Portal:Mesoamerica
the Mesoamerica Portal 
_trim.png){kind=small}
Mesoamerica (Spanish: Mesoamérica) is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.
As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. Beginning as early as 7000 BC the domestication of maize, beans, squash and chili, as well as the turkey and dog, caused a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal grouping to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition, a vigesimal numeric system, and a complex calendric system, a tradition of ball playing, and a distinct architectural style, were diffused through the area. Also in this period villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms with the development of large ceremonial centers, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods such as obsidian, jade, cacao, cinnabar, Spondylus shells, hematite, and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization did know of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these technologies became culturally important.
Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture which inhabited the Gulf coast of Mexico. In the Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya and the Zapotecs. During this period the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures, and the Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic script. Mesoamerica is one of only five regions of the world where writing was independently developed. In Central Mexico, the height of the Classic period saw the ascendancy of the city of Teotihuacan, which formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and northward. During the Epi-Classic period the Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North. During the early post-Classic period Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec, and the lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán. Towards the end of the post-Classic period the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica.
Selected article
Olmec figurines are archetypical figurines that were produced by the Formative Period inhabitants of Mesoamerica. While many of these figurines may or may not have been produced directly by the people of the Olmec heartland, they bear the hallmarks and motifs of Olmec culture.
These figurines are usually found in household refuse, in ancient construction fill, and (outside the Olmec heartland) in graves, although many Olmec-style figurines, particularly those labelled as Las Bocas- or Xochipala-style, were recovered by looters and are therefore without provenance.
The vast majority of figurines are simple in design, often nude or with a minimum of clothing, and made of local terracotta. Most of these recoveries are mere fragments: a head, arm, torso, or a leg. It is thought, based on wooden busts recovered from the water-logged El Manati site, that figurines were also carved from wood, but, if so, none have survived.
More durable and better known by the general public are those figurines carved, usually with a degree of skill, from jade, serpentine, greenstone, basalt, and other minerals and stones.
Selected biography
K'inich Yat Ahk II (Mayan pronunciation: [kʼinitʃ jat akh]), also known as Ruler 7, was the final ajaw of Piedras Negras, an ancient Maya settlement in Guatemala. He ruled during the Late Classic Period, from 781 to roughly 808 AD. Possibly a descendant of Itzam K'an Ahk II, K'inich Yat Ahk II ascended the throne upon the death of his brother, the sixth ajaw of the site, Ha' K'in Xook. While K'inich Yat Ahk II presided over the destruction of the rival Maya site Pomona, his reign seems to have ended with the capture of Piedras Negras by K'inich Tatbu Skull IV of Yaxchilan. Itzam K'an Ahk II left behind several monuments, including stelae at Piedras Negras, a stone seat known as Throne 1 which records either the death or abdication of Ha' K'in Xook, and Panel 3 which recounts the exploits of Itzam K'an Ahk II.
Did you know?
- ... that a cult in Mexico venerates "Santa Muerte" (pictured), who is condemned by the local Catholic Church?
- ... that the Aztecs built the first version of the aqueduct that carried water from springs at Chapultepec in Mexico City?
Subcategories
Related portals
Selected image
 |
In Aztec mythology, Coyolxauhqui (Classical Nahuatl: Coyolxāuhqui, "Face painted with Bells") was a daughter of Coatlicue and Mixcoatl and is the leader of the Centzon Huitznahuas, the star gods. Coyolxauhqui was a powerful magician and led her siblings in an attack on their mother, Coatlicue, because Coatlicue had become pregnant.
Featured articles
Good Topics
Good articles
Gómez de Alvarado- Aztecs
- La Blanca, Peten
- Calakmul
- Bartolomé de las Casas
- Copán
- El Chal
- Haʼ Kʼin Xook
- Itzam Kʼan Ahk II
- Iximche
- Kʼinich Yat Ahk II
- Kʼinich Yoʼnal Ahk I
- Macuahuitl
- Maize
- Manche Chʼol
- Mixco Viejo
- Motul de San José
- Mundo Perdido, Tikal
- North Acropolis, Tikal
- Potbelly sculpture
- William H. Prescott
- Qʼumarkaj
- Resplendent quetzal
- Seibal
- Serpent labret with articulated tongue
- Spanish conquest of Yucatán
- Spanish conquest of Chiapas
- Spanish conquest of El Salvador
- Spanish conquest of Honduras
- Spanish conquest of the Maya
- Tikal
- Toniná
- Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition
- Benjamin Lee Whorf
- Yoʼnal Ahk III
- Zaculeu
Topics
WikiProjects
Things to do
 |
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
|
New articles
Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2024-04-22 21:13 (UTC)
Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.
- Carpotroche caceresiae (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Jillian2972 (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2024-04-15, score: 24
- Transgender archaeology (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Lajmmoore (talk · contribs · new pages (25)) started on 2024-04-13, score: 32
- Playa del Carmen railway station (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by SleepTrain456 (talk · contribs · new pages (5)) started on 2024-04-12, score: 60
- Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Dokyundokyundokyun (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2024-04-12, score: 24
- Tenejapa-Lacandón Formation (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Geekgecko (talk · contribs · new pages (26)) started on 2024-04-12, score: 88
- Maya Bhatia (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by 104.158.5.175 (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2024-04-11, score: 24
- Eclipses in history and culture (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Dan Leonard (talk · contribs · new pages (6)) started on 2024-04-06, score: 26
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
