South American Civilizations

Monte Verde: Earliest known site of human existence in the Americas.

Olmec:

Dates:1200 BC - 400 BC

Location: East Mexico Lowlands

Geography: Hot, humid and covered in a jungle region.

Natural Resources: Cacao, rubber and salt.

Achievements: Used wood, basalt and jade to make statues of gods.

Major god: Jaguar, had control over all things. Had a water-earth persona, may have been 1/2 jaguar and 1/2 serpent.

Neolithic Revolution:

This revolution refers to the introduction of farming.

Historians believe that farming resulted because of global warming, a rise in population and women.

Before	After
Hunted what they ate	Enjoyed a more steady food source
Continually moved in search of big game	Settled and formed larger communities
Groups remained small due to unreliable sources of food	Complex societies eventually arose
Devoted much of their time to obtaining food	Concentrated on new skills such as arts, crafts, architecture and social organization

Geography: Tropical

Terrace farming: Made steps on a large hill to use for farming and to stop land erosion. Planted corn and gourds, corn most important.

Chinapas: Tropical islands made from swamp mud. They float and create a floating garden. Created in Southern part of Mexico.

Moches:

Dates: AD 100 to AD 700

Location: Northern coast of Peru in the Andes Mountains.

Activities: Created pottery with doctors healing patients, women weaving clothing and musical instruments. Hunting was very big.

Achievements: Took control of river, built impressive irrigation systems, built ceremonial pyramids.

Decline: Experts do not know how/why they fell.

The Ice Age:

Dates: 1.6 to 10,000 BC

Explanation: Huge glaciers spread southward from the artic, freezing the sea and forming a bridge called the Beringia. Herds of animals, such as the mastodon, migrated across the bridge, so early Americans also crossed the bridge in search of food. When the ice melted, the bridge did too. The Early Americans were left in a new land.

Beringia Straight: located between Alaska and Asia

Clovis: People who were located in New Mexico and known for their spear heads.

Dwellings: Since the people were always traveling, they lived in temporary shelters such as caves.

Chavin:

Dates: 900 BC to 200 BC

Location: Northern Peru - first culture in South America, 10,000 feet about sea level.

Climate: 3 different types
- arid desert of the Pacific Coast
- highlands of the Andes Mountains
- Amazonian rainforest lowlands

Achievements:
- Ceremonial centers: people would meet and exchange ideas, products and techniques. Had platform like temples decorated with stone carvings of animals and humans.
- Skilled metal working: plaques, necklaces and rings from copper and gold.
- Soldered metals together
- Made cloth
- Made artifacts
- Made instruments out of shells

Religion: Worshipped a jaguar god, had religious ceremonies

Decline: Is still a mystery.

Nazca:

Dates: 200 BC to 600 AD

Location: Southern coast of Peru

Climate: Extremely dry, difficult for farming

Achievements:
- Built irrigation systems that included underground canals.
- Made big drawings by scraping away stones, made line drawings for their gods: so large that they could only be seen from the sky, one side was identical to the other, people still wonder how they did it.

Religion:
- Believed that mountain gods protected humans, controlled the weather, affected water and land sources.
- Took heads of enemies and put them on sticks to increase the strength of the community. (Head hunters)

Decline: Is still a mystery.

Zapotec:

Dates: Started around 450 BC until 1500 BC

Location: Deep in the Oaxaca valley of Mexico in the city of Monte Alban.

Climate: Hot and humid

Religion: built large temples, created large heads, sculptures and statues, worshipped the Jaguar god, made sacrifices to gods similar to the Aztecs.

Accomplishments:
- Dominated the valley for over 1000 years
- Made large temples and sculptures for gods
- Made many works of art
- First city builders

Decline: Suffered a huge loss of trade, economic depression, poor leadership led them to famine and disease that brought them down.

Mayan:

Dates: 50 B.C. - 1400 A.D.

Location: Southern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Social Classes: King, Nobles (usually religious people), Merchants, Peasants.

Religion: built pyramids and temples. Polytheistic society; sacrificed plants, animals and humans; ball courts - played religious ball games here; if you won, you would be sacrificed to the Gods: this was an honor); religious calendar consisted of 260 days of good and bad days.

Accomplishments:
- Built pyramids, temples, ball courts.
- People lived outside cities/priests lived inside of cities. People came into cities for religious activities and trade. Each city-state had its own government; some were walled-in for protection.
- Pyramids (called Castillos) had rounded corners so that as the sun moved around it it looked like a snake crawling up it.
- Technology (see below)

Capitol: Tikal

Agriculture: Grew corn, beans and squash on Chinampas (swamp gardens approximately the size of a classroom.).

Technology: 365 day calendar, writing system (glyphs), used tree bark paper, used solar and religious calendars (18 days/mo; 20 mo/year).

Aztec:

Dates:

Location:

Social Classes:

Religion:

Accomplishments:
-
-
-
-

Capitol:

Agriculture:

Technology:

Inca: