Welcome to the Aztec Tour June 4, 1468 Itinerary 12:00-Tour of Tenochtitlan begins 1:00-Display of elaborate jewelry 2:00-See our moveable bridges 3:00-Observe our aqueducts 4:00-Marvel at our floating gardens 5:00-Human Sacrifice-Don

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OLMEC EMPIRE1200 BC 400 BC Southern Mexico El
Salvador

• formed the first truly complex Mesoamerica
  culture established civic-ceremonial centers at
  San Lorenzo and La Venta, with temples, palaces
  built towns with clay building platforms and
  stone pavements and drainage systems traded in aw
  materials such as jade created large stone jade
  sculptures of human heads developed rudimentary
  hieroglyphic writing

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MAYAN EMPIRE50 BC 1400 AD Southern Mexico
Yucatan Guatemala Central America

• invented writing system which mixed script with
  ideographs and phonetics wrote historic records
  on pots, stone stele (upright inscribed slabs),
  and palace walls cultivated corn as staple crop
  produced a complex astronomical calendar
  established religious rituals which included
  human sacrifices, mythology, and ancestral
  worship created a monarchy that united small
  settlements into larger states built flat-topped
  pyramids as temples and rulers tombs built
  palaces, shrines, large ball courts for
  ceremonial sport and astronomical observatories
  invented math system, included zero base

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AZTEC ORIGINS

• Because of their antagonistic behavior they were
  driven from one place to another.
• Around 700 years ago the Aztec peoples left their
  homes in Atzlan in North West Mexico.
• Their chieftan Tenoch led them to the Valley of
  Mexico named Anahuac.
• The Aztecs were a poor, ragged people who ate 
  rats, snakes, and stole food.

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According to legend,they had been told by the
gods to build their city in the spot where an
eagle, perched on a cactus,would be seen eating
a snake.
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The Aztecs founded the great city of
Tenochtitlan. Today this place is called Mexico
City.
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AZTEC CITIES

• Tenochtitlan was built about 1325 on an island in
  a lake.
• Great stone temples and pyramids stood in the
  center of the city.
• Stone bridges connected the city with the
  mainland.
• By 1376 they chose a man named Acamapichtli as
  their first emperor. He ruled until 1395
• By the late 1400s more than 60,000 people in
  Tenochtitlan.

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• The Aztecs used irrigation to grow crops
  throughout the year.
• They made chinampas or floating gardens by
  filling shallow areas of the lake and anchoring
  the soil with trees.
• The canals formed part of their defense system.

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ORGANIZED RELIGION

• As their city grew stronger the Aztec warriors
  extended their powers over neighboring
  territories, gaining tribute payments and most
  importantly, human hearts for sacrifice.

Huitzilopochtligod of war
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Aztec wall of skulls

• They believed it was necessary to feed the gods
  with human hearts to ensure the sun would rise
  every day.
• It was important in battle to seize as many live
  prisoners as possible, these unfortunate
  victims would then be held captive until they
  were required for sacrifice.

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Aztec sacrificial mask

• Spanish accounts describe Aztec human sacrifice
  in detail.
• ...the men or women who were to be sacrificed
  to their gods were thrown on their backs and of
  their own accord remained perfectly still. A
  priest then came out with a stone knife...and
  with his knife he opened the part where the heart
  is and took out the heart, without the person who
  was being sacrificed uttering a word...

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ART
Aztec Chacmool
Chacmools were vessels made of basalt, and were
used to contain sacrificial offerings to the
gods. As such, they were the intermediaries
between gods and men and were placed outside
temples.
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SOCIAL CLASSES

• The Aztecs did have two clearly differentiated
  social classes.
• At the bottom were the macehualles, or
  "commoners.
• At the top the pilli, or nobility.
• These were not clearly differentiated by birth,
  for one could rise into the pilli by virtue of
  great skill and bravery in war.

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SPECIALIZED JOBS

• The city itself consisted of a large number of
  priests and craftspeople.
• The bulk of the economy rested on extensive trade
  of both necessary and luxury items.
• Some occupations included rope-making and
  pot-making.

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LANGUAGE WRITING

• The Aztec language was called N'ahuatl.
• It was a system of pictures which they used as
  sort of an alphabet.
• They used hundreds of different symbols in their
  vocabulary.
• Nouns were easy to draw - they drew a cat as a
  cat and drew a fish as a fish and so on.
• They joined them together to form sentences, and
  used them to write down stories and keep records.

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LAW

• Aztec laws were simple and harsh.
• Almost every crime, from adultery to stealing,
  was punished by death
• Other offenses usually involved severe corporal
  punishment or mutilation (the penalty for
  slander, for instance, was the loss of one's
  lips).

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EDUCATION
The Aztec children had to go to school too!

• Children of the noble class attended a calmecac,
  a school for noble children that was attached to
  the temples.
• Girls and boys went to separate calmecac schools.

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BOYS

• At fifteen (15), boys attended either a calmecac
  or a cuicacalli.
• The calmecac was run by priests who taught
  religious and administrative subjects.
• Calmecac pupils also had extra religious duties,
  as well as lessons in history, astronomy, poetry,
  and writing.
• The cuicacalli was more of a military school.
  All boys were trained in war and there was great
  rivalry between the schools, often leading to
  fights.

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GIRLS

• Aztec girls were mainly taught at home and began
  spinning at four (4) and cooking at twelve (12).
• Their education was basically a training for
  marriage.
• Noble girls spent a year at twelve (12) or
  thirteen (13) helping in the temple, and some
  became professional priestesses.

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Aim Were the Aztecs civilized or savages?

• Civilized
• Tenochtitlan was built on a lake. Large pyramids
  and temples stood at the center of the city.
  Bridges connected the city with the mainland.
• The Aztecs made objects out of gold, silver, and
  precious stones. They wove fine cloth and used a
  system of writing. The Aztecs created artistic
  stone figures.
• The Aztecs had a calendar.
• In conducting human sacrifice the Aztecs believed
  they were preserving humanity, saving it from the
  wrath of the gods.

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Civilized

• The Aztecs had two different social classes.
• The Aztecs had specialized jobs.
• The Aztecs had a language and a pictograph form
  of writing.
• The Aztecs had a system of law.
• Both boys and girls received an education.

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Aim Were the Aztecs civilized or savages?

• Savages
• The Aztecs waged war with the purpose of
  capturing prisoners for human sacrifice.
• Human sacrifice was conducted by cutting victims
  open and removing their hearts.
• The Aztecs were hated by their neighbors whom
  they raided for the purpose of ritual sacrifice.
  The Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes
  vehemently objected to this practice as well.

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INCA EMPIRE1200 AD 1535 ADAndes
Mountains(Peru, Ecuador, parts of Chile, Bolivia
Argentina)

• established largest empire of the Americas at
  its height in the 16th century, the Inca Empire
  controlled 12 million people, over 100 cultures
  with 20 different languages
• formed a strong monarch ruled from Cuzco by using
  strategic resettlement of loyal colonists among
  rebellious groups
• believed emperors descended from the Sun god and
  worshipped them as divine beings
• adapted an intricate 12,000 mile road system for
  traveling messengers and services for traveling
  bureaucratic officials
• created agricultural terracing and irrigation
  systems
• adapted various vertical climates of the Andes
  elevations for a variety of crops
• built elaborate fortress cities such as Machu
  Picchu
• developed refined spoken language (Quechua)
• instituted quipu (knot-cord) record keeping
  system
• developed a religion centered on the worship of
  the Sun
• minded gold for use by the elite for decorative
  and ritual purposes