AP World History: Mesoamerica, Africa, and Oceania Period Two 600 BCE – 600 CE

Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

I The MayansA) The Mayans lived in the Yucatan Peninsula (modern southern Mexico & Guatemala). Many volcanically active mountains and rainforest.

The Maya Continued…B) Unlike the Aztecs, the Mayans formed independent city-states. (The rainforest made forming an empire difficult). City-states were ruled by a king/priest. At its height, Mayans had 40+ city-states. City-states included temples, palaces, plazas and ball courts. The city-state was surrounded by farms.

Chichen Itza, a Mayan City-State

Ball Court at Chichen Itza

Ball Court at Chichen Itza Continued…The Great Ball court, located in the northern precinct of Chichen Itza, is the largest ball court ever discovered in Mesoamerica. The dimensions of the court are 175 meters from end to end (running north-south) and 70 meters wide, making it much larger than a modern-day American football field. On each side of the field are walls that rise more than 7 meters. Embedded near the top of each wall at the center is a stone hoop engraved with intertwining feathered serpents. Though on the surface it appears to be simply a "game", the scenes acted out within its walls, and indeed the carvings on these walls, reveal a much deeper significance within Mayan tradition. There are several accounts of both the Aztecs and Maya playing the games at the time of the Spanish conquest. However no record of the rules of the game survives. Of the hundreds of images of the game, very few show that the ball was touched with the hands, so archeologists have deduced that the ball could not be caught. The ball itself was a little larger than a basketball and was made of solid rubber, so was quite heavy; hence the need for the protective padding we believe the players wore around their hips. The court is made up of several components. The Playing Field, the Northern and Southern temples, the Upper Temple of the Jaguar and the Lower Temple of the Jaguar visible from the outside of the court.

Ball Court at Chichen Itza Continued…The prominence and intricacy of these temples exude the power and significance that must have accompanied the nobles who watched the games from these vantage points. The court was intended to represent the act of creation. The Maya played the game to re-enact the moment when the third creation ended and the fourth (the one we live in today) began. A stone relief shows ritual sacrifice by decapitation of the losing player. The head of the sacrificial victim (presumably, the losing player, although some historians think the winners may have been sacrificed as an honor to the gods) is held in one hand of someone presumed to be a winning player. Blood spurts out from the head and the trunk, where it appears as serpents. The winner's other hand holds the sacrificial flint knife. Although the head or heart were selected for the sacrifice as valuable objects, some skulls may have been used for the interior of the rubber balls to make them lighter. The rubber was then wrapped around the skull. Most key cities in Mesoamerica had a ball court as part of their ceremonial center.

Palenque, a Mayan City

The Maya Continued…C) The Mayan Economy: The Mayans used cacao beans, sea shells and jade as currency. They traded jade, obsidian (volcanic glass), feathers and ceramic vessels. Farmers used irrigation, terracing (carving steps into mountains) and slash and burn agriculture (cut down trees and burn remains to fertilize the soil).

Slash and Burn

Slash and Burn by B. Turner“In heavily forested areas, or those with little usable soil for farming, natives often turn to slash-and-burn deforestation to feed their families. This traditional farming technique involves cutting down most of the vegetation on a patch of land, then setting fire to the remainder. The resulting ashes serve as viable nutrients for future farming on the site, although only for a brief period. People in many parts of the world have relied on slash-and-burn farming for thousands of years, and some estimates suggest it's used on half of all land in tropical areas. Although this practice can serve as a successful method of agriculture in the short term, it also leads to significant problems on both local and global scales. Each acre of land subject to slash-and-burn deforestation releases 180 metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere. This carbon eventually reaches the Earth's ozone layer, where it contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. After this initial carbon release, slash-and-burn deforestation then packs a secondary punch to the planet, as these burned trees are no longer available to convert carbon into oxygen through photosynthesis. Forest fires and the resulting smoke also contribute to air and water pollution, and can often rage out of control, threatening the lives of people and animals. Slash-and-burn deforestation also destroys habitats and threatens ecosystems, which is particularly problematic in these tropical areas because of their unique levels of biodiversity. For local natives, this agricultural technique represents a double-edged sword.

Slash and Burn Continued…Those who practice slash-and-burn agriculture often do so out of desperation to feed themselves and their families, and yet this technique may lead to greater risk of starvation in the near future. The ashes produced by these fires provide nutrients to sustain the land for just three to five years; after that, the land must remain fallow for a decade or more to regenerate. Without the traditional vegetation and root system, however, significant erosion occurs, and the land is unable to sustain enough nutrients to ever reach its former glory. During the rainy season, erosion may contribute to dangerous flooding, while the lack of tree cover and vegetation can make existing drought conditions worse during the dry season. Some scientists believe that even the mighty Mayan empire succumbed to the effects of slash-and-burn farming. For years, the Mayans relied on this technique to survive in the tropical region now known as Guatemala. Scientists have determined that just before the Mayan empire fell -- around A.D. 900 -- widespread deforestation had resulted in a complete absence of tree pollen. The lack of trees in the area led to a temperature increase of roughly 6 degrees, which eventually brought about widespread drought. The drought signaled the end for the Mayans.”

The Maya Continued…C) The Mayan religion was characterized by the worship of nature gods (especially the gods of sun, rain and corn), a priestly class, the importance of astronomy and astrology, rituals of human sacrifice, and the building of elaborate pyramidical temples. One of the most important sources of the Mayan religion is the Popol Vuh (1554-1558), which was written in Quiché, a Mayan language, and translated into Spanish by a priest. This tells of the mythology and cosmology of the Postclassic Guatemalan Maya, and shows central Mexican influences. It chronicles the creation of man, the actions of the gods, the origin and history of the Quiché people, and the chronology of their kings down to 1550 CE.

Mayan Human SacrificeThe Mayans did cut the hearts out of their victims. However, it was more common for them to decapitate or disembowel their sacrificial victims, or else tie them up and push them down the stone stairs of their temples. The methods had much to do with who was being sacrificed and for what purpose. Prisoners of war were usually disemboweled. When the sacrifice was religiously linked to the ball game, the prisoners were more likely to be decapitated or pushed down the stairs. To the Maya, death and sacrifice were spiritually linked to the concepts of creation and rebirth. In the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya, the hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanque must journey to the underworld (i.e. die) before they can be reborn into the world above. In the same book, the god Tohil asks for human sacrifice in exchange for fire. Sacrifices often marked the beginning of a new era: this could be the ascension of a new king or the beginning of a new calendar cycle. These sacrifices, meant to aid in the rebirth and renewal of the harvest and life cycles, were often carried out by priests and/or nobles, especially the king. Children were sometimes used as sacrificial victims at such times. Another aspect of Maya blood sacrifice involved ritual bloodletting. Mayan kings and nobles (including women) would pierce their flesh – generally genitals, lips, ears or tongues – with sharp objects such as stingray spines. Such spines are often found in tombs of Maya royalty. Maya nobles were considered semi-divine, and the blood of kings was an important part of certain Maya rituals, often those involving agriculture. Royal blood offerings were smeared on idols or dripped onto bark paper which was then burned: the rising smoke could open a gateway of sorts between the worlds.

Ms. Glass at Tikal

The Maya Continued…D) Science and Technology: The Mayans studied the movement of Venus and moon, as well as solar eclipses. They created three calendars based on their astronomical observations. Hieroglyphics that were carved into stone or written on codices (books made from bark). They had a number system that included zero! They dug irrigation canals for farming.

The Three Mayan CalendarsThe Maya actually used three calendars, a sacred year of 260 days and a vague year of 365 days. Along with other Mesoamerican peoples, the Maya use the sacred year for religious purposes and to name children, for example. The Mayan Calendar consists of the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar) and the Haab (civil calendar). The Long Count is an astronomical calendar which was used to track longer periods of time, what the Maya called the “universal cycle”. Each such cycle is calculated to be 2,880,000 days (about 7885 solar years). The Mayans believed that the universe is destroyed and then recreated at the start of each universal cycle. This belief still inspires a myriad of prophesies about the end of the world.

The Mayan Long Count Calendar

The Mayans Continued…E) Military: The Mayans did not have a standing army. Instead, they formed militias during war. After the war, the warriors would return to their daily lives. Capture by your enemy was worse than death. Weapons: atlatls (spear throwers), obsidian spiked clubs, spears, axes, knives.

A Mayan sculpture of a warrior wearing a jaguar mask.

The Mayans Continued…F) Decline of the Mayans: “Two new studies examine the reasons for the collapse of the Mayan culture, finding the Mayans themselves contributed to the downfall of the empire. Scientists have found that drought played a key role, but the Mayans appear to have exacerbated the problem by cutting down the jungle canopy to make way for cities and crops, according to researchers who used climate-model simulations to see how much deforestation aggravated the drought. "We're not saying deforestation explains the entire drought, but it does explain a substantial portion of the overall drying that is thought to have occurred," said the study's lead author Benjamin Cook, a climate modeler at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in a statement… Social and economic dynamics also contributed. Trade routes shifted from land transit across the Yucatán Peninsula to sea-born ships. This change may have weakened the city states, which were contending with environmental changes. Faced with mounting challenges, the ruling elites, a very small portion of the population, were no longer capable of delivering what was expected of them, and conflict increased. "The old political and economic structure dominated by semidivine rulers decayed," the team writes. "Peasants, artisan – craftsmen, and others apparently abandoned their homes and cities to find better economic opportunities elsewhere in the Maya area.“ Wynne Parry 2012 www.livescience.com

The Maya Continued…G) Beauty: Mayans believed that flat heads were beautiful. To achieve

this, parents would attach a board to their baby’s head. They also would file their teeth to sharp points, and would insert pieces of jade.

A) The Moche civilization thrived from about 200 CE to 700 CE along the Peruvian coastal desert. There were two autonomous geographic regions for the Moche, separated by the Paijan desert in Peru. They had separate rulers, with the capital of the Northern Moche at Sipán, and that of the Southern Moche at the Huacas de Moche. The Moche built an extensive network of canals to increase agricultural productivity. Corn, beans, squash, avocado, guavas, chili peppers, and beans were grown by; they domesticated llamas, guinea pigs and ducks. The Moche did not leave behind a writing system, but they are well known for their pottery.

II The Moche

The Moche Continued…B) The main religious centers of the Moche were the Huacas (large ceremonial pyramids). The Huacas had different burial chambers separated by rank, with the most important burials chambers being larger in size. Those of higher rank also had human sacrifices placed in their chambers. Bodies of victims have been found at Huaca de la Luna, some of which were dismembered or decapitated and some were clearly sacrificed during episodes of torrential rains. Genetic data supports the identification of these individuals as enemy combatants.

Huaca del Sol

The Moche Continued…C) Moche Art: Moche pottery acted as a way of communication and storytelling that made up for their lack of a written language. Included are portraits of real people as well as such figures as mythological beings. Ceramic representations with sexual content may have been used for religious purposes in regards to fertility rituals. Moche pottery also displays life and movement in its complex scenes of ceremonies, war, household rituals, and likely scenes from myths. The Moche people had the most advanced metallurgical industry in Peru. They were the first users of the lost-wax technique to mold bronze, and they also hammered and cut gold and copper.

The Moche Continued…D) Collapse of the Moche: “For 30 years the coast had been ravaged by rain storms and floods - what is known as a Mega El Niño - followed by at least 30 years of drought. All the human sacrifices in the world would have been powerless to halt such a disaster. It seemed a plausible explanation for the demise of a civilization. But then in the late 1990s, American archaeologist Dr Tom Dillehay revisited some of the more obscure Moche sites and found that they dated from after AD 650. Many were as late as AD 750, 100 years after the climatic double-whammy. He also found that at these later settlements, the huacas had been replaced by fortresses. The Moche had clearly survived the climatic disaster but had they then been hit by an invasion? Dillehay cast around but could find no evidence for this. He now put together a new theory, one that, is now widely accepted by South American experts. The Moche had struggled through the climatic disaster but the leadership - which at least in part had claimed authority from its ability to determine the weather - had lost authority and Moche villages and/or clan groups had turned on each other in a battle for scarce resources such as food and land. Moche society had pulled itself apart.” – N. Davison, 2005 bbc.com

III East AfricaA) The Kingdom of Aksum lasted from the 1st to the 8th centuries CE. Aksum was at the crossroads of Africa, Arabia and the Greco-Roman World, and was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. Aksum controlled trade along the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa (modern day Ethiopia and Somalia). In 330 CE King Ezana converted to Christianity and made it the official religion of Aksum. Aksum was conquered by the early 8th century CE by Muslim invaders.

King Ezana’s Obelisk

East Africa Continued…Modern Ethiopians believe the Queen of Sheba from the Torah was from Aksum. "And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.“1 Kings, 10, v.1-2Although there is no evidence that the Queen of Sheba did come from Aksum, it has become part of the Ethiopian church's central tenets. Additionally, many Ethiopians believe that the sacred Ark of the Covenant (that housed the 10 Commandments) is in Ethiopia! It is believed to be kept safe in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, the oldest church in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Christian, Jerusalem

East Africa Continued…B) When Aksum was declining (by 600 CE), many commercial city-states arose on the East African coast. Mogadishu Mombasa Kilwa

Nubia lasted from 3000 BCE to the 300s CE

Nubia was conquered by Aksum. Aksum lasted from the 4th

century CE to 700 CE.East

African trading states arose.

East Africa Continued…

Goods from Africa

Goods from India

Ivory

Leopard skins

Iron

Copper

Gold

Cloth

Silk

Spices

Porcelain

Glassware

Swords

C) By the 7th century East African sailors took advantage of India’s monsoons to help carry their trading ships.

IV The Flourishing of PolynesiaA) By 1500 B.C., voyagers began moving east beyond the Melanesian island of New Guinea, first along the Solomon Islands, and then to Vanuatu. As the gaps between islands grew from tens of miles at the edge of the western Pacific to hundreds of miles along the way to Polynesia, and then to thousands of miles in the case of voyages to the far corners of the Polynesian triangle, these oceanic colonizers developed great double-hulled vessels capable of carrying colonists as well as all their supplies, domesticated animals, and planting materials.

“The Rock” is half Samoan, and therefore, half Polynesian!

Samoa

Polynesia Continued…As the voyages became longer, they developed a highly sophisticated navigation system based on observations of the stars, the ocean swells, the flight patterns of birds and other natural signs to find their way over the open ocean. They developed a portable agricultural system, whereby the domesticated plants and animals were carried in their canoes for transplantation on the islands they found. Once they had reached Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, these seafarers - the immediate ancestors of the Polynesians - were alone in the ocean, for only they had the canoes and navigational skills needed to push so far into the Pacific. The gaps between islands widen greatly in the eastern Pacific and the prevailing winds become less and less favorable for sailing to the east. This is probably why the Polynesians did not sail further east to Hawaii until 1000 CE.B) Polynesian societies were generally ruled by chiefdoms.

Polynesia Continued…C) Tapu: Something that is tapu is considered sacrosanct. Things or places which are tapu must be left alone, and may not be approached or interfered with. In some cases, they should not even be spoken of. *This is the origin of the English word “taboo”. Tapu allowed priests to protect resources from over-exploitation. A violation of tapu could have dire consequences, including the death of the offender through sickness or at the hands of someone affected by the offence. In earlier times food cooked for a person of high rank was tapu, and could not be eaten by an inferior. A chief's house was tapu, and even the chief could not eat food in the interior of his house. Not only were the houses of people of high rank perceived to be tapu, but also their possessions including their clothing. Burial grounds and places of death were always tapu, and these areas were often surrounded by a protective fence.D) Polynesian Tattoo: The legacy of Polynesian tattoo (tatau) began over 2000 years ago and is as diverse as the people who wear them. Once widespread in Polynesian societies across the Pacific Ocean, the arrival of western missionaries in the 19th century forced this unique art form

Polynesia Continued…into decline. The skill is often passed from father to son, each tattoo artist, or tufuga, learning the craft over many years of serving as his father's apprentice. Samoan tattoo artists made this tool from sharpened boar's teeth fastened together with a portion of the turtle shell and to a wooden handle. Samoan society has long been defined by rank and title, with chiefs (ali'i) and their assistants (tulafale), descending from notable families in the proper birth order. The tattooing ceremonies for young chiefs, typically conducted at the onset of puberty, were elaborate affairs and were a key part of their ascendance to a leadership role. The pain was extreme and the risk of death by infection was a great concern. But to shy away from tattooing was to risk being labeled a pala'ai or coward and reviled by the clan. Those who could not endure the pain and abandoned their tattooing were left incomplete, wearing their mark of shame throughout their life. A tattooing session typically lasted until dusk or until the men could not longer stand the pain and would resume the following day, unless the inflamed skin needed a few days to heal. The entire process would often last almost three months. Afterwards, the men's family helped him celebrate, despite his pain, by throwing a party. Women too endured tattooing, but their patterns were typically smaller, most often on the thighs, legs or on their hands. Tattoos on the hands, called lima, were required to be able to serve kava, a narcotic drink made from the root of the kava shrub, during ceremonial occasions. Doing so was one of the greatest honors in Samoan culture. www.pbs.org

Focus Questions1. Fill in your civilization chart (period 2) for the Mayans, Moche,

Aksum, and Polynesia.2. Do you think that the Mayans deserve to be called a “Classical”

civilization?3. According to Wynne Parry, why did the Mayan civilization decline?

Does his argument seem plausible?

Key VocabularyAksumArk of the CovenantChichen-ItzaHuacas de MocheKing EzanaMayansMochePolynesiaQueen of ShebaSamoaSipanSlash and BurnTapuYucatan Peninsula