6. - NOT TERRITORY
- The measure of power as number of
People over which one ruled & work
that could be done:
- Agriculture
- Architecture
7.
8. • Ground Sensing
Radar
• GPS
• Archaeology/ Excavation
• Historical Imagination,
Extrapolation
• Looting = Problem!!
Richard D. Hansen, Idaho State University – Head of Mirador Basin Project in Guatemala
39. Spread:
Trade
Military Conquest
Three City States
1427 Triple Alliance
Tribute
Dependence on
Central Power
For Luxury Goods
1519
High Point
1521 - Cortez
allied with
Tributary states
To Defeat Aztec
Mexica migrated
from North: 1325
Swampy Island in
Lake Texcoco.
Tenochtitlan
41. Central Rule
Governors of Provinces
Persian Model
No Bureaucracy
Professional Army- best of
everything
Heavy Taxation:
Service
Agricultural Goods
Luxury Goods
Tribute Products
Sacrificial Victims
53. Atlatl easier to throw
A spear
No Iron or Bronze
No Wheel
Aqueducts
Latecomers to
Metallurgy
Rubber
Chinampa
Writing on Paper
Calendar
Aztec Roads
Hinweis der Redaktion
Olmec (1500 BCE – 400 BCE) = Seed Society, and Co-existed with the Maya
Organization: City States, under one Great King. Here, Pakal the Great receives Tribute from the city states.
What were the duties of the lowest classes? The next level? How can you tell which is the most elite level? Where were the Scribes? Artisans? Merchants? Weavers/Makers of clothing? Fine clothing was difficult to produce, and hard to come by, so it went to the Elite. Peasants and slaves did not have much in the way of clothing or style. Where are the women?
Difficulty of farming and performing duties of daily life. Slaves were a necessity, especially for royals and nobility. They were also rewards for service: laborers, concubines.
Layers of buildings still being excavated, contribute to the historical record. Problem: don’t want to destroy historical buildings to learn about the people who came before! Earthquake in Mexico City as OPPORTUNITY about 25 years ago- ruined Cathedrals and modern buildings and roads, underneath of which were fantastic Aztec buildings and EARLIER buildings and artifacts!
Corn, Beans, Squash – Ridged Field System. Maize and Cotton very important!
City States, growing in number and splendor and population over time. Began as central Temple structures, and periodic gathering places. Over time, people lived in and right outside these ceremonial and political centers year round.
Careful Directional Orientation – Maya engineers PLANNED THEIR CITIES to line up with Moon, Venus… Solstice, Equinox
Regional Trade! The Merchant class was of rising importance as trade became more widespread and more important.
Decorates the side of a Mayan ceramic cup – King appears to decline another cup of delicious chocolate beverage. Note cocoa-covered tamales in dish in front of him.
Cocoa beans, cotton cloth – dyed for elite. Jade, Obsidian.
Regional capital, and very cosmopolitan and wealthy city of six square miles. Human sacrifice was practiced there, due to Toltec influence.
Wall – Surfaces were not wasted, but were decorated…
603 – 683 CE Pacal of Palenque – Promised to continue to guard his people from the Underworld, and claimed he would return after death. Lovingly interred with a Jade mask, jewelry so that he would be recognized and ready to lead upon his return. Shows himself at the base of the tree of life, and part of the tree.
Standing ruler, clay. Sitting ruler, painted in “maya blue” from classical period. Individuals, not just symbols.
Mural Painters Extraordinaire – Early, colors were earthy, themes ethereal. Notice the bondage of the individual to the right, asking to be set free. The Tall Person is a king or even a god, and the Corn god is whispering into his ear.
Classical period mural – Bonampak – Theme is earthly, glorifying the king and nobility with a parade. In the center, the Celestial Constellations affect the goings-on, and bear witness.
Close-up of Classical Mayan mural at Bonampak – shows the attire, jewelry, symbols of office, and entreaty of captives.
Maya Zodiac rules over the Maya king and his court, richly dressed in Jaguar Skins and with headwear that demonstrates their status and duties at court. On the steps below, captives are presented by Maya and other soldiers – their fate will be agricultural slavery or worse.
Demonstrates the white washing that was done to all edifices during the Maya reign. Each new King white washed and re-decorated major Maya buildings, and some built bigger and grander buildings on top of older, smaller buildings.
Ball court at Chichen Itza – HUGE!
In some locations skeletons and skulls were collected to demonstrate the number of victims, but in Chichen Itza sculpture at the entrance to the ball court was perhaps an advertizement or a score card. Maybe it was a warning?
Base 20 and concept of zero as place holder
Studied Astronomy, trying to find the role of the ever-changing cosmos in the occurrences on earth.
Sacred book of the Maya – includes creation narrative and fact that people were made of maize and water. Polytheistic world. Story of the XAN.
God L (Bolon Yookte' K'uh), was a prince of Xibalbá, as well as a wealthy god of commerce and trade. He is an old god, sometimes with the ear of a jaguar. He’s prosperous, and smokes a cigar. He is the God of War…
Maya believed that the gods created the world and kept it working in an orderly manner. They made man out of corn and water, and man needed to give back on a regular basis to keep the world from ending. Their calendar systems were very complicated, and involved a ritual and a solar year, which co-incided once every 52 years.
Feathered Serpent god who brought visions to rulers and sometimes priests had gone into sunrise- but would someday return when his people needed him most, probably in a 52-year convergence. Cortez arrived with a feathered headress, from the East on a huge ship, riding a horse – they could not tell where the man let off and the horse began. Quetzacoatl!!
All must be kept in its rightful place for the world to continue… through proper ritual & sacrifice, performed by the highest ranking people possible. Mayan Kings and Queens, captured high ranking dignitaries of conquered nations.
Hummingbird beaks and stingray stingers were common implements and symbols for bloodletting.
Vision serpent – looks very much like Quetzalcoatl.
Royal women had different duties than peasant women. Bloodletting, assisting their husbands rule. Most women were mothers, weavers, agricultural workers, took care of their families.
Concubine? Young wife and old man? Notice the tenderness with which the king treats his wife, the queen who is bringing him a ceremonial mask of a Jaguar to wear for a ritual.
We can use Cultural diffusion to discover which cultures were in touch with each other, since merchants share more than just the merchandise they are selling or buying…
Aztec vis-à-vis the Maya
30 miles north of Mexico City today… Tenochtitlan then.
Merchants should be right below Warriors.
CHINAMPA – floating islands of muck and human excrement
Rooted to floor of the lake in the volcanic crater over time – kept them in place.
Professional Merchants engaged in Long Distance Trade.
Pochteca sold their merchandise in open air plazas and on boats.
Calendar based on the Maya who based theirs on the Olmec’s!
Human Sacrifice – pretty gruesome, too. Trying to keep the world from falling apart!! And as climate changed, became warmer, it also became drier there so they escalated their sacrifice to please the gods in hopes they would send rain and help the crops.
The Ball Game!!
Large populations. Estimates range from 5-6 million to 12 million in the empire at its height.
Parallelism in Gender – women with own religious cults and observances, social hierarchies – “Separate but Equal,” right? Sort of. They MAY HAVE practiced this gender model.
