EARLY CIVILIZATIONS IN MESOAMERICA
Archaeology tells us about the ancient societies that once existed in
Mesoamerica. First came the Olmec, whose culture influenced those that followed.
Later, the Maya became one of the most sophisticated cultures of the early Americas.
The civilizations that followed, the Toltec and the Aztec, incorporated Maya traditions
into their cultures.
The Olmec
Not until the late 1800s did archaeologists begin excavating ancient ruins found
in Mesoamerica. This is a name used for areas of Mexico and Central America where
ancient empires flourished. Detailed excavations revealed that the Maya once lived
there. Later excavations told of an even older society, the Olmec.
Olmec Culture
Archaeologists first discovered the Olmec society in the 1940s. They called these
people the Olmec, or “rubber people,” because of the rubber trees that grew in the
area where they lived. The Olmec, the first-known civilization in Mesoamerica,
appeared around 1200 b.c. They farmed along riverbanks in the hot, swampy lowlands
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico south of Veracruz. They traded with other peoples
of Mesoamerica for jade and obsidian to make their tools, jewelry, and monuments.
Olmec objects have been found in central Mexico. The Olmec had large cities that
were centers for their religious rituals. The oldest city was San Lorenzo, which
contained pyramids and other stone monuments. In La Venta a 30-foot-high (9-m high)
pyramid towered above the city. Olmec skilled artisans also carved a series of colossal
stone heads, probably to represent their gods or rulers. These huge heads, 10 feet (3
m) high and weighing 20 tons (18 t), are especially remarkable because the Olmec
had no metal tools. Carving them with instruments of stone must have taken a great
deal of time. Around 400 b.c., for reasons not yet fully understood, the Olmec
civilization declined and eventually collapsed. However, some aspects of their tradition
influenced later Mesoamerican societies. The Olmec played a ceremonial game on a
stone ball court, a ritual that the Maya people would later practice. The Maya also
continued the Olmec fascination with a jaguar-like god and adopted the Olmec
calendar and numerical system.
The City of Teotihuacan
The first major city in Mesoamerica was Teotihuacán (tay•oh•tee•wuh•KAHN), or
“Place of the Gods.” This city was the capital of an early kingdom that arose around
250 b.c. and collapsed around a.d. 800. Located about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of
Mexico City in a fertile valley, Teotihuacán occupied an area of 8 square miles (21 sq.
km). It had as many as 200,000 inhabitants at its height. Along its main thoroughfare,
known as the “Avenue of the Dead,” were temples and palaces. All of them, however,
were dominated by a massive Pyramid of the Sun. This monument rose in four tiers
to a height of over 200 feet (60 m). Most of the people of Teotihuacán were farmers.
Fertile soil made their valley one of the richest farming areas in Mesoamerica.
Teotihuacán was also a busy center for trade. In scores of workshops throughout
the city, skilled artisans made tools, weapons, pottery, and jewelry. Especially famous
were their obsidian tools. Obsidian, a volcanic glass, was prized in Mesoamerica. It
was used in tools, mirrors, and the knives with razor-sharp blades used in human and
animal sacrifices. Archaeologists estimate that there were 400 obsidian workshops in
the city. The goods made in Teotihuacán were shipped to Central America, Mexico,
and even southwestern North America. In return, the city’s inhabitants received luxury
items and the raw materials, such as shells and bird feathers, used in their crafts.
Sometime during the eighth century, for reasons yet unknown, the city’s power
declined. Eventually the ruling class left the city and around a.d. 800, the city was
destroyed and abandoned.
The Maya and The Toltec
Far to the east of Teotihuacán, on the Yucatán Peninsula, another major
civilization had arisen. This was the civilization of the Maya, which flourished between
a.d. 300 and 900. It was one of the most sophisticated civilizations in the Americas.
The Maya built splendid temples and pyramids and developed a complicated calendar
as accurate as any in existence in the world at that time. The Maya were a farming
people who cleared the dense rain forests, developed farming, and centered their
culture in city-states. Maya civilization included much of Central America and southern
Mexico. Sometime around 800, the Maya civilization in the central Yucatán Peninsula
began to decline. Why did this happen? Explanations include invasion, internal revolt,
or a volcanic eruption. A more recent theory is that overuse of the land led to reduced
crop yields. Whatever the case, cities like Tikal and Palenque were abandoned and
covered by dense jungle growth. They were not rediscovered until the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
Political and Social Structures
Maya cities were built around a central pyramid topped by a shrine to the gods.
Nearby were other temples, palaces, and a sacred ball court. Some scholars believe
that over 100,000 inhabitants may have lived in urban centers such as Tikal in present-
day Guatemala. Maya civilization was composed of city-states, each governed by a
hereditary ruling class. These Maya city-states were often at war with each other.
Ordinary soldiers who were captured in battle became slaves. Captured nobles and
war leaders were used for human sacrifice.
Rulers of the Maya city-states claimed to be descended from the gods. The Maya
rulers were helped by nobles and a class of scribes who may also have been priests.
In addition, Maya society contained peasants and townspeople who worked as skilled
artisans, officials, and merchants. Most of the Maya people were peasant farmers.
They lived on tiny plots or on terraced hills in the highlands. Houses were built of adobe
and thatch. There was a fairly clear-cut division of labor. Men did the fighting and
hunting; women, the homemaking and raising of children. Women also made
cornmeal, the basic food of much of the population. The Maya also cultivated cacao
trees, which were the source of chocolate. Chocolate was used as a beverage by the
upper classes. Cocoa beans, the fruit of the cacao tree, were used as money in
markets throughout the region.
Crucial to Maya civilization was its spiritual perspective. For the Maya, all of life
was in the hands of divine powers. The name of their supreme god was Itzamna
(eet•SAWM•nuh) or “Lizard House.” Gods were ranked in order of importance. Some,
like the jaguar god of night, were evil rather than good. Like other ancient civilizations
in Mesoamerica, the Maya practiced human sacrifice as a way to appease the gods.
Human sacrifices were also used for special ceremonial occasions. When a male heir
was presented to the throne, war captives were tortured and then beheaded. In a.d.
790, one Maya ruler took his troops into battle to gain prisoners for a celebration
honoring his son.
Writings and Calendar
The Maya created a sophisticated writing system based on hieroglyphs or
pictures. Unfortunately, the Spanish conquerors of the sixteenth century had little
respect for the Mayan language and made no effort to decipher it. Instead, the
Spaniards assumed the writings were evil or of no value.
When the Spanish colonized the Americas, they repeated this behavior over and
over. They would apply their own religious views to the native civilizations with which
they came in contact. The Spaniards’ subsequent destruction of religious objects, and
sometimes entire cities, helped bring an end to these civilizations. The Maya wrote on
bark, folding it like an accordion, then covering the outside with thin plaster. Four of
these books have survived. Maya writing was also carved onto clay, jade, bone, shells,
and stone monuments. Mayan hieroglyphs remained a mystery for centuries. Then,
scholars discovered that many passages contained symbols that recorded dates in
the Maya calendar.
This calendar, known as the Long Count, was based on a belief in cycles of
creation and destruction. According to Maya belief, our present world was created in
3114 b.c. and is scheduled to complete its downward cycle on December 23, a.d.
2012. The Maya used two different systems for measuring time. One was based on a
solar calendar of 365 days, divided into 18 months of 20 days each, with an extra 5
days at the end. The other system was based on a sacred calendar of 260 days divided
into 13 weeks of 20 days. Only trained priests could read and use this calendar to
foretell the future and know the omens associated with each day. Many Mayan
hieroglyphs record important events in Maya history, especially events in the lives of
Maya rulers. One of the most important collections of Mayan hieroglyphs is located at
a city called Palenque (puh•LEHNG•kay). There, archaeologists discovered a royal
tomb covered with hieroglyphs that record the accomplishments of a ruler named
Pacal, whose body was buried in the tomb.
The Toltec
After the collapse of Teotihuacán, new peoples rose to prominence in central
Mexico. Most significant were the Toltec. The Toltec Empire reached its high point
between a.d. 950 and 1150. The center of the empire was at Tula, built on a high ridge
about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of present-day Mexico City. The Aztec later
plundered Tula and destroyed much historical evidence. Therefore, much of what is
known about the Toltec comes from legends that later cultures told of them. The Toltec
irrigated their fields with water from the Tula River and grew a number of crops,
including beans, maize, and peppers. This flourishing agriculture enabled Tula to
support a population of between 40,000 to 60,000 people. Another 60,000 people lived
in the surrounding territory. The city itself was between 5 and 6 square miles (13 to 16
sq. km). The Toltec were a warlike people. Their empire included much of northern
and central Mexico. They also extended their conquests into the Maya lands of
Guatemala and the northern Yucatán. The Toltec controlled the upper Yucatán
Peninsula from Chichén Itzá for centuries. The Toltec were also builders who
constructed pyramids and palaces. They brought metal-working to Mesoamerica and
were the first people in the region to work in gold, silver, and copper.
Important to Toltec religion were two major gods. Quetzalcoatl (ket•suhl•
KWAH•tul), the god of learning and culture, took on different forms. In one form, he
was the god of wind. In another form, he was the feathered serpent. In the Aztec
language, which might be related to the language of the Toltec, quetzal is the name of
a green-feathered bird, while coatl means serpent. Representations of Quetzalcoatl—
the Feathered Serpent—have also been found in Teotihuacán and the later Aztec
Empire. The Toltec thought of their leaders as having a connection to deities. The
greatest leader was Topiltzin, who was also a high priest of Quetzalcoatl. According to
legend, Topiltzin and his followers went into exile as a result of a struggle with other
religious groups. Topiltzin vowed to return to Tula from the east in one of his sacred
years and to reclaim his throne. A later Mesoamerican empire, the Aztec, knew the
legend of Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl well. Indeed, it may have influenced their response
when European explorers arrived in the Americas. The Toltec Empire began to decline
around a.d. 1125 as a result of fighting among different groups in Tula. Around 1170,
the city was sacked and much of it burned. There was no single ruling group for nearly
200 years. The Aztec Empire then gained control and carried on many Toltec traditions.
The Aztec
The origins of the Aztec are uncertain. Sometime during the twelfth century a.d.,
they began a long migration that brought them to the Valley of Mexico. They eventually
established a capital at Tenochtitlán (tay•nawch• teet•LAHN), now Mexico City. There
they would rule until the Spanish conquest.
Rise of the Aztec
According to their legends, when the Aztec arrived in the Valley of Mexico, other
people’s drove them into a snakeinfested region. The Aztec survived, however,
strengthened by their belief in a sign that would come from their god of war and of the
sun, Huitzilopochtli (wee•tsee•loh• POHKT•lee). The god had told them that when they
saw an eagle perched on a cactus growing out of a rock, their journey would end.
In 1325, under attack by another people, they were driven into the swamps and
islands of Lake Texcoco (tehs•KOH•koh). On one island, they saw an eagle standing
on a prickly pear cactus on a rock. There they built Tenochtitlán (or “place of the prickly
pear cactus”): “Now we have found the land promised to us. We have found peace for
our weary people. Now we want for nothing.” For the next 100 years, the Aztec
constructed temples, other public buildings, and houses. They built roadways of stone
across Lake Texcoco to the north, south, and west, linking the islands to the mainland.
The Aztec consolidated their rule over much of what is modern Mexico. The new
kingdom was not a centralized state but a collection of semi-independent territories
that local lords governed. The Aztec ruler supported these rulers in return for tribute,
goods or money paid by conquered peoples to their conquerors.
Political and Social Structures
By 1500, as many as four million Aztec lived in the Valley of Mexico and the
surrounding valleys of central Mexico. Like all great empires in ancient times, the Aztec
state was authoritarian. The monarch, who claimed lineage with the gods, held all
power. A council of lords and government officials assisted the Aztec ruler. The nobility,
the elite of society, held positions in the government. Male children in noble families
were sent to temple schools, which stressed military training. Once adults, males
would select a career in the military service, the government bureaucracy, or the
priesthood. As a reward for their services, nobles received large estates from the
government. The rest of the population consisted of commoners, indentured workers,
and slaves. Indentured workers were landless laborers who contracted to work on the
nobles’ estates. Slaves worked in the households of the wealthy. Male and female
slaves were sold in the markets.
Most people were commoners, and many commoners were farmers. Farmers
built chinampas, swampy islands crisscrossed by canals that provided water for their
crops. The canals also provided easy travel to local markets. Aztec merchants were
also active traders. Merchants exported and traded goods made by Aztec craftspeople
from imported raw materials. In exchange for their goods, the traders obtained tropical
feathers, cacao beans, animal skins, and gold. From the beginnings of their lives, boys
and girls in Aztec society had very different roles. The midwife who attended the birth
of a male infant said, “You must understand that your home is not here where you have
been born, for you are a warrior.” To a female infant, the midwife said, “As the heart
stays in the body, so you must stay in the house.” Though not equal to men, Aztec
women could own and inherit property and enter into contracts, something not often
allowed in other world cultures at the time. Women were expected to work in the home,
weave textiles, and raise children. However, some were also trained to become
priestesses.
Religion and Culture
Like other peoples in Central America and around the world, the Aztec believed
in many gods. There was a supreme god, called Ometeotl, who represented the
allpowerful forces of the heavens. Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and of war, was
particularly important to Aztec warriors as they expanded control over neighboring
peoples. Another important god was Quetzalcoatl, who had a more direct impact on
the lives of the people. According to Aztec tradition, Quetzalcoatl had left his homeland
in the Valley of Mexico in the tenth century, promising to return in triumph. When the
Aztec first saw Spanish explorers in the 1500s, they believed that representatives of
Quetzalcoatl had returned. Aztec religion was based on a belief in an unending
struggle between the forces of good and evil throughout the universe. This struggle
had created and destroyed four worlds, or suns. People believed they were now living
in the time of the fifth sun. This world, too, was destined to end with the destruction of
Earth by earthquakes. To postpone the day of reckoning, the Aztec practiced human
sacrifice. They believed they could delay the final destruction of their world by
appeasing the sun god Huitzilopochtli with sacrifices. Aztec religion had a significant
influence on their art and architecture. For example, a chief feature of Aztec culture
was its monumental architecture. At the center of Tenochtitlán was the sacred district,
dominated by a massive pyramid dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. At the top was a platform
containing shrines to the gods and an altar for performing human sacrifices.
A Strong Empire
With the help of two other city-states, Tenochtitlán formed a Triple Alliance. This
alliance enabled the Aztec to dominate an empire that included much of today’s
Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and as far south as the Guatemalan
border.
