depict enemies slaughtered in war. Olmec and Oaxacan civilizations created
many durable features of Mesoamerican civilizations. By the 1st century
C.E., towns, cities, and states could be found near modern Mexico City.
Teotihuacán (25 miles northeast of modern Mexico City) had massive
pyramids and a population of 100,000 people from many different parts of
Mesoamerica. Market relations and warfare linked much of Mesoamerica
into a large network of exchanges: a Mesoamerican “world system.” In 378,
for example, an army from distant Teotihuacán conquered Tikal, in modern
Guatemala, and probably killed its king.
Distinctive features of Mesoamerican
civilizations include religious beliefs
requiring the letting of blood, and
extremely accurate calendrical systems
that were of great religious and
political signi¿ cance.
The Maya are particularly interesting
and, now, since the decipherment of their
writing system, they are better known
than any other American civilization from
before 1500. Mayan civilization emerged
as early as 1000 B.C.E., in the lowland rainforests of the Yucatan peninsula
in South Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Villagers initially practiced
swidden agriculture, but by the end of the 1st millennium B.C.E. large temple
complexes appeared, with pyramids, causeways, and public squares. In the
“classical period,” in the middle of the 1st millennium C.E., the Maya were
organized in competing city-states that formed complex and shifting alliance
systems reminiscent of Sumer in the 3rd millennium B.C.E. The Maya
developed remarkably accurate calendars, with a sacred year of 260 days
and a secular year of 365 days. As in China, calendars had great political
signi¿ cance, as rulers were expected to identify auspicious dates for political
acts such as wars, coronations, or religious celebrations. In conjunction
with the calendar, the Maya developed a hieroglyphic script that was used
to record political and religious events and royal genealogies. Mayan
hieroglyphic, like Sumerian cuneiform, developed into a highly expressive
medium by using the “rebus” principle. Mayan civilization declined in the 8th
and 9th centuries C.E. in a classic Malthusian collapse. The causes included
The Maya are particularly
interesting and, now,
since the decipherment of
their writing system, they
are better known than any
other American civilization
from before 1500.