MESOAMERICA
Maya temple at Chichen Itza
HISTORY: The Mesoamerican civilization is divided into several periods; the history of pre-hispanic Mesoamerica; the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE – 250 CE), the Classic (250–900 CE), and the Postclassic (900–1521 CE); as well as the post European .
GEOGRAPHY: The historical region and cultural area of Mesoamerica is made up of the modern day countries of northern Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and central to southern Mexico. For thousands of years this area was occupied by groups such as the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec peoples.
ECONOMY: Hardly any of the regions that occupied the area were self sufficient; therefore trading long-distance was common for rare goods or luxury materials. In the last centuries (8000-1000 BC) regions would extract and mine certain abundant natural resources and trade them for unavailable natural resources.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Culturally, Mesoamerica is known for many cultural traits such as the domestication of cacao, maize, beans, tomato, avocado, vanilla, squash and chile, as well as the turkey and the dog.(as early as 7000 B.C.) A couple of significant cultural traits defining the Mesoamerican cultural tradition were the use of two calendars (250 days, 365 days-based on the solar system), as well as a vigesimal (base 20) number system.
GOVERNMENT: Similar to a monarchy, where an Emperor or King is primary ruler, the Aztec government had a primary ruler (the Huey Tlatoani) . He was the ultimate power in the land, believed to be appointed by the gods and had divine right to rule.
FUN FACTS:
- The pre-Columbian societies flourished for more than 1,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
- Mesoamerica is known to be one of the only three regions of the world where writing developed independently.
- The Olmecs were a great culture to arise in Mexico and Central America; they established a city on a river island in 1200 B.C. or so. Archaeologists consider the Olmecs to be one of only a few civilizations that developed on their own without the benefit of migration or influence from some other civilization.
- Historians consider the Olmec to be the “mother” culture of Mesoamerica.
- They were extremely talented sculptors, artists, architects, and engineers.
- The Maya were highly accomplished astronomers
Six additional sites for more information are:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-mesoamerica/?q=&page=1&per_page=25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mesoamerican-civilization
https://www.mexpro.com/mexico/learn/mesoamerica.html
