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Great civilizations of Mesoamerica - Coggle Diagram
Great civilizations of Mesoamerica
There were important political organizations (empires) in two zones:Mesoamerica, which is a region that stretches from central Mexico to Costa Rica and the Andean America.
Some of these organizations were really impressive for
the quality of their architecture and art.
Like the Old World empires, those in America had common features, although there
were also differences:
Its rulers proclaimed themselves intermediaries with the Gods or directly as
sons of God.
These Gods were represented as mythological beings, a mixture of man and
animal or of different animals.
They were born after an evolution of centuries. They reached their peak and
declined. Some of them declined abruptly.
They usually made human sacrifices to these Gods.
Society was divided into very marked social classes.
It was the first culture to emerge on the coast of Mexico, around 1200 BC and it would have to be the longest lasting: one thousand years. In its main city (today known as “La Venta”) the first Mesoamerican pyramid was built, around 1000 BC.
They left monumental human heads carved in stone, four meters high, weighing several tons each.
This culture influenced in all Mesoamerican
civilizations.
Olmecs, they made human sacrifices; they built pyramids; they used the calendar (365 days, divided into 18 months of 20 days plus five days at the end of the year).
They were great sculptors in stone and practiced the ritual game of the ball.
five centuries
later, this civilization was in decline.
This culture influenced in all Mesoamerican
This civilization was developed just around 800 B.C., in the south of Oaxaca and the
isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Their ancestors began around 600 B.C. in the south and southeast of Mexico, and expanded in the Peten area,currently Guatemala and Belize (200 B.C.), with cities such as Nakbe, El Mirador ( that has the highest pyramid in America), Cival, etc.
The Mayan city-states expanded from southern Mexico to
El Salvador.
They improved astronomy,mathematics. They invented zero and also writing logograms. They were great
Where today the city of Mexico is located, there were important pre-Columbian
cultures in the past.
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