Empires in America

What do you think this structure or artifact was used for?

What does the design or construction tell you about Maya culture?

• While classical civilizations were developing in the Mediterranean & Asia

• Advanced societies were developing in isolation in the Americas

• During the Ice Age, prehistoric nomads migrated across the land bridge between Asia & America 

• During the Neolithic Revolution, these nomads settled into farming villages; Some of which became advanced civilizations

Religion: Mayans were polytheistic & offered their blood, food, & sometimes human sacrifices to please the gods  

Government: Mayans were divided into individual city-states ruled by king-gods

Economy: The Mayan economy was based on trade &  farming maize (corn), beans

Mayans were ___________ (polytheistic, monotheistic)

Advanced societies developed in the ______________ (Europe, Mediterranean, Americas)

Technology: Mayans invented a writing based on pictures called glyphs, an accurate 365-day calendar (Haab), & advanced temples

The Maya writing system is primarily composed of:

a) Alphabetical letters

b) Pictographs called glyphs

c) Cuneiform script

d) Linear B script

Which crop was central to the Maya diet and economy?

a) Wheat

b) Corn (maize)

c) Rice

d) Barley

• Around 800 A.D., the Mayans mysteriously declined perhaps due to warfare among Mayan city-states & over-farming

• After the decline of the Mayans, the Aztecs were developing in present-day Mexico 

• Around 1200, Aztecs arrived in Mexico & built their city Tenochtitlan in 1325