governing group of lineages composed of warrior elites who
held political and religious offi ces; a middle class of artisans,
who worked as retainers of the ruling lineages; and a com-
moner class of farmers, herders, and fi shers, who sustained
the economic system.
Early Mesoamericans practiced settled agriculture as
early as around 2000 b.c.e. and developed more complex so-
cieties in the fi rst millennium b.c.e. During the fi rst 500 years
c.e. small settlements grew, interacted with one another, and
gave rise to bustling urban cities like Teotihuacán. Beginning
about 1500 b.c.e. the Olmec began establishing major cen-
ters at the Gulf Coast sites of San Lorenzo, La Venta, Laguna
de los Cerros, and Tres Zapotes, a region oft en referred to as
the Olmec “heartland.” Archaeological studies indicate that
families typically lived in small wattle-and-daub houses with
thatched palm roofs, similar to those built near these sites to-
day. Th ey clustered their houses around a central patio, where
the community performed various tasks and grew maize
nearby. At the larger sites, like San Lorenzo, excavations have
revealed more elaborate housing complexes inhabited by the
ruler, his family, and attendants. Like the palaces of the elite,
these residences occupied a prime location very close to the
ritual center. Olmec culture was far-reaching, and families
also lived in rural villages in central Mexico and surround-
ing regions.
Early inhabitants of the Pacifi c coastal region, the ances-
tors of the Maya, established some of the fi rst settled commu-
nities in the Maya area between 2000 to 1000 b.c.e. Over the
next millennium societies in this region developed political
and social complexity, with the emergence of Maya civiliza-
tion between ca. 400 b.c.e. and 100 c.e. Many families prac-
ticed swidden, or slash-and-burn, agriculture and settled at
early sites like Izapa, Kaminaljuyú, Takalik Abaj, El Baúl,
Uaxactún, Tikal, El Mirador, and Cerros.
Our knowledge of West Mexico during the ancient pe-
riod comes primarily from objects recovered from shaft
tombs. A variety of ceramic vessels, fi gurines, and objects
found in the modern Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco, and
Nayarit, as well as near the Mezcala River, provide valuable
information about West Mexican architecture, spiritual be-
liefs, and society. In Nayarit many tombs contained pairs of
male and female ceramic fi gures that may have accompanied
married couples in the tomb. Th e painted slip on the fi gures
details the elaborate accoutrement of the matching costumes,
and the pairs oft en hold musical instruments.
Early inhabitants of Teotihuacán, a central Mexican site
that fl ourished ca. 150–600 c.e., laid out their city on a grid
plan with residential compounds of various sizes fl anking the
elaborate pyramid structures of the ceremonial core. Walls
surrounded each residential compound with a single entry
off ering access to the many dwellings within. Each grouping
included three shrines and a platform for ritual activities.
Consistency in materials and structure suggests state-spon-
sored building. Th e most elaborate apartment complexes
contained painted fresco murals depicting warfare, deities,
and sacrifi ce. Populations have been estimated as high as
125,000.See also agriculture; art; architecture; building
techniques and materials; children; cities; cloth-
ing and footwear; crafts; education; empires and
dynasties; gender structures and roles; health and
disease; hunting, fishing, and gathering; laws and
legal codes; literature; migration and population
movements; occupations; religion and cosmology; set-
tlement patterns; slaves and slavery; social organi-
zation; textiles and needlework; towns and villages;
war and conquest.VIII. MARRIAGE
Contract for Marriage, Reign of Shamshu-ilu-na,
ca. 2200 B.C.E.
RIMUM, son of Shamkhatum, has taken as a wife and
spouse Bashtum, the daughter of Belizunu, the priestess(?) of Shamash, daughter of Uzibitum. Her bridal present
shall be _____ shekels of money. When she receives it
she shall be free. If Bashtum to Rimum, her husband
shall say, “You are not my husband,” they shall strangle
her and cast her into the river. If Rimum to Bashtum,
his wife, shall say, “You are not my wife,” he shall pay ten A Collection of Contracts from Mesopotamia, excerpts,
ca. 2300–428 b.c.e. Th e Middle East458 family: primary source documents