Mesoamerica Civilizations by Tristan Zavala

Methods

tristanzavala968 — 2024-01-31 19:53:50 UTC

As the Mayan cities grew, more materials and supplies were needed to thrive. The Mayan had to come up with methods to be able to continue thriving. Some of these methods included, farming on the side of the hills, burning trees/plants to clear out space for land, moving areas with good soil to areas with bad soil so that their crops are best as can be, and digging water systems(irrigation). The Mayan used all of these methods to improve their ways of doing things that they already do.

Overview

tristanzavala968 — 2024-01-31 19:57:38 UTC

Mesoamerican land was composed of the modern day countries like northern Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and central to southern Mexico. It's shocking just how much land Mesoamerica covered and how large this civilization was. This area was populated by different tribes. The main tribes of Mesoamerica were the Olmec, Aztec, Maya, and Toltec. All of these tribes prospered in their own ways that were unique from tribe to tribe. They all accomplished great things considering the time period.

Achievements

tristanzavala968 — 2024-02-02 20:25:50 UTC

The Mayans were extremely advanced, especially for their time. It is amazing what they did given the time period. They created their own writing system of Hieroglyphs. These Hieroglyphs were carved into the stone columns in their civilization. They were also, very surprisingly, into astronomy. They knew exact moon phases somehow and could even predict sun and moon eclipses.

Cities/Temples

tristanzavala968 — 2024-02-02 20:26:18 UTC

\Mayan cities were built around religious centers. This leads me to believe that the Mayan were heavily religious and valued their religion. The Mayas built flat top pyramids made of limestone. On top of these pyramids, were temples where they also held religious activities. They must have valued their religion if they had pyramids with temples on them. This is where Mayan Priest/Kings held their religious rituals. I think maybe only the higher ups were able to practice religious activities in these temples.

Government

tristanzavala968 — 2024-02-05 20:26:34 UTC

The Toltec government to their civilization. The Toltec placed supreme emphasis on war. This leads me to believe that the Toltec were a very aggressive civilization and wanted to overpower other civilizations. The elite Toltecs were warriors that fought for their civilization. Government was a major system that was needed for the Toltecs to function.

Agriculture

2024-02-06 08:00:22 UTC

The Olemc came up with the slash n burn method. This method involved clearing the jungle by slashing it down with axes and then burning the remains. They also used a flooding method to grow crops. Then the Summer floods bring in new soil. Their main crops were corn, beans, and squash.

Religion

2024-02-06 08:42:15 UTC

Artifacts have been discovered that provide hints to just what the Olmecs religion was. They were believed to practice polytheis. They had gods of special powers. Such as a sun god, fire god, and rain god, just to name a few. The Olmecs has special altars so that they could sacrifice people to the gods.

Town of La Venta

2024-02-06 08:56:02 UTC

This town was located on a large island that was surrounded by swamps and rivers. It is near what is now known as southern Mexico. In the plaza, there were 4 enormous heads. The heaviest of the 4 weighed about 40 tons. All of these heads wore football like helmets which is kind of odd.

Architecture

tristanzavala968 — 2024-02-06 20:40:14 UTC

The Toltec's evidence of architecture is limited today because the capital city of Tula was burned and destroyed. It is somewhat unknown of what caused the downfall but their are ideas. I believe that it could have been because of war. The Toltecs were heavily involved in war and I think they got into a war with a civilization that overpowered them. The evidence that was left was signs of pyramids, temples and ball courts. Something that was taken away from the Toltec's architecture was that it seems to have influenced architecture in Chichen Itza.

Art

tristanzavala968 — 2024-02-06 20:46:06 UTC

The Toltec's art was a very different style then before. They ventured out into different forms of art. Unlike the predominantly religious focused are that other civilizations were doing, they wanted to create different art. They wanted their art to focus on war and death. This makes sense because like I have said before, the Toltec were a very aggressive/violet civilization so it makes sense that they chose their art style to be so harsh. The Toltec were also very involved with pottery and metalwork.