MAYA & AZTEC

Janet Pareja, Signature School, Evansville, IN AP World History

“Seed Society”

Receiving Tribute

Accepted Social Inequality

Scribe Class

- NOT TERRITORY- The measure of power as number of

People over which one ruled & work that could be done:

- Agriculture- Architecture

• Ground Sensing

Radar

• GPS

• Archaeology/ Excavation

• Historical Imagination,

Extrapolation

• Looting = Problem!!

Richard D. Hansen, Idaho State University – Head of Mirador Basin Project in Guatemala

• Palaces

• Royal Acropolis

• Temples

• Meeting Rooms

• Pyramids

• Squares (Plazas)

• Observatories

• Ball Courts

Regional Trade

Currency = Cocoa BeansSalt Jade

Cotton Obsidian

Ceramics Feathers

Tools Animal hides

Honey Quetzel Feathers

Vanilla Basalt

Cocoa

Cocoa beans

Cotton cloth

Jade, Obsidian

7,500 people at peak

Classical mural from Bonampak

Lime White washingAt the beginning ofEach dynasty Redecorated

Base 20

Concept ofZERO as Placeholder.

Sky glyph Sky Watcher

Venus

Milky Way

LunarEclipses

Moon Phases

EquinoxSolstice

Solar Year

Constellations

Written Language – Glyphs… written on paper with ink! Also on buildings in stone and paint.

Maize & Water

Creation, Stories of Gods interactions w& Man

Pacal as Maize God

Ritual & Solar CalendarYears

Marriage of Math, Astronomy,

Writing.

52-YearConvergence

365-Day Solar Year

Shield JaguarLady Xoc

Vision SerpentAppears to Lady Xoc

Hummingbird beaks, stingray stingers, jade needles….

Ridged Field System

Hieroglyphs

Rubber

Paper & Ink – early 400’s CE

Astronomy & Building technologies

Mathematics

Accurate CalendarNO WHEEL

Cultural Diffusion• Ball Game

• Religion

• Calendar

• Agricultural Products

AZTEC EMPIRE

Spread:TradeMilitary Conquest

Three City States

1427 Triple Alliance

TributeDependence on Central Power For Luxury Goods

1519High Point

1521 - Cortez allied withTributary statesTo Defeat Aztec

Mexica migrated

from North: 1325Swampy Island in Lake Texcoco.

Tenochtitlan

Before, and Same time as AztecUnaffiliated

Central RuleGovernors of ProvincesPersian Model

No Bureaucracy

Professional Army- best of everything

Heavy Taxation: ServiceAgricultural GoodsLuxury GoodsTribute ProductsSacrificial Victims

Cochineal

Nahuatl – written language & paper from Maya

Atlatl easier to throwA spear

No Iron or Bronze

No Wheel

Aqueducts

Latecomers to Metallurgy

Rubber

Chinampa

Writing on Paper

Calendar

Aztec Roads