This chapter discusses several ancient Mesoamerican civilizations including the Toltec, Maya, Aztec, Incas, Iroquois League, Mound Builders, Anasazi, Cuzco, Mochica, and Tenochtitlan. It provides brief overviews of the origins, locations, cultures, and time periods of each civilization.

1. Chapter 7
By Kaitlyn Cronkhite

2. Toltec
 The Toltec culture is an
archaeological Mesoamerican culture
that dominated a state centered in
Tula, Hidalgo in the early post-classic
period of Mesoamerican chronology
(ca 800-1000 CE).

3. Maya
 The Maya is a Mesoamerican
civilization, noted for the only
known fully developed written
language of the pre-Columbian
Americas, as well as for its art,
architecture, and mathematical
and astronomical systems.
Initially established during the
Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC
to 250 AD), according to the
Mesoamerican chronology,
many Maya cities reached their
highest state of development
during the Classic period (c.
250 to 900 AD), and continued
throughout the Post-Classic
period until the arrival of the
Spanish

4. Aztec
 The Aztec people were
certain ethnic groups of
central Mexico
particularly those groups
who spoke the Nahuatl
language and who
dominated large parts of
Mesoamerica in the 14th,
15th and 16th centuries,
a period referred to as
the late post-classic
period in Mesoamerican
chronology.

5. Incas
 The Andean civilization (also sometimes referred to as
Inca) is a loose patchwork of different cultures that
developed from the highlands of Colombia to the
Atacama Desert. The Andean civilization is mainly based
on the cultures of Ancient Peru and some others such as
Tiahuanaco. The Inca Empire was the last sovereign
political entity that emerged from the Andean civilization
before conquest by Spaniards. Tahuantinsuyo was a
patchwork of languages, cultures and peoples. The
components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal,
nor were the local cultures all fully integrated. For
example, the Chimúused money in their commerce, while
the Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on
exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labor. (It is
said that Inca tax collectors would take the head lice of
the lame and old as a symbolic tribute.) The portions of

6. Iroquois
League
 The Iroquois also known as the
Haudenosaunee or the "People of the
Longhouse", are an association of several
tribes of indigenous people of North America.
After the Iroquoian-speaking peoples
coalesced as distinct tribes, based mostly in
present-day central and upstate New York, in
the 16th century or earlier they came together
in an association known today as the Iroquois
League, or the "League of Peace and Power".
The original Iroquois League was often known
as the Five Nations, as it was composed of
the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga Cayuga and
Seneca nations After the Tuscarora nation
joined the League in 1722, the Iroquois
became known as the Six Nations. The
League is embodied in the Grand Council, an
assembly of fifty hereditary sachems.

7. Mound
Builders
 The group of cultures collectively called Mound
Builders were prehistoric inhabitants of North
America who constructed various styles of
earthen mounds for burial, residential and
ceremonial purposes. These included the Pre-
Columbian cultures of the Archaic period;
Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell
cultures); and Mississippian period; dating from
roughly 3000 BCE to the 16th century CE, and
living in regions of the Great Lakes, the Ohio
River valley, and the Mississippi River valley
and its tributaries. As a comparison, beginning
with the construction of Watson Brake about
3500 BCE in present-day Louisiana, indigenous
peoples started building earthwork mounds in

8. Anasazi
 Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were
an ancient Native American culture centered on the
present-day Four Corners area of the United States,
comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest
New Mexico, and southern Colorado. They lived in
"houses" called pueblos, designed so that they could lift up
entry ladders during enemy attacks, which provided
security for the Pueblo peoples. Archaeologists referred to
the cultural group as the Anasazi, although the term is not
preferred by contemporary Pueblo peoples The word
Anasází is Navajo for "Ancient Ones" or "Ancient Enemy".
Archaeologists still debate when this distinct culture
emerged. The current consensus, based on terminology
defined by the Pecos Classification suggests their
emergence around the 12th century BCE, during the
archaeologically designated Basketmaker II Era. Beginning
with the earliest explorations and excavations, researchers
postulated that the Ancient Puebloans are ancestors of the

9. Cuzco
 Is a city in southeastern Peru,
near the Urubamba Valley of
the Andes mountain range. It is
the capital of the Cusco Region
as well as the Cuzco Province.
In 2007, the city had a
population of 358,935 which
was triple the figure of 20 years
ago. Located on the eastern
end of the Knot of Cuzco, its
elevation is around 3,400 m
(11,200 ft).

10. Mochica
 of, pertaining to, or
characteristic of a pre-Inca
culture that flourished on the
northern coast of Peru from
the 3rd century b.c. to the 7th
century a.d. and is especially
noted for fine pottery vessels
with stirrup spouts, some
bearing drawings of all
aspects of cultural life.

11. Tenochitila
n
 the capital of the
Aztec empire:
founded in 1325;
destroyed by the
Spaniards in 1521;
now the site of
Mexico City.