The Maya.edited
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Interaction between Teotihuacan, Aztec and Mayan Civilization
According to Wood (2017), Teotihuacan, Aztec, and Maya are three different and powerful
civilizations that occupied different parts of South America, Central America, and Mesoamerica.
This is from the late Pre-Classic period until the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. All
three civilization groups had their own cultures, economics, religions, and system of governance,
but in terms of overall significance between the three civilizations, the Mayan civilization can be
said to have made great achievements.
The Mayan civilization made tremendous improvements in the field of writing, architecture,
mathematics, and astronomy. Teotihuacan demonstrated great empire management and
engineering during their era. Both the Mayan and Aztec calendars are both considered to be
accurate (Franco, 2015). All civilizations' cultures combined to create entertainment and
developed games that later evolved into football. Aztecs were musicians, sculptors, dancers, and
poets; their sun god is considered one of the most popular artifacts, and their massive stone
temples are one of the current most famous structures in the world.
The people of the Teotihuacan, Aztecs, and Mayans combined beauty and technical skills to
create a new level of beauty and technology. The Teotihuacan borrowed and improved ideas
from the neighboring tribes, which was a similar technique used by the Aztec civilization.
Teotihuacan is known for their engineering skills, which they used to develop their way through
mountain ranges; they gouged tunnels and carved stairways out of rock. Besides, the religious
leaders from the Teotihuacan civilization used trephination as surgery in medicine. Varieties of
chasms between canyons and cliffs were amazing bridges developed by Teotihuacan, using thick
rope cables woven from grass.
According to Anderson (2011), ropes were an essential part of transportation through the Andes
mountains for several centuries. Until to-date, the ten miles rope bridge in Peru is one of the
tourist sites, with a high number of visitors from all over the world coming to see the village of
Huinchiri’s rebuilt bridge. This bridge is believed to be strong to a capacity of holding more than
50 people at once. Teotihuacan carved sculptures, jewelry, masks, and knives which are still
common in Peru. The then-used language, Quechua in Teotihuacan civilization is currently used
as the official language.
While it is debatable if Teotihuacan served as the capital of a sovereign
empire, its influence on Mesoamerica is well known. Numerous locations in the Maya and
Veracruz region have Teotihuacan relics. Later, Aztecs claimed a shared lineage with the
Teotihuacanos after discovering these spectacular monuments and modified and adopted some
features of their culture. There is controversy over the ethnicity of Teotihuacan's residents. The
Otomi, Nahua, or Totonac ethnic groups could be contenders. Due to the discovery of cultural
elements linked to both the Maya and Oto-Pamean people, other academics have hypothesized
that Teotihuacan was multi-ethnic. It is evident that during Teotihuacan's heyday, a wide variety
of cultural groups, including migrant workers, lived there.
A thousand years after Teotihuacan's zenith, the last great pre-Columbian civilization, the Aztec
civilization, venerated Teotihuacan as the birthplace of civilization. According to Cowgill (2015),
Aztecs believe that Teotihuacan left a profound cultural impression on history and that
Teotihuacan was where the gods had established the current periods, including the present and
fifth Sun.
Similar to the Aztecs, the Mayans lacked wheel-based transportation and travel, work animals,
and metal equipment. However, Mayas, unlike the Aztecs, used a base5 and base20 numbering
system and a combination of symbols and logograms in their writing systems. This numbering
system is similar to the current one of base 10. Through the advancement of the Aztec calendar,
Mayans developed a 365 days calendar based on the movement of the Sun, which is still used in
the current life (Kinsella & Bradley, 1934). During the Maya era, people used minerals to create
murals and colors found in plants and developed a system of writing that is thought to be more
complex of its kind.
Women during the Mayan and Aztec eras made fashioned clothes lengths and huipiles and
embroidered tunics for trade (Berdan, 1987). It is believed that hand-cut limestone bricks were
used by the Mayas to construct temple pyramids, and all the Mayan groups spoke different
dialects of the same language instead of the same languages.
Although Teotihuacan, Aztecs, and Mayas have made a significant contribution to the field of
writing, architecture, and astronomy, the Mayas are deemed to have made the most significant
steps. Both Aztecs and Mayas produced highly accurate calendars, and their pyramid and
temples were built with massive stones in the Aztec version of early pyramids (Smith, 2013).
However, in all three civilizations, engineering was a critical aspect that they managed
admirably.
Headrick (2007) posits that massive civilizations, including Aztecs and Mayan civilizations,
flourished under the influence of the Teotihuacan civilization. Various ingenious Teotihuacan
inventions, such as suspension bridges, were road and bridge equipment. Some of the
Teotihuacan people's best engineers carried out wonderful work, and through the challenging
terrain of the Andes, they constructed a network of roads and bridges. The Teotihuacan were able
to handle an endless supply of manual labor thanks to their superior centralized economy and
collective labor system.
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Teotihuacan, Mayan, and Aztec were all great Mesoamerican civilizations in their own right
Cowgill (1997). Teotihuacan was notable for its engineering know-how, including its successful
implementation of a complex agricultural system and the construction of Machu Picchu. Maya is
known for their responsibility for the creation of the famous Mayan calendar and the first group
to develop the written language, and able to conquer a large part of Mesoamerica. On the other
hand, the Aztec civilization is known for their Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, and other notable
buildings, earning them a reputation for great architectural skills.
Achievements made by the Three Mesoamerican Civilizations
Various scholars argue that different Mesoamerican cultures are fascinating and extremely
complex. Despite the few thousand left in them, they were able to build various impressive
civilizations in history. Teotihuacan was well-known like the Aztecs, who were well-known as
the Mayans, while Aztecs, Teotihuacan, and Mayan were also known as civilization. Mayans
settled in Mexico and dominated for more than thousands of years; the Teotihuacan were also
present in Mexico. Although they never built main cities, they were widely spread and
prosperous. Aztecs were the first group to reach Latin America.
The Maya built some of the most impressive civilizations, such as Tikal, in the world despite
their relatively limited lifespans. More so, despite the fact that these three Mesoamerican
civilizations were able to build temples and pyramids using stones such as lime. Maya used a
system of hieroglyphs to write their history as well as build a city by using stone tools.
Teotihuacan group though they were not as impressive as the Aztecs and Mayans, they were able
to develop some impressive civilizations. Aztecs were widely spread, and in some cases, they
built large cities. Moreover, their religious belief system allowed the worship of multiple gods
such as Quetzalcoatl, Chalchiuhtlicue And S, Tezcatlipoca, Chicomecoatl And S, and
Mictlantecuhtli And S.
they also practiced polygamy.
Despite the impressive nature of the Mesoamerican civilizations, Spanish conquistadors
eradicated them all. They all lacked a unified resistance, giving the Spanish conquistadors a
chance to overrule them despite the vast majority in number. Moreover, most of the
Mesoamerican civilizations were successfully converted to Christianity by the Spanish
conquistadors resulting in a cultural shift in the religion.
Conclusion
The aim of this study was to provide the interaction between American Civilization. The
objectives of this study were conducted in the scope of Teotihuacan, Aztec, and Mayan
civilizations, where the study gave literature about their cultures, interaction, and achievements.
It goes without saying that Teotihuacan possessed advanced engineering and missionary skills
that helped them in building the massive terraces in Machu Picchu. Aztecs were renowned for
their superb architectural and engineering, while Mayans were the first to develop a 365 calendar
and mathematics. It is with no doubt that all three Mesoamerican civilizations left behind a
significant legacy. However, despite their impressive nature, the vast majority in number and
lack of unified resistance gave the Spanish conquistadors a chance to overrule. They were all
eradicated by Spanish conquistadors, and most of them were successfully converted to
Christianity, resulting in a cultural shift in the religion.