2. 1. Peten
Means flat region
Located in Guatemala
Dense forest nearly blocked out the sun
r sinkholes
Areas where the earth has collapsed
It connected the Mayas with a huge system of
underground rivers and streams
Gave the Mayas a year-round supply of water
3. p Mayan city-states
They had built cities and organized culture and
government
They had cooperation among the people
They set up city-states
Rulers supplied leadership and military force
City-states often fought with each other
4. 1. Mayan city-state rulers
Leadership passed from one king to the next
Said they were decendents from the sun
They taught their subjects how to please he gods
r human sacrifice
They gave their captives to9 the gods as sacrafices
5. ¨ Chac and Mayan
The god of rain
S alliances
Political agreement between people or states to
work together
e Mayan astronomy
The priests believed that the gods revealed their
plans through the movement of the sun, moon
and stars, so they studied the heavens closely
6. Ð Mayan math
Invented a counting system based on 20
i Mayan written language: hieroglyphics
Used to record numbers and dates
Symbols represented sounds, words, or ideas
t Quetzalcoatl
Sun god ( a feathered serpent)
He promised that they would find their
promised land
7. 1. Aztec myth about their homeland
They would know they had found this place when
an eagle” screams and spreads its wings, and
eats……. The serpent
e Tenochtitlan –
Means “place of the prickly pear cactus”
The Aztecs new city
8. 1 5.Aztec kings
Claimed descendent from the gods
Council warriors , priests
16. Aztec Commoners
Formed the largest group
o Worked as farmers, warriors, artisans, traders
17. Aztec after life
• They saw death as honorable if you died in battle,
captives who gave their lives as sacrifices to the
gods, women who died during childbirth
9. 18. Huitzilopochtli and the Great Temple
He spoke through the priests and vowed We shall conquer
all the people in the universe
Temple rose 135 feet
Had more than 100 steps
1000’s of victims were taken to the top, where they were
sacrificed to the gods
19. Pachacamac
Inca god that was blamed for creating earthquakes “Lord
of the Quakes”
When he lost his temper the Earth would Quake
