+ All Categories
Home > Documents > 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god...

7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god...

Date post: 27-Mar-2020
Category:
Upload: others
View: 0 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend
22
7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs
Transcript
Page 1: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

7/8 World History

Week 22

Mayans & Aztecs

Page 2: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

TuesdayDo Now

What do you remember about the Olmec civilization? What have you heard

about the Mayans?

ObjectivesStudents will track change over time by

looking for cultural connections between Olmecs and Mayans.

Page 3: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Mayans• Around the time of the end of

Rome and the beginning of the European Dark Ages, a new civilization began to blossom halfway around the world in North America: the Mayans.

• The Mayan civilization was centered around the southern part of modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. This area is close to the homeland of the Olmecs (who lived more than a thousand years before them), but located even further south, so it was even more hot, tropical, and forested.

• Although humans had been living in this area for thousands of years practicing agriculture, they didn't start building large, complex cities until around 250 CE.

Page 4: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Political System

• The Mayans were never united under a single government of king. Instead, Mayan society was organized quite similarly to ancient Greece, with many small city-states always at war with each other.

• Kings were seen as specially chosen by the gods to rule, so they were very powerful even if they weren't exactly worshipped like gods themselves. Because of the almost constant warfare between the Mayan city-states, kings also acted as army generals.

• Ordinary people had very little power in the Mayan political system. Most of the people (more than 90%) lived like serfs in feudal Europe, living very poor lives full of hard farm work.

Page 5: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Economy

• The majority of the Mayan people lived off of agriculture. Like other Native American groups, including the Olmecs, they mostly farmed the "three sisters": corn, beans, and squash. In addition to these, chilies and chocolate were also important parts of their diet.

• Wealthier Mayans often practiced trade, particularly in gems and metals. Most of the trading was between the Mayans and the tribes of central Mexico, but it sometimes extended much further. Archaeological evidence shows that the Mayans had turquoise from New Mexico, in the modern US, and gold from Colombia, in South America.

• Wealthy Mayans often had slaves, who were usually captured from enemy cities during wars. Although slaves did not make up a huge percentage of the population, they did most of the back-breaking work of hauling giant stones to build temples and palaces.

Ripe cacao pods ready to be picked and the beans inside turned into chocolate

Page 6: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Calendars

• The Mayans spent a lot of time studying the movements of the planets and stars. They also had an advanced system of mathematics. Put together, these two things led to the Mayans having a very accurate calendar system - the best in the world at the time.

• Like our modern calendar, the Mayan calendar had 365 days, except they divided it into eighteen parts (like months) that were only 20 days long, plus a special 5-day period at the end of the year.

• They used this regular calendar to keep track of trading and historical events, but they also had a separate 260-day calendar running at the same time just to keep track of religious holidays and festivals. This unusual length of time is based on the average length of a human pregnancy, and the holidays throughout the year corresponded to human events like birth, having children, and death.

Page 7: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Writing

• Like the Olmecs long before them, the Mayans also invented a writing system, but the Mayans' has actually been deciphered.

• Their writing was hieroglyphic (picture-based). The most common words had their own special symbols, and other words were made up of syllable combinations.

• The Mayans left writing in many different forms - carved into stone, painted on walls, and even written in books. They used dried animal skins (like very thin leather) to write on, and bound the pages together with strings.

• Although the Mayans wrote many books, most of them got destroyed by the Spanish hundreds of years later in an attempt to wipe out what remained of Mayan culture.

Pages from one of the few surviving Mayan books

Page 8: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Religion• The Mayans practiced a combination of

polytheism and ancestor worship. Ordinary people had shrines to their ancestors in their homes, and buried dead family members under the floor. But in order to worship at the temples of gods, they had to visit the temples in the large city centers.

• The most important Mayan god was the sun god, Itzamna. Most Mayan cities had a large temple dedicated to Itzamna, and kings often used his name as part of their titles.

• Although the Mayans practiced human sacrifice, it was relatively rare, and mostly used to dedicate the building of new temples or palaces.

• The Mayans inherited some of their religious practices from the Olmecs, but it's unclear whether the Olmecs were actually their ancestors or just an ancient civilization that they admired. Like the Olmecs, one of the important Mayan gods was a feathered serpent, and they also buried their dead wearing jade masks.

Page 9: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Disappearance• For reasons that are not entirely clear,

the large Mayan cities began being abandoned around the year 900. It's likely that the reason was written down in multiple books but destroyed later by the Spanish.

• From studying the archaeology and climate of the time, scientists now believe the reason for the collapse of Mayan society was a combination of overpopulation and several years of droughts.

• The Mayans, though, did not completely disappear. Although they never rose up again to create an advanced civilization, there are still millions of people, mostly in southern Mexico and Guatemala, with Mayan ancestry. Around 6 million of them still speak Mayan languages, which has helped historians fully decipher the remaining writings.

Page 10: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Exit TicketWhat evidence is there that the Mayans were either descended from or greatly

admired the Olmecs?

HomeworkMayan Collapse Article and Questions

Page 11: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Block DayDo Now

What do you know about the Aztecs?

ObjectivesStudents will compare and contrast the

Aztec culture to the Mayan culture.

Page 12: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Aztecs• The earliest ancestors of the Aztecs

came from somewhere around the border between Mexico and the southwestern United States.

• The map to the right shows the areas where Native Americans today speak languages related to the Aztec language, ranging all the way from northern Utah and Nevada down to Central America.

• The word “Aztec” was not the word they used to call themselves. Instead they called themselves the “Mexica” (pronounced mesh-ee-ka), the origin of the modern name for Mexico.

• The Mexica slowly made their way from their homeland in the north, which they called Aztlán, to the area of today's Mexico City, around the year 1250 CE.

Page 13: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

• When the Mexica arrived in central Mexico around 1250 , they came to an area already filled with many different tribes. The valley, now the location of Mexico City, used to be filled with a large lake in the center, as shown in the painting below.

• The Mexica were a small tribe compared to the others, and were not organized under any leader, so they became allies with the Culhuacan tribe, who allowed them to live on their land and marry with members of their tribe.

• After a sudden disagreement with the Culhuacan, the Mexica were forced to move onto a small island in the nearby lake, where they began to build a city. The island, though, was very small, so the only way they could expand their city was by slowly making the island bigger using rocks, pieces of wood, and thatched reeds.

• After many years, the Mexica grew larger and more successful as they hired themselves out as soldiers for the surrounding tribes, who were always at war with each other.

Page 14: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

• The Mexica/Aztecs called their city Tenochtitlan, and built many temples, houses, and roads throughout it.

• They even figured out a way to grow their own food by making garden plots on tiny, man-made islands, called chinampas, that watered themselves by letting the plants roots reach out into the lake that surrounded them.

• By the early 1400's, Tenochtitlan was the largest city in the valley, and the Aztecs were the rulers of the whole area.

Page 15: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

• Unlike the Mayans, the Aztecs were united under one king. As their society grew and built new cities, they all remained part of the same kingdom.

• The Aztecs were interested in conquering the lands of surrounding tribes, where they captured many slaves. So instead of fighting each other, the Aztecs spent a lot of time engaged in wars against surrounding small societies.

• By the late 1400's, the Aztecs were at the height of their power, controlling most of central Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast.

• The Aztecs shared many similarities with the Mayans, including their economy. Although they farmed on the floating, man-made chinampas, they still grew the same crops - corns, beans, and squash - and also engaged in long-distance trading.

• They Aztecs also used a hieroglyphic writing system that was clearly based on the Mayan one.

Page 16: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Religion

• One of the greatest differences between the Mayans and Aztecs was in their religion.

• The Aztecs did not really practice ancestor worship, and instead focused on their wide variety of gods and goddesses, like Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty and fertility).

• Unlike the Mayans who rarely practiced it, human sacrifice was a major component of Aztec religion. Sacrifices were brutal and usually performed in front of large crowds on the steps of the temples. The traditional method was to tie the victim down and cut out their heart. The blood was then smeared on the body of the priest and allowed to drip down the steps of the temple as the body tumbled down.

• At the dedication of a single new temple in the year 1487, the Aztecs sacrificed over 80,000 prisoners over the course of four days.

Page 17: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Relationship with other native groups

• Because they were constantly trying to take over the lands of neighboring societies, the Aztecs were feared and hated by most of the native groups surrounding them.

• This clip from the movie "Apocalypto" follows the story of a man from a nearby tribe that has been captured by the Aztecs and is being led through the marketplace of Tenochtitlan for the first time as a slave.

• Aware of how other people felt about them, the Aztecs did make an effort to maintain alliances with the strongest, most organized tribes near them so that they wouldn't lead a rebellion against them.

• It was also important to maintain good relations with far away tribes to the north and south who they traded with for specialty goods, like gold and the feathers of tropical birds.

Page 18: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

• Intro to Aztec/Maya Cultural Art Project

Page 19: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Exit TicketIn what ways were the Aztecs and

Mayans similar? In what ways were they different?

Page 20: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

FridayDo Now

In the beginning of the year, we read many creation stories. What did these

creation stories have in common? What were some of the human universals in

these stories?Objective:

Students will track human universals present in the Aztec creation story.

Page 21: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

• Aztec Creation Story reading & questions

• Project Check-in and work time

Page 22: 7/8 World History Week 22 Mayans & Aztecs · 2018-09-01 · Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god of life and wind), Tlaloc (the storm god), and Xochiquetzal (the goddess of beauty

Exit Ticket

What are human universals? What do they tell us about ourselves?

Homework• Finish Aztec Art Project, due on

Tuesday


Recommended