MESOAMERICAN PREHISTORY\
Mesoamerica was populated
by 25 million people at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519.
Scholars studying the
region classify its pre-history into Four periods: The Archaic (8,000 BCE – 2,500
BCE), the Formative or Pre-classic (2500 BCE.-1 A.D.), Classic (1 -900 A.D.),
and Post-Classic (900-1519 A.D.).
"Classic" refers
to the pinnacle of Mesoamerican culture. During that period, extraordinary
cities such as Teotihuacán, Tula, Monte Albán, Palenque, Tikal, and others
flourished. Scholars still debate why such cities were abandoned; perhaps it
was due to wars, epidemics, and/or agriculture failures. Some current thinking favors a prolonged
drought as important in creating conditions requiring the abandonment of major
urban centers (Gill 2001 – The Great Maya Droughts).
Later,
"Postclassic" cities emerged. The Aztecs founded the great city of
Tenochtitlán in 1325 on the site of what is now downtown Mexico City; they
established an extensive empire in the two centuries before the Spaniards
arrived. Important city-states during the Post-Classic period were Chichén-Itzá
(Yucatán) and Mitla (Oaxaca).
Most immigrants probably came across the Bering Straits
when not ice covered.
Humans reached the southern tip of South America by 12,500
years ago (Southern Chile)
21,OOO
BP. Tlapacoya
(25 mi. E. of Mexico City) - living site; hearths
+ imported stone artifacts
(obsidian, quartz.
20,OOO
BP. Tequixquiac
(just N. of old Lake Texcoco) - carved sacrum
of
an
extinct camelid, made to resemble a dog, peccary, or camelid head.
13,000
BP. "Peñon Woman" - 26 year old woman
- skull is long and narrow
11,OOO
BP. Santa
Isabel Iztapan - Imperial mammoth bones with in situ
projectile points
10,OOO
BP. "Tepexpan 'man'" about 5'2" – found under a layer
of caliche on the shores
of L. Texcoco.
Big
game died out around 8,000 BC (about 10,000 years ago) –
Theories:
a)
overkill by humans
b) diseases
c)
climatic changes (the most likely explanation)
Big-Game Hunting tradition
gave way to the Desert tradition as new adaptations required.
a) hunting techniques and tools adapted to smaller
animals
Projectile points
became smaller and broader.
Tools included choppers, scrapers, gouges, pebble mullers, mortars, and manos.
b)
people lived in extended family groups, probably with fewer than 25-30 persons,
engaged in cyclical wandering
in search of food; not truly nomadic.
c) few material possessions needed; remains of
basketry and milling stones.
The
Chalco Complex
– Once a large gap in our knowledge about
the time between the
big
game hunters
of 10,000 years ago and the sedentary
farmers with pottery
(ca.
2,000 – 2,500 BC).
This gap partly
filled by information from Puebla's
Tehuacan Valley, with its long
sequence
of phases, and also by
a few other sites in Mexico (e.g. Tamaulipas,
Valley
of Mexico, Valley of Oaxaca).
(by C14 measurements)
ARCHAIC 1O,OOO - 25OO BC (begins w/ decline of big-game hunting --
ends w/
pottery)
PRE-CLASSIC 25OO BC - 1 AD. (begins
w/ pottery -- ends essentially
w/ beginning of Classic) (Actually Classic begins 25O
AD
in Maya Area): OLMECS,
(MONTE ALBAN) ZAPOTEC
Early Formative 25OO – l4OO BC Pre-Olmec period
Middle Formative l4OO - 4OO BC Olmec period
Late Formative 4OO BC - 2OO AD. Epi-Olmec period
Monte Alban,
Izapa, Kaminaljuyu
El Mirador
CLASSIC l AD - 9OO AD. ZAPOTEC / MONTE ALBAN
TEOTIHUACAN
MAYA /
Tikal, Copan, Palenque (Classic is 250-900
AD)
EL TAJIN
/ El Tajin,
Proto-Classic 1 AD - 25O AD (in Maya Area) (Early Classic
elsewhere)
Early Classic 25O - 6OO AD. (in Maya Area) (Middle Classic
elsewhere)
Late Classic 6OO AD - 9OO AD
POST-CLASSIC 9OO AD - 154O AD. TOLTECS,
AZTECS
POST
CLASSIC MAYA - Chichén Itzá
(LANGUAGES AND) CIVILIZATIONS OF MESOAMERICA
OLMEC CIVILIZATION
(l4OO BC - 4OO BC; southern Veracruz coast and Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
also Guerrero (Teopantecuanitlan), Soconusco,
Morelos (Chalcatzingo).)
In
the area of former Olmec civilization, mostly Mixe-Zoquean languages are now
spoken.
glimmerings
of Olmec civilization. M-Z languages have provided
loans into Otomian, Zapotecan,
Mayan,
Xincan, and Lencan languages among others.
First
ball court, bar
and dot numbers, monumental stone architecture,
stone
drains
(Guerrero).
Latest
known survival of written records with prognostications involving both the
26O-day
almanac
numbers and the 365-day 18-month agricultural calendar and using corn grains
for
counting
is at San Juan Guichicovi in the western
Mixe region of the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec
(Lowe, Lee, & Espinoza:301)
ZAPOTEC CIVILIZATION
(5OO
BC. - 7OO AD. Oaxaca valley)
Rise of Zapotec civilization (mainly at Monte
Alban) begins with decline of Olmec
civilization.
The Zapotecan
family has 24OO years time depth and includes several Zapotec languages
(with ca. l7OO years time depth) and Chatino. Kaufman identifies Zapotec loans in Huastec
and
Yucatec
(dog, woven mat [HUA], dog, deer [YUC])
and therefore suggests a wider extension
for
Zapotecan 2OOO years ago than at present.
Writing (4OO-5OO BC) Calendar
with day names, months; numbers. Ball courts
IZAPA CIVILIZATION
(4OO
BC - 1 AD Chiapas Soconusco)
sure
what language was spoken at Izapa, but a good guess is Mixe-Zoquean. No writing here,
but cosmic
iconographic motifs. Iconography is
essentially the same as that of the same period
at
Kaminaljuyu (Guatemala City). Area is
an outstanding producer of cacao.
TEOTIHUACAN CIVILIZATION
(lOO
BC - 6OO AD. Central Mexico)
This civilization arose in Central Mexico
after the decline of Olmec. Aztecan
(including Pochutec)
has a
time depth of about l4OO years, and so unlikely to be the builders of
Teotihuacan. Builders
may
well have been Mixe-Zoquean Speakers.
Teotihuacan
civilization was destroyed by outsiders
around 6OO AD. These outsiders we can
identify as
Aztecans,
who around 6OO AD. entered Central mexico from the West (say Jalisco). Few burials;
bodies
usually cremated; so little burial evidence for status differences, though
recent finds in the
Temple
of Quetzalcoatl (servants killed for the burial of a great ruler, apparently)
suggest that much
interesting
information is yet to come.
Many
murals, but the iconography (and lack of stelae)
suggests
that individual rulers used neither to legitimate their claims to power.
MIXTECA CIVILIZATION
(7OO
- 15OO AD VALLEY OF OAXACA and PUEBLA)
This civilization mostly followed the decline of the
Zapotec civilization in Oaxaca. They
also occupied
parts of Puebla.
TOLTEC CIVILIZATION
(850-1100
AD; Central Mexico)
Two or three centuries after the end of
Teotihuacan civilization, Toltec civilization arose in
Hidalgo
and Central Mexico.
It sent out people into southern Mexico and
Central America as early as 900-1100
AD.
The 'Pipil' varieties of Aztec found in the
Mayan area and further south have the appropriate
time
divergence from Central Mexican Aztec.
The Toltecs were presumably Aztecan-speaking,
and Aztec
loans are found in most Middle-American languages, although some of these are
undoubtedly
due to Tenochtitlan and not Toltec influence.
Toltec capital is the legendary Tula.
Chichen
Itza, with
the right architecture and the right time frame seems to have been strongly
Toltec
influenced.
MAYA CIVILIZATION
(pre-Classic;
lOO BC. - 2OO AD.; Classic 2OO - 9OO AD.;
Chiapas,
Yucatan, and Guatemala)
Pre-Classic Maya civilization arose in
the Mayan linguistic area after the
decline of Olmec
civilization. Classic period measured by erection of
dated stone monuments (stelae)
Distributions
and subgroupings, suggest that Yucatecans have been in Yucatan
since
about lOO BC. In 9OO-lOOO AD. Central Mexican (Toltec-Pipil)
influence
(and
conquest?) occurred in Yucatan. The
time depth of the Yucatecan group is not
much more
than
lOOO years.
TENOCHTITLAN (AZTEC)
CIVILIZATION
(1250
- 1519 ; Central Mexico)
Mexica / Aztecs entered Valley of Mexico
around 1250, wandered around in service of other
Nahuatl
speakers, found signs indicating island in Lake Texcoco as new home.
Tenochtítlan
civilization arose in Mexico City around 1325, was
Aztec-speaking
(Nahuatl-speaking),
and in control of most of Central Mexico by the time of the Spanish
conquest.
In l5l9 the Aztecs were the most
powerful people in MA, and given another century or two
to
themselves might have unified MA politically; after that, with anything like
the Inca model,
MA
might eventually have become largely Aztec-speaking. Since Aztec was used as a
language
for keeping records during the early colonial period, it is clear that some
loans from
Aztec
in MA languages may post-date the conquest; others have entered indigenous languages
via
Spanish.
Susan T. Evans and David L. Webster (eds.) 2000. Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America:
An Encyclopaedia. Garland Publishing Co. 992pp
ARCHAOLOGY LINKS
WESTERN MEXICO
http://members.aol.com/cbeekman/research/research.html Chris Beekman's Jalisco site
OAXACA
CENTRAL MEXICO
MAYA
OLMEC
