highland mesoamerica

tlatilco

• 1250-800 bce

  • Early and middle pre classic

• valley of mexico

• Found 340 burials that included pots, figurines, ornaments

  • Indicated that they also played the ball game

  • Had olmec overtones but also their own cultural styles

  • Most figurines were women

• Settlement patterns more complex

• Specialized occupation related to craft

• Evidence of elites

• Chiefdom development through large farming villages near the inland lake in the centre of the basin of Mexico

  • This lake is now under Mexico City

monte alban danzantes

• Temple built in preclassic. Between 900 to 300 BCE

• First public building

• Had 150 nude men figures that appeared to be dead because mouths are turned downward

  • Probably elite war captives that were sacrificed

    • Because wearing ears pools and elite hairstyles

  • Scrolls are coming from the loins do to bloodletting from penises

  • Propagandist

    • Encouraged warfare and conquest

valley of mexico

• Large basin surrounded by high mountains and volcanoes

  • Basin has five lakes surrounded by flat agricultural land

  • Drained by Spanish conquistadors 400 years ago

• No external drainage

• Extremely dry

• North East side Of lake system = Teotihuacan

• 500 to 200 BCE

  • Settlements, irrigation, sites with large stone structures

• Dominates the valley after cuicuilco is destroyed by a volcanic eruption

teotihuacan

• 200 BCE to 750 AD

• Later on asks named it " where the gods are made" because of how magnificent it is

  • Later rulers performed rituals here on a regular basis

• Ruled by a king but do not know the names or the dynasty

• this place is due to people being together after being impacted by a natural disaster

• A military is depicted in the art and showed that they conquered other territory but respected them

  • Insured A multicultural and religious site

• Traded with the monte alban

pyramid of the sun

• 64 meters high

• Plastered in lime

• Painted red

• Largest pyramid of Teotihuacan

• Constructed on top of an earlier temple or shrine

  • A 4 chambered lava tube cave

  • Believed to be where ancestors emerged and the caves are where the sun and moon emerged

    • Maybe an entrance into the underworld

• Caves are a source of stone for other buildings

• the final stages were destroyed over time and there must have been a temple on top too so would have been even bigger

toltecs

• 900 to 1200

• After the decline of teotihuacan

• Who the Aztecs claimed to be descendants of

  • They said they were the founders of militaristic civilization

  • Astronomers

  • Cotton was grown with colour and was not died

• The above things should have been credited to teotihuacan

tula

• Where the toltecs set up their capital

• Claimed to be Artisans

  • No evidence for it though

• Dominated from 950 to 1200

• Traded with the Pacific Coast, northern and western Mexico

• Peak population was between 40,000 and 60,000 people

  • Mostly in the southern part of the valley

• Militaristic

• Urban city

• Less evidence because this is the part that is buried under Mexico City

  • Evidence mostly comes from oral history, written codices, archaeology, early Spanish records

• Decline

  • After 1200 burned and looted along with other city states

  • Resulted in a power vacuum in the value of Mexico

aztecs

• 1200 to 1519

• Refer to themselves as Mexica or Azteca

  • Aztec was the word used by the enemies

• A poor group from the north called the chichimecs aka dog people

  • From Aztlan (probably mythical)

  • Despised by others and chase from 1 area to another 'cause they were viewed to be Barbarians

  • As a result forced to live in swamps near lakes and had to eat flies, snakes, vermin

• Come to the valley of Mexico under the guidance of the tribal Hummingbird then later sun God and war God

triple alliance

• 1428

• Between tenochtitlan, texcoco, tlacopan

• Together they increase their power over other groups in the valley

• Created floating gardens

  • Dike constructed across a lake to improve the flow of salt water to the east

• Population increases dramatically

  • 800,000 to 1.25 million people

  • Due to agriculture and tribute

• Conducted flowery wars to obtain victims of war for sacrifice

tribute payments

• Vassal States and provinces paid in the form of cloth

  • Maguey fiber and cotton to use for costumes for warriors and Shields

• Other tributes

  • Feathers

  • Rubber balls

  • Wooden beams

  • Incense

  • Chili

  • Honey

  • Salt

  • Cacao beans

  • Fine craft items

    • Obsidian, ceramics, Labrets, ear spools

• Taxes put on crops and market transactions

  • Reasonable unless groups refused to pay

    • Risk of getting conquered

human sacrifices

• Purpose of warfare was to take victims to sacrifice to the sun

• Flowers are metaphors for blood

• Created fear in neighbors

• The great temple in tenochtitlan in 1487 sacrificed 20,000 people

  • Evidence comes from written records and skull racks

tenochtitlan

• Prophesized by huitzilopochtli to build temples in the place where an eagle sits on a cactus with a snake in its beak

  • This image is part of the Mexican flag

  • Order to nourish the sun through human sacrifice

    • Their mission

• 3 causeways connected to the mainland

• Six major canals along with smaller ones

• 20,000 canoe taxis

• At the time of the Spanish conquest it was as large as contemporary London

  • The largest new world city of the time

  • 150,000 to 200,000 people divided into 60 to 70 wards

• Had sewage

pochteca

• Carried goods by foot using a temp line

• Their own class

  • Have their own guilds, laws of conduct and courts

• Because wheeled vehicles are pack animals were not a thing

  • Wheels existed but they were only used for toys

• Acted as spies in foreign lands

• If one of them is attacked on the road it could justify warfare

aztec beliefs

• The present living world is just one creation or sun

  • This world began in 1011

  • The 5th world/sun

• Need to feed the sun with human sacrifice/ preferably hearts

  • An honorable death

  • allowed you to enter afterlife AKA paradise

    • also killed in war, or women who died in birth