Portal:Mesoamerica

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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.

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Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and seven major language families. Mesoamerica is also an area of high linguistic diffusion in that long-term interaction among speakers of different languages through several millennia has resulted in the convergence of certain linguistic traits across disparate language families. The Mesoamerican sprachbund is commonly referred to as the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.

The languages of Mesoamerica were also among the first to evolve independent traditions of writing. The oldest texts date to approximately 1000 B.C.E. while most texts in the indigenous scripts (such as Maya) date to ca. 600–900 CE. Following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, and continuing up until the 19th century, most Mesoamerican languages were written in Latin script.

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Itzam K'an Ahk II (Mayan pronunciation: [itsam kʼan ahk]), also known as Ruler 4, was an ajaw of Piedras Negras, an ancient Maya settlement in Guatemala. He ruled during the Late Classic Period, from 729–757 AD. Itzam K'an Ahk II ascended to the throne upon the death of K'inich Yo'nal Ahk II, who may have been his father. Itzam K'an Ahk II may have fathered the following three kings of Piedras Negras: Yo'nal Ahk III, Ha' K'in Xook, and K'inich Yat Ahk II. Following Itzam K'an Ahk II's demise, he was succeeded by Yo'nal Ahk III in 757 AD. Itzam K'an Ahk II left behind several monuments, including stelae at Piedras Negras and a large mortuary temple now known as Pyramid O-13. In addition, the details of his life and his K'atun-jubilee were commemorated on Panel 3, raised by K'inich Yat Ahk II several years following Itzam K'an Ahk II's death.

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Did you know?

... that Calakmul (pictured) was one of the largest and most powerful Maya cities?

... that Otomi grammar, the grammar of the indigenous Otomi language of Mexico has traits of active/stative alignment, but has no adjectives?

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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.

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Spanish conquest of the Maya

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Mesoamerica

Mesoamericanists

Mesoamerican cultures

Aztec

Olmec
- Olmec art
- Olmec heartland
- Olmec hieroglyphs
- Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures
- Olmec religion
  - Olmec were-jaguar
- Olmec sites
Tarascan or P'urhépecha state
Teotihuacan
- Pyramid of the Sun
- Pyramid of the Moon
Toltec
Totonac
Xinca
- Xinca language
Xochicalco
Zapotec
- Zapotec languages
- Zapotec peoples
- Zapotec sites
  - Dainzu
  - El Palmillo
  - Lambityeco
  - Mitla
  - Monte Albán
  - San José Mogote
  - Yagul
  - Zaachila

Spanish conquest

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WikiProjects

History
- Mesoamerica
  - Aztec task force
- Archaeology
Mexico
Central America
- Belize
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

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