Couple Things To Know:•The Americas were settled around 13,000 years ago• Agriculture began around 4,000 years ago• Powerful chiefdoms began around 3,500 years ago• Agrarian Civilizations began around 2,000 years ago

The Americas

Early Civilizations of the Americas

• 500 AD: Mayans• 1500 AD: Aztecs & Incas

Teotihuacan

MAYAS

AZTEC EMPIRE Tikal

ChichenItza

Mayan History• Mayans took over the Yucatan

Peninsula and present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador.

• Ancestors of the Mayans may have been migrants who moved into the region from the Northwest.

• Farmers established many successful agrarian villages, some became important centers, like Chichen Itza and Tikal

Ceremonial Procession

Regions of Mayan Civilization

Tikal

Chichen Itza

Tikal

• By 500 AD, Tikal had become the leading Mayan center– from 600 to 800 AD its population was 40,000 people

• City dominated the surrounding area and all together may have included half a million people

• Architecture of the city was huge, and included the 154 ft. high, Temple of the Giant Jaguar

Temple of the Giant Jaguar, Tikal, Guatemala

Chichen ItzaChichen Itza was also an important center for the

Mayan people and continued to grow after the Mayan decline.

Mayan Government

• Each Mayan center was governed by a priest-king, who was believed to be a descendant of the godsMayan King recognize his people who

are probably lesser lords in this scene of a royal Mayan court.

Mayan War

• Battles were more focused on capturing their rivals in hand-to-hand combat, rather than killing them in large numbers

• Those who were captured were often forced to be part of ritualized torture and public sacrifice

• warriors fought ferociously enough with obsidian-bladed weapons

• Obsidian - dark natural glass formed by the cooling of molten lava.

• Many Mayan centers collapsed, but in the north Mayan cultures and Mexican cultures combined.

• The Mayans lefts many achievements in writing, mathematics and calendars.

Mayan DeclineOvergrown Mayan ruins,Cozumel

• Mayas invented a calendar of great accuracy– Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichén Itzá used as a calendar:

• four stairways• each with 91 steps and a platform at the top• making a total of 365• Same as the number of days in a calendar year

• The Maya calendar was adopted by Aztecs and Toltecs.

Pyramid of Kukulkan c. 1050

Mayan Calendar