Mesoamerica

-Guilá Naquitz Cave, Oaxaca, Mexico

-development of ceramic figurines: acrobats, twin motifs

-committed to agriculture

~Paso de la Amada

-developed c. 1500 BC, persisted for 3000 yrs.
--blades, mirrors

~Olmec "mother culture"?
~shared ritual practices
----bloodletting, the Ballgame
~long-distance trade of precious objects
----greenstone axes
~widespread symbolic motifs
---were-jaguar, cleft-head (corn head?)

-Highly significant part of diet by 1 K BC

~H&G societies
----pronghorn,mesquite,acorns,rabbits
~Transition to farming
----triad (maize,beans,squash)domesticated

-Tribal agricultural villages
-ends w/ chiefdoms and states
-development of social inequality

-state-level societies
-Maya city-states and Tenotihuacan

-collapse of Maya political entity
-rise of Aztec Empire
-ends with Spanish Conquest (1521 AD)

~A ritual offering site near springs; NO RESIDENCY
--infant,child burial or sacrifice
~colossal head; faces are distinctive portraits
--mutilated and purposefully buried (respect or scorn?)

~1st capital; top of settlement hierarchy with subordinate settlements surrounding
~pop ~14,000
~stone drain system
~language probably Mixa Zuatain(*?)
~Associative works by leader orginization: stones from 60 km away,paths,bridges,docks,etc.

-oldest writing (undeciphered)

~Monument A; giant head discovered 1862 by Jose Malgar
--purposely buried by Olmecs
--originate in Tuxtla mountains
~not entirely abandoned by 400 BC

~Pop.: ~125,000
~Architectural style: Talud(slope)/Tabelero(flat, painted slab)
~one of the first big cities

~Urban population grows from 80K-90K
~80-90% of Basin depopulated
-Coincides with eruption of Popocateptl, 1st c.?

~No glorified rulers b/c no stone portraits, or ruler burials (unlike Olmecs and Maya)
~Powerful leaders existed b/c military might, monuments, trade
~Religion central to government and society

~Central Ave. with pyramids alongside
~canalized rivers
~+2300 apartments,60-100 people in each
----dead buried in apartments
----thick concrete walls
~ethnic and class differentiation
~religious and social factions

~Moon Pyramid(oldest): Burial 1: 10 male sacrifices had bound hands and feet, beheaded. No deposit pattern. Burial 2: man, 2 puma, eagle, owl, snakes, etc. buried alive(?)
~Sun Pyramid (middle, largest)
~Feathered Serpent Pyramid (youngest, smallest): ~200 individuals grouped by sex, bound, highly decorated

-Found on Stela 31 at Tikal

Allies: Texcoco and Tlacopan
----formed Triple Alliance with Tenochitlan
Unconquerable: Tarascans and Tlaxcala

The Mexica tribe (originating from the Aztlan area) migrated into the Basin and settled in Tenotchitlan in the 1300s.

Aztec Empire defeated by Hernan Cortez.
~La Malinche:"Mother of Mexican History". Served as translator, Cortez's mistress.
----negotiates treaty with the Tlaxcaltecans (not honored)
~Smallpox beats Spaniards to Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan renamed; Mexico City built over it
~Almost all Nahuas converted to Catholicism within a few decades

12 books compiled in Nahuatl by Spanish friar Bernadino de Sahagun.
-lists social roles, morals, conquests, history, religion of local Aztecs