkeys, slothes, coatis, tapir, peccaries, brocket deer, tropical birds, waterfowl, fish

• important coastal trade route

characteristics of Pacific Coast Lowlands

• hot, humid, tropical plains, mangrove forests, river valleys

• defined to the west/north by the Sierra Madre Occidental

• distinct rainy-season and dry-season climate

• huge cacao production from ancient to modern times

• important coastal trade and migration route

• tropical forest and coastal fauna, similar to Gulf Coast

what is the pacific coastal chiapas known as?

Soconusco

characteristics of Southern Highlands

• volcanoes, highland plateaus

• intermontaine plateaus and basins are small compared to central mexico

• highland climate

  • rainy season - dry season

• terrace farming

• highland fauna & tropical fauna at mid-range elevations

  • tapir

  • jaguar

  • quetzal → feathers were used for headdresses

characteristics of Southern Maya Lowlands

• hot, humid, tropical forest, bajos, river valleys

• home to Maya political capitals during the Classic period

• distinct rainy-season dry-season

• tropical forest fauna

• high plant diversity

• fragile soils

what are bajos?

seasonal swamps that flood during the rainy season (may-nov)

• bread basket areas for water-intensive crops due to rich soils

• concentrations of rural settlement

characteristics of Northern Mayan Lowlands

• hot, semi-arid, tropical dry forest

• mangrove swamps, coastal beaches, and salt flats along the coast

• home to Maya political capitals during the Postclassic period

• distinct rainy and dry season climate

• cenotes and karst topography

• tropical dry forest fauna

• thin soils

• deer, dogs, iguanas, stingless bees

Bishop Diego de Landa

• a bitch

• burned 27 codices

• literally got in trouble from the gov’t of spain

Bishop Bartolome de las Casas

• exposed a lot of the injustices that were happening in the early colonial period

• Historia de Las Indias

Alfred Maudslay

• british diplomat & archaeologist

• translated some shit

• conducted excavations, mapping and photography at major Maya sites

• plaster casts of stela and monument=

• drawings of inscriptions

who began collecting aztec sculptures by the late 18th century?

wealthy mexican nobles

when was the first of cabinet of curiosities established in mexico

1790 by Jose Longinos Martinez

When was the National Mexican Museum

1825, by the first president of indepenedant mexico

what is culture history?

the description and chronological and spatial ordering of archaeological data

Leopoldo Batres

• mexican noble and former army officer

• worked as an archaeologist for a museum

• conducted excavations at Teotihuacan

• also worked at Monte Alban, Mitla, La Quemada, Xochicalco, Isla de Sacrificios

what were some of the bad things that Leopoldo Batres did?

• used dynamite to speed up excavation

• removed and sol sheet mica from the temple facade

• reconstruction distorted the shape and size of the pyramid

Alfonso Caso

• rejected diffusionist arguments for the development of mesoamerican civilization - emphasized continuity and internal evolution

• discovered tomb 7 at Monte Alban

• First director of INAH

Frans Blom

• Worked in Chipas for the rubber industry

• founded the middle american research institute at tulane university

• first map of mesoamerica

what is the direct historical approach?

working backwards in time from historically known indigenous peoples into prehistoric times

characteristics of the Paleoindian period

• 30,000 - 7000 BC

• earliest current archaeological evidence of human migration to the americas

• big game hunting

• clovis, folsom, casacade and other big projectile points

• mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher groups

what is the clovis-first hypothesis?

• argued that the americas were populated by a single group of people from siberia

• came through the ice-free corridor and down t/o the americas

what is the coastal hypothesis

• some sites are older than the ice free corridor

  • people came down the pacific coast on boats instead

Monte Verde

• south chile

• earliest deposits date to 33,000 BP → contains charred animal bones, lithic artifacts and possible hearths

• upper level has more extensive artifacts and features and dates to 14,800 - 13,800 BP

• human footprints

characteristics of the Archaic Period

• 7000-2000 BC

• mobile foraging to sedentism

• plant domestication

• agriculture

• shell mounds and dry cave sites

• diversification of stone tool kits

• trapping of small game rather then hunting big game

• first pottery in Tehuacan (central mexico) at 2300 BC

where has the earliest dated maize cob?

Guila Naquitz Cave - 4300 BC

domesticated crops from mesoamerica (9)

• maize

• beans

• squash

• manioc (yuca)

• amaranth

• cacao

• avocados

• chile pepeprs

when did fully sedentary groups appear in the Basin of Mexico?

6000 BC

Characteristics of the early formative period

• 1500 BC - 900 AD

• agriculture

• pottery becomes widespread

• social rank emerges (chiefdoms)

• population growth

• specialized craft production

• long-distance exchange

• monumental sculpture and architecture

• ball courts emerge

Paso de la Amada (site)

• soconosco region

• early formative village (2000-1000BC)

• has the earliest pottery in mesoamerica

• public architecture

what years did the olmec civilization range from|?

~1325-300BC

what were the 3 main centers of the Olmec civilization?

• Early formative (1250BC): San Lorenzo

• Middle formative (900BC): La Venta

• Late formative (400BC): Tres Zapotes

characteristics of the Olmecs

• early monumental architecture and the first cities in mesoamerica

• the “olmec art style”

• social classes of elites and commoners

• earliest known writing and calendrical system in mesoamerica

• portrait of rulers

• longdistance trade and prestige items

• formal religion → deities w/ specific traits

• 3-level universe

why do the Olmecs like caves so much?

clouds are formed in caves by ancestors → caves = rain = maize

what kind of rock are the olmec colossal heads made of?

basalt

what are the olmec colossal heads

portraits of early rulers (kings?) as ballplayers w/ helmets

what was the likely reason that many of the olmec colossal heads were damaged and buried

done on purpose when the ruler died

Laguna Manatee

• olmec bog

• offerings as early as 1700 BC

• solid rubber balls found

• organize materials preserved really well

what do ear spools mean?

the larger the earspools, the closer to god, so someone w/ big earspools is likely high status

why are ducks considered holy?

a duck can traverse all 3 realms → duck is associated w/ religious shamans

epi-olmec characteristics

• known from a relatively small number of carved stelae and stone staties

• grammatical structure and vocabulary suggests that it is an ancestral form of Mixe-zoquean

K’axob, Belize

• Ca. 900 BC (similar time to La venta)

• Maya farming Village in a tropical swamp

• intensified raised field agriculture

• ancestor burial under a house floor w/ 2,019 shell beads and ornaments

how do we know there’s an emergence of divine kingship in the late formative?

• elevated importance of ritual behaviour

• monumental sculptures

how were a lot of early deities represented?

as birds

San Bartolo Murals

• late formative period maya murals → fusion of olmec and maya art styles

• northern guatemala

• human figures contain elements of olmec imagery undeciphered hieroglyphs

  • also contain scenes from the Maya creation story

what is the Maya creation story called?

Popol Vuh

Traits of El Mirador

• northern guatemala

• reached the height of its power from 300-100BC

• several thousand structures

• monumental stucco masks

• intensive terrace agriculture

Where is La Danta Temple located?

El Miradorh

How tall is La Danta Temple

72m → really tall

what was something that was done to the soil to elevate its pH (El Mirador)

added lime

what are the major language familiues of mesoamerica?

• nahua

• tarascan

• totonacan

• cuitlatecan

• jokan

• huave

• mixe-zoquean

• oto-manguean

• mayan

what are extinct languages called?

proto-languages

ex. proto-mayan

which languages have a glottal stop?

• Mayan

• Mixe-Zoquean

• Oto-Manguean

what language has unique vowel sounds for o and u?

Oto-Manguean

what is something that many Oto-Manguean languages in Oaxaca have?

whistled speech

is there a differentiation between K and Q sounds?

yes, K is from the front of the mouth, Q is from the back of the mouth

typically how are verbs conjugated?

to indicate the person and number of the subject → like french and spanish

in many oto-manguean languages, third-person pronouns are differentiated according to ___ ______ __________

six social categories

almost all mesoamerican sentences are written in ______ _______ to English, French, Spanish

reverse order

mesoamerican sentences start with the _______

verb

VOS, VSO

what is the one language that does not start with a verb?

Tarascan → SOV

plus epi-olmec and some conservative zoquean languages

how do we have informnation about the ancient forms of epi-olmec?

hieroglyphs

what is the ancestral form of all Zoquean languages?

pre-proto-zoquean

how are epi-olmec texts written?

in pre-proto-zoquean

where have we found epi-olmec written?

on a limited amount of monuments and texts

what 2 mayan languages are texts written in?

Yucatecan (north) & Ch'olan (south)

when writing mayan number they use a ___ ____ system

base 20

do mayans have 0

yes

how many days and months in the Tzol’kin?

260 days

20 months w/ 13 days

how many days and months in the Haab?

365 days

18 months w/ 20 days + a 5 day Wayeb month

what is the Wayeb month

the 5 additional days that dont fit into the months of the Haab → considered unlucky

how long is the cycle of the Tzol’kin and the Haab?

52 years

260×365= 52 years

when did the long count start?

13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ahau 8 Cumku

August 13, 3114 BC