Political organization-The incas has a highly organized political administrative system, which later served as a model for other South American societies.

Social Structure: Pyramid with 5 or 6 tiers, governing class (rulers/nobles) at the top, artisans and merchants in the middle, slaves and serfs at the bottom.

Architecture: Mayan pyramids were elaborate stepped temples that were used as places of worship to serve their gods and to conduct ceremonial practices.

Music: The Mayans played instruments such as the flute, trumpets, whistles, and drums. Their music was often accompanied by funerals, celebrations, and rituals.

Types of Cities: Lived in both rural communities and large ceremonial centers

Conflict: The Mayans had no standing armies, but warfare played a big role in Mayan culture

Alliances: City-states formed alliances with each other, typically by becoming trade partners

Fall: mid-1100 CE

• Herbal Medicine

• Calendar System

• Nahuatl language

• Pulque or octli - Mexican drink made from fermented sap of the maguey plant

Agriculture:

• Irrigation

• Hill terracing

Philosophy:

• The Toltec viewed the universe as a complex energy system

• Everything is made of energy; all energy has consciousness

• Architecture

• Sculptures

• Metalworks

• Murals

• Ceramics

Common depictions:

• Gods/Deities

• Warriors

• Priests

Well known feats:

• Pyramids at Tula

• Painted sculptures holding up roofs in pyramids and palaces

The Aztecs were impressed by the Toltec pottery, which often portrayed faces.

• Empire in Mexico

  • Made by military conquest

  • Made by vast commercial networks

• Wealthy civilization

Aftermath:

• Following Toltec decline

  • Period of unrest in the Late Postclassic Period lasted until 1428

  • Aztec defeated the rival city of Azcapotzalco and became the dominant force in central Mexico.

  • This native Mesoamerican empire would fall to the Spaniards, led by Hernán Cortés, in 1521.

c. 500 BCE San Jose Mogote is the first Zapotec capital

c. 450 BCE: Capital moves to Monte Alban

150 BCE to 150 CE: Monte Alban is improved (Monte Alban II)

c. 900 CE: Zapotecs abandon Monte Alban without any violence and the Zapotec civilization collapses.

Another achievement of this civilization was their calendar system, which shared a slight similarity to ours. They had two calendar systems; a sacred system of 260 days and then a civil calendar with 365 days a year and 18 months of 20 days.

Zapotec architecture was similar to that of the other civilizations near it, such as the Mayans, Toltecs, and Aztecs, with few distinctions. There were many evident structural differences, and in one of their palaces you can find a unique wall with geometric patterns built into it.

Height ~1200 - 900 BCE

Fall: ~400 BCE

• Fishing

• Hunting

• Later on, other crops including corn were cultivated

Beliefs

• Polytheism

  • Centered around eight gods

  • Gods took on human forms of reptile or bird characteristcs

• Their ideas showed up later in mesoamerican cultures

• Religous practices of sacrfices, offerings, and cave rituals

• Concept of zero

• System of bars and dots to represent numerical values

Writing

• Hieroglyphics system

• Mesoamerica's first written language

Inventions

• Calendar system

Trade

• Exchange of exotic materials like greenstone & shells

• Demand for obsidian, used for tools

• Large stone heads, believed to be portraits of Olmec rulers

• Earthen mounds

• Pyramids

Art:

• Ceramics

  • Pots, vases, etc.

  • Figures/figurines, sometimes known as were-jaguars

Entertainment:

• Game played with rubber ball

  • Stone ball courts

• Religious pyramids / Temples

• Rubber ball games

• Ceremonial dress for rulers

Legacy

• "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Aztec; they were known for their practice of extracting latex and producing rubber

Artistic

• Best known for carving 20 ton stone heads

Intellectual

• Developed the concept of "zero" (math)

Economic

• Expansion in interregional trade routes

• Traded rubber throughout Mesoamerica